The left refuses to honor the Spanish diplomat Sanz Briz, who saved 5,000 Hungarian Jews

@ElentirENG ES 3·14·2023 · 17:15 0

The traditional ideological sectarianism of the Spanish left has once again manifested itself today in the Culture Commission of the Congress of Deputies.

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A Vox initiative to pay tribute to Ángel Sanz Briz

This morning a non-legal proposal by Vox for "the commemoration and homage to the figure of Mr. Ángel Sanz Briz" was debated in that commission. The initiative was presented by that conservative party in November 2022. The full text of that proposition can be read here. In it, it is recalled that the World Jewish Congress addressed the government of Spain asking for help to save the Hungarian Jews in October 1944. A request that was also addressed to Sweden, which was a neutral country, just like Spain.

The Spanish government forwarded this request to Ángel Sanz Briz, charge d'affaires of the Spanish Embassy in Budapest, who had been informing Madrid of the anti-Semitic plans of the Nazis in Hungary for months. The Spanish government commissioned Sanz to help "respond to what was requested with a greater spirit of benevolence and humanity". The Spanish diplomat appealed to the Sephardic ancestry of 200 Hungarian Jews to apply for them the protection of Spain, after seeking legal information to justify the granting of Spanish nationality to these Jews for being direct descendants of the Sephardic Jews expelled from the Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon in the 15th century.

Initially, the work of Sanz Briz covered those 200 Jews of Sephardic origin, but the Spanish diplomat managed to also protect a total of 5,000 Hungarian Jews, most of whom did not have Spanish ancestry. This work of The aid was interrupted by the arrival of the Red Army in Hungary, since the Spanish government ordered Sanz to leave that country for fear that he would be assassinated by the Soviets. His work was continued by Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian with Spanish nationality who had been collaborating with Sanz.

Acknowledgments to Ángel Sanz Briz in Israel and in Hungary

Vox's proposal also recalls that the State of Israel granted Sanz Briz the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" in 1966 for his work in rescuing thousands of Hungarian Jews. In 1991, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel inscribed the name of Ángel Sanz Briz among the Righteous Among the Nations at the Holocaust memorial. In 1994, Hungary posthumously awarded him its highest decoration , the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic. Currently, the Spanish diplomat has an avenue and a monument in his honor in the city of Budapest. Likewise, in the Great Synagogue of the capital of Hungary there is a plaque in his honor. However, in Spain Sanz Briz still does not receive all the official recognition he deserves.

The left demolishes the Vox initiative, only supported by PP and Cs

With his initiative, Vox demanded to correct this situation, pay due homage to the Spanish diplomat and that the State promote the disclosure of his figure and, specifically, his help to the Jews persecuted during the Holocaust. The debate on the initiative ( can be seen here) it has been an exhibition of sectarianism on the part of the left, with some of its representatives censuring Sanz Briz for considering him a "Francoist" or belittling his work under the false premise that his actions did not have the knowledge of the Spanish government. Finally, the PSOE, Podemos and the other left-wing and separatist parties have voted against it, and Vox's initiative has been rejected by 16 votes in favor and 20 against. Only Vox, the Popular Party (PP) and Ciudadanos (Cs) voted in favor. You can listen here to the defense of that initiative by Vox deputy Francisco José Contreras (the video is in Spanish, you can activate the automatic subtitles in English in the bottom bar of the player):

The anti-Semitism that the Spanish left has been displaying

What is hidden behind the sectarianism exhibited today by the leftist parties deserves to be commented. Spain has a left that displays anti-Semitism more and more frequently, taking advantage of any opportunity to attack Israel, the only Jewish state in the world, and supporting boycotts against that country. The PSOE and Podemos have supported anti-Semitic initiatives against Israel in dozens of town halls, initiatives that have been annulled by the Spanish Justice for their discriminatory content.

The Jewish association ACOM has warned against the anti-Semitism of Podemos and Más Madrid, two far-left parties that have been promoting this anti-Semitism under the deceptive guise of "anti-Zionism", which it tries to deny the Jewish people the possibility of having their own state, something that the left does not deny to any other people, and that contrasts with Podemos' ties with the Islamist and anti-Semitic regime in Iran. They are the same ones who today have voted against the deserved recognition of a Spanish hero who saved 5,000 Jews during the Holocaust.