SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Parliament of the Canary Islands hosted this Thursday the conference ‘The Holocaust and how Ángel Sanz Briz, a young Spanish diplomat, saved thousands of innocent beings’, by Juan Carlos Sanz-Briz Quijano, son of the so-called ‘Angel of Budapest’.
In his speech, he condemned the “injustice, cruelty and terrifying number of victims” that occurred in World War II. “We will have to learn from history so that such atrocity never takes place again,” he said.
Sanz-Briz began his speech in the Parliament of the Canary Islands by sending his support to the palm trees and palm trees “in the face of the tragedy that they have had to experience”, and explained that during World War II, a group of Spanish diplomats, “moved by their values moral and worthy representatives of the best of human values, “he risked his life to save as many Jews as possible.
“One of these men was my father, the number 121 to be named ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, a list in which today there are 28,000 who have risked their lives to save the life of at least one Jew,” he said.
Juan Carlos Sanz-Briz took a tour of his father’s life in Budapest from when it was “a small oasis of peace oblivious to the horrors of war” until it became “a very dangerous city where the SS and Hungarian militiamen they begin to spread terror “.
600,000 JEWS EXTERMINATED
In this way, he told how Ángel Sanz-Briz learned “with horror and amazement” that in eight months 600,000 people in Budapest had been exterminated by the Nazis.
“Then he assumed a very delicate role, because his heart and his morals did not allow him to sit idly by,” he said.
Using a somewhat interpretable rule, the ‘Angel of Budapest’ converted 200 passports into 2,200 letters of protection with which he was able to shelter and save 5,500 people.
Thus, more than 50,000 people, the descendants, lived thanks to him. “I am impressed that such a young man risked his life and his diplomatic career to act to protect, on behalf of Spain but without the permission of its Government, all these people. It is something very beautiful,” he said.
In addition, he wondered if “the Holocaust served to make human beings aware that this cannot be repeated, unfortunately, the answer is no,” he said.
Juan Carlos Sanz-Briz also recalled that genocides continue to occur but can be “stopped by mobilizing public opinion.” “Let us ensure that no one is unjustly persecuted for racial reasons, nationality, convictions or beliefs,” he added.
The conference held this Thursday is part of the programming of commemorative events for the 40th anniversary of the Parliament of the Canary Islands and responds to the desire to make the Chamber, in this tenth legislature, an institution closer and open to citizens, a space for meeting for ideas and for reflection.
The event, chaired by the president of the Chamber, Gustavo Matos, was organized with the cooperation of the Centro Sefarad Israel- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented by Ángel Luis Pérez Quintero, who intervened to thank Parliament for its collaboration with this initiative complementary to the exhibition ‘Visas for freedom. Spanish diplomats facing the Holocaust ‘, which has remained in the Chamber’s Tindaya Room for the past month.
COEXISTENCE CAN BE “LOST IN SECONDS”, SAYS MATOS
Gustavo Matos stressed that the events narrated by Juan Carlos Sanz – Briz “are not so distant in time”, so he considered it necessary “to know how to explain to new generations what happened and how easy it is for it to happen again.”
He warned that coexistence and freedom “can be lost in seconds and for that reason we must remain very attentive to signs of obvious deterioration.”
The president stressed the importance of those with public responsibilities denouncing, “no matter how small, any attack against coexistence and human rights” and recalled that in recent weeks it is “seeing how EU member countries are putting a pulse on European project “and also in Spain there are” warning signs “.
For all this, Matos affirmed that it is necessary to be “human rights activists and denounce these threats” and quoted Edmund Burke to say that for evil to win, it is only necessary for the good to do nothing.
“Ángel Sanz Briz is an outstanding example of a good person who did not remain impassive and who risked his life to save thousands of people, despite the fact that he could have looked the other way and not act,” he said.
The President of Parliament closed the conference by highlighting the “example of struggle for life and human dignity” of the ‘Angel of Budapest’.
