Sanz Briz Angel

Sanz-Briz, Angel Angel Sanz-Briz, (b. 1910) was appointed to the post of chargè d’affaires at the Spanish Legation in the summer of 1944. As soon as the persecutions of the Hungarian Jews began, he offered, on behalf of his government, to supply Jews of Spanish origin with Spanish passports and to negotiate with the Hungarian government for their protection. Sanz-Briz received the consent of the Hungarian authorities to enable 200 Spanish Jews to receive these rights, but he changed it to 200 families and then enlarged this group again and again. Sanz-Briz also accommodated Jews in rented buildings in Budapest under the Spanish flag, putting up signs that those buildings were extra-territorial property belonging to the Spanish Legation. He also prompted the International Red Cross representative to put Spanish signs in Budapest on hospital buildings, as well as orphanages and maternity clinics, to protect the Jews therein. Sanz-Briz acted heroically and succeeded in saving a great number of Jews, most of them not of Spanish origin. Sanz-Briz was ordered by his government to leave the Hungarian capital in December 1944. The survivors Enrique and Jaime Vandor recalled their war experiences and the role of Sanz-Briz in their rescue. As children they received together with their late mother, Anny Vandor, the protection of the Spanish Legation in Budapest from autumn of 1944 until the entrance of the Soviet troops. They were accommodated in one of the protected “Spanish Houses” from which the Jews were forbidden from going out, so Sanz-Briz arranged for food supplies to reach his wards. Due to his endless efforts, they and many others survived, and they have never forgotten him. After liberation, Sanz-Briz continued his diplomatic career. On October 18, 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Angel Sanz-Briz as Righteous Among the Nations.