Spanish Diplomat Recognized for Saving Bulgarian Jews from Holocaust

Spanish Ambassador Jorge Fuentes (left) with Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau (right) in Sofia. Photo by BGNES

Among all democratic European capitals, only Sofia saved its Jews, Sofia is the capital of freedom, stated Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau.

Landau is in the Bulgarian capital Sofia for the official opening of a memorial tablet in the name of Julio Palencia y Tubau in front of the Spanish Embassy.

Julio Palencia y Tubau was the Spanish Ambassador in Sofia 1940-1943. With the risk of demolishing his own political carrier, he saved the lives of over 800 Bulgarian Jews.

In those dark times, while the Nazis were raging across Europe, an honorable man in Sofia had a great amount of courage and didn't lose his faith in God, added Landau.

Julio Palencia y Tubau saved the Bulgarian Jews by issuing around 800 visas, thus defying the instructions of his own government. He also adopted two Jewish orphans at that time.

Jorge Fuentes, current Spanish Ambassador in Sofia, pointed out that Spanish diplomatic missions saved the lives of Jews all over Europe during World War II, giving as an example the fact that the Spanish Ambassador in Hungary saved 5 000 lives in the same period.

Bulgaria is also famous for not allowing its Jews to be taken away by the Nazi regime. An estimated 50 000 Bulgarian Jews escaped the faith of being taken to concentration camps because of a campaign for their rescue that started in the southwestern Bulgarian town Kyustendil, with support or acquiescence of Tsar Boris III and other Bulgarian politicians such as Dimitar Peshev.

However, 11 000 Jews from the regions of Macedonia and Thrace occupied by Bulgaria, a Nazi Germany ally in 1941-44, were deported to Holocaust camps.

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