- Giovanni Palatucci
Giovanni Palatucci (
May 31 ,1909 —February 10 ,1945 ) was an Italian police official who saved thousands ofJews from being deported to Naziextermination camps .Palatucci was born in
Montella ,province of Avellino . He graduated inLaw from theUniversity of Turin in 1932. In 1936 he entered police service inGenoa and the following year he was assigned toFiume .After the promulgation of racial laws against Jews in 1938 and at the beginning of war in 1940 he was chief of the Foreigners' Office, where he forged documents and visas to Jews threatened by deportation. He managed to destroy all documented records of the some 5,000 Jewish refugees living in the town, issuing them false papers and providing them with funds. Palatucci then sent the refugees to a large
internment camp in southern Italy protected by his uncle,Giuseppe Maria Palatucci , the CatholicBishop of Campagna .Following the 1943 capitulation of Italy, Fiume was occupied by Nazis. Palatucci remained as head of the police administration without real powers. He continued to clandestinely help Jews and maintain contact with the Resistance, until his activities were discovered by the
Gestapo . The Swiss Consul toTrieste , a close friend of his, offered him a safe pass to Switzerland, but Giovanni Palatucci sent his young Jewish fiancée instead.Palatucci was arrested on
September 13 1944 . He was condemned to death, but the sentence was later commuted to deportation to Dachau, where he died. He was officially honored by theYad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in 1990 as one of theRighteous Among the Nations . As of March 2005 a beatification case is in progress.External links
* [http://web.tiscali.it/comitatopalatucci/palatucci.html "Giovanni Palatucci"] Biography of Giovanni Palatucci it icon
* [http://isurvived.org/Rightheous_Folder/Palatucci_Giovanni.html "Yad Vashem to honor Giovanni Palatucci, unlikely Italian hero"] from "Jerusalem Post ".
* [http://www.padremichele.it Giovanni Palatucci] Biography of Giovanni Palatucci and documents it icon
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