Alan: I am somewhat reluctant to publish this "revisionist history" since the facts of the matter are in doubt.
Palatucci's Wikipedia Page
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New evidence suggests ‘Italy’s Schindler’ who was honoured for saving 5,000 Jews during World War Two may have been a collaborator sending families to Auschwitz
- Giovanni Palatucci has been honoured around the world
- New evidence says he was Nazi collaborator who sent Jews to Auschwitz
- A dozen scholars made findings after studying almost 700 documents
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has removed stories of heroics
By ANTHONY BOND
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Confusion: Known as the Italian Schindler, Giovanni Palatucci was credited with helping to save 5,000 Jews during the Holocaust
He has been honoured around the world, with squares and promenades named after him.
For decades, Giovanni Palatucci has been known as a hero for helping to save the lives of 5,000 Jews during the Holocaust.
The wartime police official's heroic exploits even led to the Italian being declared a martyr by Pope John Paul II. Israel's memorial to the Holocaust even placed him on a par with Oskar Schindler.
But, as reported by The New York Times, new evidence has now emerged which suggests that rather than helping to save the lives of Jews, he instead sent them to their graves.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington has removed stories of his heroics from an exhibition after it emerged that he may have been a Nazi collaborator involved in sending Jews to Auschwitz.
The claims were made in a letter sent to the museum this month by the Centro Promo Levi at the Center for Jewish Studies in New York.
It said a panel of more than a dozen scholars had studied almost 700 documents and concluded that Palatucci was for six years 'a willing executor of the racial legislation and — after taking the oath to Mussolini’s Social Republic, collaborated with the Nazis.'
In the letter, the scholars said records from Germany and Italy provided no evidence that Palatucci, who died at the age of 35, helped Jews during the war.
However, researchers came across documents which instead revealed Palatucci helped the Germans to identity Jews to capture.
Feted: The wartime police official has squares and promenades named after him around the world
New evidence shows that Palatucci may have been a Nazi collaborator involved in sending Jews to Auschwitz
Palatucci was a police chief in Fiume, which is now called Rijeka and is part of Croatia, when he was said to have saved thousands of Jews between 1940 and 1944.
ITALY'S SURRENDER TO ALLIES LED TO THOUSANDS OF JEWISH DEATHS
Italy entered World War II as Germany's ally, declaring war on Britain and France in June 1940.
However, despite this, the Fascist Italian regime generally refused to participate in mass murder of Jews or to permit deportations from Italy or Italian-occupied territory.
This resulted in Italian-occupied areas being reasonably safe for Jews.
Many escaped from German-occupied territory to the Italian-occupied zones of France, Greece, and Yugoslavia between 1941 and 1943.
However, this situation changed radically in 1943 when Italy surrendered to the Allies.
German forces quickly occupied northern and central Italy.
For the remaining 43,000 Italian Jews this dramatically altered the situation, resulting in thousands being deported to Auschwitz.
The city was occupied by the Nazis in 1942 and Palatucci was credited with destroying records to prevent Jews being sent to concentration camps.
However, researchers now say Fiume had just 500 Jews by 1943.
They said 412 of them ended up in Auschwitz - a higher percentage that any other Italian city.
Experts now believe that the stories of Palatucci's heroics took hold because of the positive light it gave Italy following the war.
As reported by The New York Times, Natalia Indrimi, the executive director of the Centro Primo Levi, said in her letter to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: 'If anything, Giovanni Palatucci represents the silence, self-righteousness and compliance of many young Italian officers who enthusiastically embraced Mussolini in his last disastrous steps.'
In 1990, Palatucci was named by Yad Vashem , which is Israel's memorial to the Holocaust, as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Oskar Schindler, who famously helped save 1,200 Jews avoid concentration camps, has also been given this honour.
After seeing the report, Yad Vashem said it had 'commenced the process of thoroughly examining the documents.'
Hero: Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu speaks during a ceremony honoring Giovanni Palatucci as a Righteous Among the Nations at the Yard Vashem holocaust museum in Jerusalem in 2005
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345054/New-evidence-suggests-Italys-Schindler-Giovanni-Palatucci-collaborator-sending-families-Auschwitz.html#ixzz2Y5b73u00
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