p6-natalie+(giovanni+palatucci)

Giovanni Palatucci, an unexpected hero… P alatucci, an Italian policeman, was an unexpected hero during the Holocaust. Giovanni was born on May 31, 1909, in Montella, the province of Avellino. Palatucci graduated from University of Turin. He joined the police service in Genoa. During that time, he was assigned to Fiume.

In 1940 Palatucci was the chief of the Foreigners’ Office, and forged visas and documents to Jews threatened to deportation. Palatucci destroyed all records and papers of these deportees therefore saving 5,000 lives. He provided false papers and funds for their journey to a large internment camp in southern Italy protected by his uncle, Giuseppe Maria Palatucci, the Catholic Bishop of Campagna. Giovanni Palatucci was given a safe-pass to Switzerland by a good friend, but gave it to his young Jewish fiancée instead. Soon after, Palatucci was sentenced to death in a camp in Fiume, but before he was killed, he died of natural causes at age 35. Palatucci was awarded the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in 1990 as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.