Date: 28.01.2026 | 10:00 Uhr

Organizers: Olmo Masa de Lucas (olmo.masa@uni-potsdam.de; Santiago López Rodríguez (santiago.lopez@uu)

Spain and the Sephardim fit the categories proposed by historian Raul Hilberg as quintessential bystanders and victims in the triangle of

violence that was the Holocaust. Francisco Franco’s Spain was nominally neutral during WWII but had deep ideological, political and economic

ties with Nazi Germany. Spanish territory was one of the few escape routes for Jews and other refugees, Spanish diplomats received requests

from thousands of Sephardi Jews during the years of extermination, and Spanish Republicans shared concentration, and oftentimes annihilation,

with fellow Jewish inmates. The Sephardim were from the first moment part of those targeted for destruction by the Nazi Final Solution. Out

of hundreds of thousands of Sephardim in Europe, some 4,000 to 5,000 possessed Spanish citizenship. Their Spanish nationality saved many of

them, but the attitude of Franco’s administration also led to the demise of many others.

In the last decades much scholarly work has been produced on the entanglements between Spain and the Holocaust, clarifying the attitudes

of Spain toward the Jews, the behavior of Spanish diplomats vis à vis the Sephardim, debunking the myth of Franco as a friend of the Jews, and

exploring the fascinating but difficult overlapping of Holocaust and Historical memory (Memoria Histórica). Similarly, the marginal role Sephardi Jews had traditionally played in the English-language historiography of the Holocaust has been recently remedied. Scholars in Sephardic and Holocaust Studies have turned the discipline’s focus to the fates of the Sephardim during the Holocaust, and their specific memories thereafter. Putting these two streams of research – the diplomatic, legal and political histories of Spain in relation to the Sephardim on the one hand, and the individual, family and oral histories of the Sephardim on the other – in contact is necessary to bridge the gap between the literatures on victims and bystanders.

The relations between Spain and the Sephardim during the Holocaust were a reality that cut across different geographies, actors and realms of

life. The International Workshop intends to be a transnational and interdisciplinary forum bringing together scholarship focused on different countries, sources, methodologies and subjects. By offering an integrated picture of the historical conundrum involving Spain and the Sephardim during the Holocaust, it aims to rethink questions still unanswered and, hopefully, inspire new ones as well as provide a framework for future research cooperation.

Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg

Sitz an der FU Berlin

Habelschwerdter Allee 34A – 14195 Berlin

Verwaltung: Nadja Hinz

Telefon: +49 30 838 51725

https://www.selma-stern-zentrum.de/