Ángel Sanz Briz
Ángel Sanz Briz was a Spanish diplomat in Budapest during the Holocaust. In the summer of 1944, he became the Spanish chargé d’affaires in Hungary. In this role, he saved thousands of Jews in Hungary from deportation.
Key Facts
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1
Between June and December 1944, Sanz Briz issued Spanish passports and letters of protection to Jews in Hungary to help them escape deportation.
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2
Sanz Briz rented apartments in the name of the Spanish government to provide temporary shelter for Jews in Budapest.
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3
Overall, Sanz Briz and his colleagues in the Spanish legation saved between 4,000 and 5,000 Jews in Hungary during the Holocaust.
Ángel Sanz Briz (1910–1980) was born to a merchant family in Zaragoza, Spain. After studying law in Madrid, he earned a degree in diplomacy in 1936.
Around the time of his graduation, the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) broke out. Francisco Franco and other generals overthrew the democratically elected Spanish Republic. Sanz Briz fought with Franco’s forces.
After the Spanish Civil War ended, Sanz Briz went to Cairo, Egypt, for his first posting as a representative of the new government. In 1942, when Sanz Briz was 31 years old, he was sent to Budapest, Hungary.
The Persecution and Murder of Jews in Hungary
By the time Sanz Briz arrived in Budapest, Jews in Hungary were facing widespread persecution and danger. In 1938, Hungary’s government passed many of its own antisemitic laws. These policies excluded Jews from social, economic, political, and cultural life in Hungary.
On multiple occasions, Hungary’s antisemitic policy escalated to violence and murder. In 1941, Hungary deported over 20,000 Jews to German-occupied Poland (today Ukraine). They then transferred them to Reichskommissariat Ukraine. There, the Nazi authorities and their Ukrainian collaborators murdered the majority of these Jews in a mass shooting operation in Kamenets-Podolsk. In January 1942, Hungarian authorities massacred 1,000 Jews in a Hungarian-annexed region of Yugoslavia.
Conditions grew dire for Hungary’s remaining Jewish population in 1944. In March, Germany occupied Hungary and installed a pro-German government. Germans and their Hungarian collaborators quickly started deporting Jews. Most were sent to their deaths at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Within the span of a year, 500,000 Jews from Hungary would be murdered.
Rescue Operations and Foreign Diplomats
During the mass deportations of Hungary’s Jews, both Jews and non-Jews carried out rescue operations. Jewish leaders negotiated with and bribed Nazi leaders to save the lives of Jewish individuals. Diplomats and emissaries from neutral countries, such as Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden and Carl Lutz of Switzerland, issued paperwork to Jews for protection or immigration.
Spain’s acting chargé d’affaires in Hungary at the time, Miguel Ángel de Muguiro, was involved in a similar effort. A 1924 Spanish law allowed Sephardic Jews from the former Ottoman Empire to claim Spanish citizenship. Muguiro used this law to issue Jews in Hungary passports. Muguiro also sent detailed reports back to the Spanish Foreign Ministry about Hungary’s persecution of its Jewish population.
In the summer of 1944, Sanz Briz took Muguiro’s place as the Spanish chargé d’affaires in Hungary. Sanz Briz would continue working to save more Jews from deportation.
Sanz Briz Takes Action: Passports, Letters of Protection, and Safe Houses
During his time as Spain’s chargé d’affaires in Hungary, Sanz Briz helped Hungary’s Jews in a variety of ways. This was challenging for many reasons. Although Spain declared itself neutral during World War II, Spain harbored pro-German ties. As a diplomat, Sanz Briz had to continuously assess Spain’s policies towards the Nazis and Jews.
Sanz Briz gave Spanish papers to Jews attempting to escape to safety. He issued Spanish passports to Hungarian Sephardic Jews and provisional passports to Jews who claimed they had relatives or contacts in Spain. He also issued many letters of diplomatic protection to Jewish individuals. Jews often gave false information to the Spanish legation, but Sanz Briz accepted their claims. With the papers from Sanz Briz, many Jews could show the Hungarian and German authorities that they had the protection of the Spanish government.
Sanz Briz also provided safe houses for Jews in Budapest. He rented several apartments in the name of the Spanish legation. These were known as “Spanish Houses.” These houses were considered Spanish foreign territory. They were, therefore, untouchable by Hungarian and Nazi authorities. Sanz Briz shielded Jews from deportation by allowing them to move into these apartments. Sanz Briz marked other hospices, hospitals, and medical institutions as Spanish buildings too, keeping the Jews within them safe.
During his time in Budapest, Sanz Briz reported the plight of Hungary’s Jews to the Spanish Foreign Ministry. In his reports, he detailed the antisemitism he witnessed. In one instance, he sent firsthand accounts from prisoners of Auschwitz and Lublin (Majdanek) back to Madrid.
Sanz Briz’s Legacy in Budapest
Sanz Briz was ordered to leave Budapest towards the end of 1944. An Italian-born colleague named Giorgio Perlasca stepped into his role. Although Perlasca had no official authority, he continued Sanz Briz’s work to aid Hungary’s Jews. He operated from December 1944 to the middle of January 1945.
Sanz Briz and his colleagues in the Spanish legation saved between 4,000 and 5,000 Jews in Hungary during the Holocaust. To this day, it is unclear to what extent the Spanish Foreign Ministry supported Sanz Briz’s efforts.
Postwar Career and Death
After World War II, Sanz Briz continued his career as a diplomat. He took postings around the globe, including in the United States, Guatemala, China, and the Hague.
In 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Sanz Briz as Righteous Among the Nations. In 1980, Sanz Briz died at the age of 69 in Rome, Italy. The Hungarian government posthumously awarded Sanz Briz the Cross of the Order of Merit in 1994. Sanz Briz’s story has been the subject of a number of books, films, and a TV series.