Giorgo Perlasca

Italian businessman. As businessman he worked in Budapest from October 1942. After the German occupation of Hungary he was arrested. He managed to get free through the Spanish ambassador’s deputy, Ángel Sanz-Briz, who gave him shelter and documents. At the end of November, when the Spanish diplomatic mission to Budapest finished its Hungarian operations, Perlasca assumed the role of Spanish deputy and placed buildings under Spanish protection. He issued thousands of protective documents, thus saving the lives of many hundreds of people. Yad Vashem awarded him the title “Righteous among the Nations” in 1988.