Lorenzo Perrone

Lorenzo Perrone (1904—1952) born in Fossano, in Cuneo province, Italy, was one of a group of skilled Italian bricklayers working under contract to the Boetti company, who were transferred to Auschwitz according to the camp expansion plan.

In the middle of 1944, while he worked on the building of a wall, Perrone met the Jewish-Italian prisoner Primo Levi, after Levi heard Perrone speak in the Piedmontese language with a colleague of his (Levi was a native of Turin), and a friendship between the two developed. Until December of the same year, Perrone gave Levi daily additional food from his rations, saving his life; he also gave him a multi-patched garment he would wear under the camp uniform to increase the protection from cold.

Perrone died of tuberculosis in 1952. On June 7, 1998, Lorenzo Perrone was recognized as one of the Righteous among the Nations in 1998 by the Yad Vashem museum of Jerusalem.

The names of Levi's children were chosen as a homage to Lorenzo Perrone: his daughter was Lisa Lorenza, and his son Renzo.

But Lorenzo was a man; his humanity was pure and unblemished, and he was outside this world of denial. Thanks to Lorenzo I happened not to forget I myself was a man.