according to giorgio perlasca, who posed as the spanish consul-general to hungary in the winter of 1944 and saved 5218 jews, pál szalai lied to save his life during his criminal trial, and the history of the saving is different. raoul wallenberg (who was already dead at the time of the szalai's deposition) saved hundreds of people but was not directly involved in the plan to save the ghetto. while perlasca was posing as the spanish consul-general, he came to know about the intention to burn down the ghetto. shocked and incredulous, he asked for a direct hearing with the hungarian interior minister gábor vajna, in the basement of the budapest city hall where he had his headquarter, and threatened fictitious legal and economic measures against the "3000 hungarian citizens" (in fact, a much smaller number) declared by perlasca as residents of spain, and the same treatment by two latin american governments, to force the minister to withdraw the project. this actually happened in the following days.