Ángel Sanz Briz

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Ángel Sanz-Briz (1969).

Ángel Sanz Briz (born September 28, 1910 in Saragossa , † June 11, 1980 in Rome ) was a Spanish diplomat. In 1944 he saved the lives of over 5,000 Hungarian Jews by issuing Spanish passports. First he gave passports to those who pretended to be Sephardim , and later to those who inquired. For his deeds, he was given the title of Righteous Among the Nations .

Life

Diplomatic career

After studying law, Ángel Sanz Briz entered the diplomatic academy in 1933. He graduated shortly before the start of the Spanish Civil War , in which he fought on the side of the Franquists . After the war he became chargé d'affaires in Cairo .

Savior of Hungarian Jews

Commemorative plaque in Madrid

In 1942 he continued his work at the Spanish embassy in Hungary , which despite its geographical location was initially not so affected by the Holocaust . But Sanz Briz's life changed in March 1944, when the German Reich occupied Hungary in “ Operation Margarethe ”. Immediately after the invasion, Adolf Eichmann and his special task force came to Hungary to organize the murder of the Jews there. Horrified by the Nazi plan, Sanz Briz obtained a license from the Spanish government to issue Spanish documents to Sephardim. He was able to save the lives of about 5200 people, for which he used his influence and his relationships. He also bribed a Gauleiter . Whom he could find he took to safe accommodation , showing a decree by Miguel Primo de Rivera that had actually expired in 1931. He rented buildings that he declared as belonging to the Spanish embassy. He described his approach in an interview with Federico Ysart:

I managed to get the Hungarian government to allow Spain to protect 200 Sephardim . [..] After that it was quite easy to interpret the 200 that I was allowed to be 200 families.

However, when in 1944 Budapest was about to be captured by the Red Army , Sanz Briz was recalled to Switzerland. Giorgio Perlasca , an honorary Spanish citizen since his work in the Spanish civil war, who had helped him before, was able to pretend to be the Spanish ambassador and distribute forged papers until Budapest was captured on January 16, 1945.

Next life

Sanz Briz remained a diplomat. He came to San Francisco , Washington, DC , Lima , Bern , Bayonne , Guatemala , The Hague , Brussels and finally became ambassador to China in 1973. In 1976 he became ambassador to the Vatican . He died in Rome on June 11, 1980.

He told Federico Ysart of the circumstances in which he managed to save so many lives, who recorded this in his 1973 book España y los judíos en la Segunda Guerra mundial .

Honors

  • The Yad Vashem Memorial awarded Ángel Sanz Briz the title Righteous Among the Nations in 1991 and immortalized his name in the Avenue of the Righteous.
  • The Hungarian government awarded Ángel Sanz Briz the Order of Merit in 1994.
  • Ángel Sanz Briz was the first diplomat to whom Spain dedicated a postage stamp.

literature

in order of appearance

  • Federico Ysart Alcover: España y los judíos en la Segunda Guerra mundial . Dopesa, Barcelona 1973, ISBN 84-7235-083-5 .
  • Diego Carcedo: Un Español frente al Holocausto: Como Angel Sanz Briz salvo a 5,000 judios . Temas de Hoy, 2000. ISBN 84-7880-848-5
  • Instituto de Estudios Europeos (Ed.): Ángel Sanz Briz. Homenaje a la Memoria del Excmo. Sr. Embajador de España . Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid 2009.
  • Julio Martín Alarcón: El Ángel de Budapest . Grupo Zeta, Barcelona 2016, ISBN 978-84-666-5987-1 .

Web links

Commons : Ángel Sanz Briz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Joseph Pérez: Los judíos en España . Marcial Pons, Madrid 2006, ISBN 84-96467-03-1 , p. 329.
  2. ↑ Ángel Sanz Briz on the website of Yad Vashem (English).
personal data
SURNAME Sanz Briz, Angel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Zaragoza
DATE OF DEATH June 11, 1980
Place of death Rome