La Lista Sanz Briz: Budapest Hungary

Holocaust · Victims · Survivors · Hungary

By Paul Linhardt

Ángel Sanz Briz was the head of the Spanish Legation in Budapest in the waning days of WWII. During the Russian Army’s rapid advance on the Hungarian capital, Hitler installed a puppet government led by rabid antisemites.  He simultaneously dispatched Adolf Eichmann to Budapest to execute his final solution to the Jewish problem.  The only thing standing in the way of total annihilation of the last large Jewish population of Europe was a handful of diplomats from the few remaining neutral countries that still had diplomatic relations with Hungary.  

Sanz Briz convinced the Hungarian government to authorize the protection by Spain of 200 supposedly "Sephardic" Jews applying for passports for "repatriation" to Spain. He found numerous ways to bend the rules to save more lives.  He issued passports to families instead of individuals.  When he ran out of numbers, he added letters to the numbers (e.g., 101/B) to generate more.   When he ran out of passports, he began issuing protection papers to all Jews who applied.  Sanz Briz rented safe houses and provided food and shelter for the Jews under his protection. Ángel Sanz Briz and the Spanish legation saved over 5,000 lives.

Last year, Centro Sefarad Israel in Madrid, sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, disseminated La Lista Sanz Briz in an effort to educate the public about this incredible humanitarian effort by this Spanish diplomat.  It was also hoped that additional local descendants could be found to document their stories.

For more information, please see the article at: https://tinyurl.com/yw5f24b6  (Full original address: aish.com).

In addition, please see the 2016 documentary on Sanz Briz, “The Cross Roads of Sanz Briz” at: https://tinyurl.com/2p8n7fx7 (Full original address: amazon.com) or the Yad Vashem biography of Sanz Briz in the “Righteous Among the Nations” section

The fields in the database are:  

The Centro Sefarad-Israel has made a scan of original list of many of Jews saved by Sanz Briz available on social media under the hashtag #LaListaSanzBriz. The original article and downloadable list can be found at sefarad-israel.es Additional information on Sanz Briz and the Centro Sefarad-Israel can be found.

Source: Spain. Ministry of Culture and Sport. General Archive of the Administration, Relations of persons protected by the Spanish legation in Budapest. 1944. [AGA,82,05247,005]. pares.mcu.es

The author of this introduction would like to express his appreciation to María de Miguel Álvarez, Yessica San Román, Sol Becerril, the Centro Sefarad Israel and Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their work in bringing this incredible story to light and making La Lista Sanz Briz public.

It is my hope that many JewishGen members will find their relatives in this database and contact the Centro Sefarad Israel to share their family stories with them.

We’d like to thank Vivian Kahn for her support in preparing this database.  Special thanks to Nolan Altman, Director of Special Projects and Coordinator of the Holocaust Database, for his continued devotion and dedication to JewishGen's important work.  

This database can be searched via the JewishGen Holocaust Database or the JewishGen Unified Search