I Thought That Decree Was by Franco

New blog on the kid: Tolkien's Politics · I Thought That Decree Was by Franco · Why I am Not Capitalist or for Unrestricted Free Market · Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere: Tolkien Supported Franco's Side in the 36—39 War · Prince Caspian · Lord of the Rings: Motivations for Fandom · Tolkienophobes, Buzz Off! · Tolkienophobe Identified? · J D Vance-Phobes? · Crooks' (or Yearick's?) Body Gone · Sharing On The Shooting

Perlasca worked with the Spanish Chargé d'Affaires, Ángel Sanz Briz, and other diplomats of neutral states to smuggle Jews out of Hungary. The system he devised consisted of furnishing "protection cards" which placed Jews under the guardianship of various neutral states. He helped Jews find refuge in protected houses under the control of various embassies, which had extraterritorial conventions that gave them an equivalent to sovereignty. They could provide asylum for Jews.[2][3]

When Sanz Briz left Hungary at night in November 1944, he did not tell Perlasca that he was going to leave,[4] and Perlasca chose to remain in Hungary. The Hungarian government ordered the Spanish Embassy building and the extraterritorial houses where the Jews took refuge to be cleared out. Perlasca immediately made the false announcement that Sanz Briz was due to return from a short leave, and that he had been appointed as chargé d'affaires for the meantime.[2] Throughout the winter, Perlasca was active in hiding, shielding and feeding thousands of Jews in Budapest. He continued issuing safe conduct passes as initiated by Spanish government, on the basis of a Spanish decree passed 20 December 1924 that granted citizenship to Jews of Sephardic origin (descendants of Iberian Jews expelled from Spain in the late 15th century), but it had been canceled in 1930, a fact the Hungarian authorities were not aware of.[3]

I thought the decree about Sephardic Jews becoming Spanish Citizens was by El Caudillo ... I only read briefly about this in a book mainly about Raoul Wallenberg.

So, it was in reality issused by Primo de Rivera (the elder), under Alfons XIII, revoked by Dámaso Berenguer, also under Alfons XIII, and the revocation was ignored by an Italian posing as Spanish Diplomat (with some right as Italian volunteer veteran in the Spanish war).

Giorgio Prelasca, bene fatto ... much as I like the Caudillo on some matters (like banning freemasonry or defending the Church), I'm happy to give credit where it's due.

To another, whether you prefer to call him Fascist or Ex-Fascist (he had broken with La Repubblica di Salò, I think very rightly so), mind you.

Who had joined the National Fascist Party, but obviously not the Republican Fascist Party. Who had fought under the high command of Franco and direct command of men like Gastone Gambara, in the Corpo Truppe Volontarie.

If some people love to give credit to the Red Army for liberating Auschwitz, I love to give credit to the mayor of Assisi (who had been in the March on Rome) and men like Giorgio Perlasca and Ángel Sanz Briz.

So, was Perlasca an Ex-Fascist? In a very banale sense, we must say he was, since he said so. At a certain point, he did not any longer believe in Italian Fascism ... pretty much coinciding with the point where I thought it had gone wrong (until I checked details about the Ethiopian war, somewhat earlier, and saw the great service to Austria was also earlier than I thought).

Perlasca grew disillusioned with fascism, in particular, due to Benito Mussolini's alliance with Nazism and adoption of Italian racial laws that came into force in 1938.

I definitely agree with those two points. So, in my terms, he grew disillusioned with Italian Fascism about at the right moment. He didn't express regret over having fought for Franco, nor should he have. He didn't take a distance from what I take to be the core value of combining Christian tradition and Economic justice of Corporativist type (also used for the economy of Sweden, but Social Democracy there has other, darker, more Marxist sides as well). It's somewhat of an exaggeration when I tend to call myself a Fascist. Apart from this core value, there are two other parts, common to pretty much all Fascisms of the thirties, namely Squadrismo (organising street fighters) and Antiparliamentarianism. I'm half and half Antiparliamentarian, considering what evils Parliaments have voted, but not to the extent of fighting to abolish Parliaments, nor am I Squadrista. But I think it had its place in the Biennio Rosso and when José Antonio (son of previously mentioned Primo de Rivera) fought Caballero.

When I say Christian tradition, I'm aware that some Fascisms, worst of all perhaps National Socialism, or probably or probably certainly, were just playing around with it, much like Social Democratic Broderskapare or the part time Orthodox Church under Stalin. But this was not the case in all Fascisms, the Spanish ones got Freemasons out of and Catholic priests back into schools, and were defenders against Church looters and killers of bishops, of priests, of religious, also rapers and seducers of nuns. I don't think Perlasca regretted that part, defending the Church against those evils.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. William of Guleti
25.VI.2024