Georgio Perlasca, The Book Thief, and Serendipity

One Sunday I was walking around town looking for something to do and I saw that Il Palazzo Della Ragione (the palace of reason/rightness/justice). I paid the 5 euro to go in and enjoyed the beautiful architecture, frescoes and Padovian jewelry exhibit very much. I was very happy with my visit when I saw that there was another exit. It said "Emergency Exit" above it but I could see there was a museum docent behind the door. I asked the docents by the entrance if I could go out that way and they said that I could go in there but I wouldn't be able to exit through there. So I went there and saw a beautiful courtyard. I walked around slowly and took many photos. Grumbling that the gates at the bottom were closed because it was Sunday, I trudged back up the many stairs to the main exhibition to make my way back home. But then I noticed something I hadn't seen on my way down; a plaque on the wall by the stairs. It is the one pictured above and it reads: "The city of Padova honors Georgio Perlasca 'Just Man of Nations' who in the winter of 1944-45, in Hungary, saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust." Along the bottom it says: "Whoever saves a life saves the entire universe." In short, he grew up in Padova and later on saved over 5,000 Jews by pretending to be a Spanish ambassador to Hungary and gave documents to Jews to go to Spain. Read more about his heroic deeds on this biographical page. He really has an amazing story.

I was also very impressed by the sculpture in this piece. You can really feel the fright of the Jewish mother clutching her child. You can see the hopelessness and the death on the faces of the others. You can click on the picture to see a bigger image of it.

One major reason that this plaque resonated with me so is that I am reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It is a book I quickly selected while at the airport to have something to read on the plane. The Book Thief is about a young German girl during the time of the holocaust who is adopted by a family and learns to read and steals books. She becomes great friends with her foster father who teaches her that all people are created equal through his actions as he refuses to join the Nazi party, houses a Jew for two years, and then is forced to join the army because he gave a piece of bread to the dying Jews being paraded around town in the snow by the sadistic Nazis.

After seeing the plaque I asked the museum docent if Perlasca had been from Padova and he said yes. We had a nice conversation where I told him I was Jewish and he told me that his aunt who lived in Italy also housed a Jew during the holocaust. He said he thinks there's a movie about Perlasca called Perlasca: Un Eroe Italiano. IMDB calls it "Schindler's List II." Maybe I'll be able to find it for rent here.

I guess everything that we do and that happens to us in life is a result of many past choices, as random as they may seem, but how crazy is it that for me to see this plaque was a result of so many seemingly random coincidences? Just to name a few, this couldn't have happened without:
In addition to choosing to study Italian because the Spanish classes were full, having an amazing Italian teacher and choosing to continue studying it, and then deciding to come to Italy... I had to buy this book about a little German girl who lived during the holocaust. That morning I had to decide to try to go shoe shopping in the center of town even when I was 90% sure all the stores were closed. The store had to be closed so that I would keep walking on hoping to get some lunch at the grocery store. The grocery store had to be closed so that I would continue walking around town. My dad had to buy me the Padova DVD that told a 50 min history of Padova in eight languages. One of it's first video clips has to be of Il Palazzo della Ragione to insure that I was still paying attention and could recognize it later. Once I went into the museum and looked at all the truly amazing and unique jewelry I had to try to go out the wrong way, find that it was closed and walk back up the stairs to read this plaque. Talk about serendipity!

Here is a close-up of the signature. I can't make out the artist's name. Can any of you? If you click on the picture you will see a bigger image of it.

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Update: Stefano says the artist is Piero Perin. Can't wait to check out his website. Thanks Stefano!