Banality of Goodness
The Story of Giorgio Perlasca
Enrico Deaglio
Translated by Gregory Conti
The Erma Konya Kess Lives of the Just and Virtuous Series
In this incredible true story, Enrico Deaglio dramatically recounts the courageous efforts of Giorgio Perlasca, who, by posing as a Spanish consul, saved the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews in World War II. This deeply moving story went unrecognized for nearly half a century until some of the people whom Perlasca had saved, tracked him down and brought this forgotten hero of the Holocaust to the attention of the world. Now Perlasca’s thrilling story is told for the first time in English with Gregory Conti’s new translation.
Giorgio Perlasca was an Italian businessman working in Budapest when the war left him stranded. Unable to stand idly by and allow innocent Jews to be tortured and murdered, Perlasca saw his opportunity to help when the official Spanish consul fled Budapest. Although he had no authorization to do so, Perlasca announced that he was the replacement charge d’affaires of the Spanish embassy.
At the risk of his life, he orchestrated an elaborate scheme to save as many lives as he could by issuing false documents, maintaining eight refugee houses, and salvaging anyone he could among those awaiting deportation in the train yards. Even when confronting Adolf Eichmann, the architect of Hitler’s plan, Perlasca did not waver. He acted quickly and spoke boldly.
When Hannah Arendt wrote about Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report of the Banality of Evil she shocked public opinion by maintaining that Eichmann’s evil was the expression, not of a monster, but of an ordinary human being. In The Banality of Goodness, Enrico Deaglio shows us that the goodness of the man who opposed Eichmann in Budapest was not the expression of a saint, but that of an ordinary person.
Perlasca’s story helps us see our own potential for goodness, and the burden of responsibility when we encounter an opportunity to act in the defense of others. In the book’s introduction, Harry James Cargas writes, “When each of us is faced with a moral crisis, we can draw from the examples of the courageous women and men who went before us. . . . Giorgio Perlasca’s efforts are a case in point.”
Enrico Deaglio is one of Italy’s best known journalists. His investigative reports have been published by La Stampa, Il Manifesto, and L’Unità and broadcast on national television. Deaglio is also the author of numerous books including Raccolto Rosso (1993, on the Mafia in Sicily). He is now the editor of a weekly news and cultural affairs magazine, Diario.
Gregory Conti is Reader in English at Facolta di Lettere e Filosofia, Universita di Perugia, Italy. He is a free lance translator with numerous works to his credit.
Reviews
“I read Enrico Deaglio’s The Banality of Goodness with great interest. It is a fascinating account of one of the most authentic heroes of the Second World War.” —Randolph L. Braham, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, The Rosenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies
“Enrico Deaglio tells the long-ignored, unforgettable story of an unassuming hero of the Holocaust. Gregory Conti’s sensitive translation now makes that story available to the English-speaking audience, who will surely read it with fascination.” —William Weaver, Bard College
“After finding some security for himself in the Spanish Embassy in German-occupied Budapest, Italian businessman Giorgio Perlasca did not hide but risked his life daily to protect thousands of Jewish men, women, and children. His story shows us the enormous difference one individual could make during the Holocaust, and causes us to wonder why there were not more like him.” —Susan Zuccotti, historian and author of The Italians and the Holocaust and The Holocaust, the French and the Jews.
