Book on the 'Angel of Budapest' Published

This Monday, the Embassy of Spain in Budapest presented the book 'The Spanish Diplomat' written by Dr. Erzsébet Dobos. It tells how Ángel Sanz Briz saved the lives of of over 5,200 Hungarian Jews in Budapest in 1944.

Last week marked 41 years since the death, in Rome, of Ángel Sanz Briz who, in 1944, witnessed the start of the deportations as the Spanish Embassy's Chargé d'Affaires in Budapest. The young diplomat, like Sweden's Raoul Wallenberg, dedicated his efforts to saving as many lives as possible.

Dr Erzsébet Dobos has been researching this period for many years, with a particular focus on the rescue of people by the Spanish Embassy under Ángel Sanz Briz. Her book 'The Spanish Diplomat' is a commentary on this is the fruit of this research.

In her speech at the event, also attended by the Ambassador of Sweden, Dag Hartelius, the Spanish Ambassador to Hungary, Anunciada Fernández de Córdova, highlighted that "today is a sad occasion because we remember the victims of the Holocaust, all those who lost their lives to some unfathomable and twisted ideology. May their memory be blessed. We remember those who have lived, thanks to the help of others, Hungarians who hid their Jewish neighbors, and diplomats of the neutral states and international organizations, who found creative ways to protect the people in peril."

She added that it was "in this very building where Sanz Briz signed Spanish passports and laissez-passérs. In the cellars here below, there were refugees hiding in a terrible moment of history. However, today is, in the end, a happy occasion; we celebrate that a new book has been published on the Spanish humanitarian work during the Shoah. That is remembrance and hope. The author of the book is Dr. Erzsébet Dobos, excellent expert on Spanish studies and a good friend, who has spent many years investigating and recollecting information on the acting of Sanz Briz and the Spanish diplomatic representation."