Sanz Briz, who was posted in Budapest, used the influence and facilities of the Spanish embassy there to save the lives of Jews in the city.
One of the people Sanz Briz saved, Jaime Vándor, spoke at the event in Budapest to honour the diplomat. Vándor recalled leaving Vienna for Budapest with his family in 1939, when he was just a little boy. While his father travelled to Barcelona, Sanz Briz and his mother stayed in a block of flats near St. Stephen Park. Some 500 Jews shared the building, living in terrible conditions, without heat and without food. Vándor remembered how Sanz Briz had brought them food and wrangled with the authorities to prevent them from being deported.
In 1991, Sanz Briz was recognised by Israel's Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem, which gave his heirs the title Righteous Among the Nations.
Source: múlt-kor / Photo: Lajos Soós (MTI)
