Adam LeBor

Giorgio Perlasca’s Christmas in wartime Budapest

A saviour amid the carnage

A Russian soldier stands in the snow by the damaged Inner City Church and the Elizabeth Bridge in Budapest in January 1945 (Getty Images)

Artillery boomed over the Buda hills, the flashes of explosions slicing through the freezing winter dusk. The crack of rifle fire sounded nearby and the air was thick with the acrid stink of cordite. It was 24 December 1944 and Giorgio Perlasca was trying to get to the Spanish Legation villa to celebrate Christmas. The Hungarian soldiers at the checkpoint said it was not possible to proceed. The Russians were advancing and were now just a few hundred yards away. Perlasca explained that he was a Spanish diplomat and asked again to pass through. The soldiers reluctantly agreed. A few minutes later Perlasca was inside the Legation building. Sixty people had taken refuge there but had somehow managed to find a Christmas tree and some presents for him. 

Perlasca wrote a long memorandum about his rescue work, but otherwise did not speak of his achievements

Perlasca stayed for a while, then returned downtown.

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