Plaque dedicated to Giorgio Perlasca smeared with paint

In the “Giardino dei Giusti” in Viale Aguggiari, Varese, near the Massimiliano Kolbe Church, the plaque commemorating the Righteous Gentile Giorgio Perlasca was smeared with black paint on the night between Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 December. The person responsible for this deed is unknown. Perlasca distinguished himself during World War II, by saving thousands of Hungarian Jewish from extermination by the Nazis. Perlasca, who was forcedly discharged because of his pro-Jewish stance, worked for an import-export company and travelled around Europe, mainly to the countries in the East. When he reached Budapest (Hungary), the city was in the hands of the ruthless Nyilas, the Hungarian Nazis backed by the Germans. The story of those dramatic months is already well-known; Perlasca pretended to be a Spanish diplomat, and was thereby able to negotiate with the Hungarian government leaders and bring thousands of Jews, who would otherwise have been sent to the extermination camps, to safety in the Spanish diplomatic offices and homes.

Perlasca was an important man, a shining light in the darkest period of the 20^th Century.