In Memoriam : Francisco Franco (1892-1975), Benefactor of the Jews
Generalissimo Francisco Franco, Head of the Spanish State, died on November 20, 1975. However general history may judge him, in Jewish history he shall certainly occupy a special place.
In contrast with England, which shut the borders of Palestine to the Jews fleeing Nazism and destruction, and in contrast with democratic Switzerland which sent back to Nazi terror the Jews who came knocking at its gates for help, Spain opened its frontier with occupied France, admitting all refugees, without distinction of religion or race. Prof. Haim Avni of the Hebrew University, who has devoted years to studying this question, concluded that a total of at least 40000 Jewish lives were saved from the German gas chambers, either through direct Spanish interventions by Spanish ambassadors and consular officials or thanks to the open border. (Cf. Haim Avni, Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, Jerusalem, 1970, VIII, 31-68, Contemporary Spain and the Jewish People, Jerusalem, 1975).
On October 23, 1940, at the darkest moments of European Jewish history, when Hitler's troops were deployed along the Spanish border after the fall of France, Franco met Hitler in the French border town of Hendaye and refused to give in to any of Hitler's demands, including the institution of anti-Jewish legislation. Instead, several months later, Franco founded in Madrid and in Barcelona the "Benito Arias Montano Institute of Jewish Studies". Its learned journal Sefarad continues to be one of the world's finest Jewish publications and the only one outside of Israel to be entirely subsidized by a national government.
In the autumn of 1953 Yamim Noraim services were conducted in Madrid by Rev. D. A. Jessurun Cardozo of New York. Those services, to which Franco gave personal recognition, were the first to be officially authorized in Spain since the expulsion of 1492. (Cf. D. and T. de Sola Pool, An Old Faith in the New World, New York, 1955, 86-7.)
Beginning in 1945, Franco permitted the Jewish Agency to work on Spanish territory to facilitate the illegal immigration of concentration camp survivors to Palestine, which was the sealed to Jewish immigration by the British. After Israel's Suez Campaign of 1956, Moroccan Jews were prohibited from emigrating to Israel. The Haham, Rabbi Dr. Solomon Gaon, was received in private audiences by Franco, and Spain created facilities for them to transit en masse to Israel by way of the Spanish Sahara, with the tacit approval of the Moroccan Government.
In 1960, at the close of the magnificent International Sephardic Bibliographical Exposition held for a month at the National Library in Madrid, Generalissimo Franco bestowed upon Haham Gaon the high honor of Spain : "Commander of the Order of Alfonso the wise". In response to Haham Gaon's discourse in Judeo-Spanish, Franco, wiping away his tears, declared: "The Spanish Government is proud to have been able to save Jewish lives during the Second World War and wishes to do everything possible to develop cultural bonds between the Sephardim and Spain" (Cf. Kol Sepharad, London, no. 15, June 1960).
The "First Symposium of Sephardic Studies" took place in Madrid from June 1 to June 6 in 1964. Jewish scholars from all over the world were invited by the Spanish Government to read papers on aspects of Sephardic culture. A 781 page volume of Actas was published at Spanish government expense in 1970, an indispensable tool for Sephardic scholars and perhaps the most important work in Sephardic studies to have appeared during this century.
In 1965 Franco was the first Head of a Spanish government since 1492 to receive in audience delegates from Jewish congregations in his own country. At Franco's instigation, on December 14, 1966, nineteen million Spaniards voted in favor of the law proposed by Franco to grant freedom of worship to all non-Catholic denominations. Official permission to hold public Jewish services ensued immediately. On December 16, 1968, the first synagogue since 1492 was consecrated in Madrid. To mark this occasion, the Ministry of Justice, at the behest of the Head of State, confirmed the abrogation of the Edict of Expulsion of 1492. The document was delivered by special courier to Señor Samuel Toledano of the Madrid congregation and a copy sent to Haham Gaon in London (Cf. The American Sephardi, I, 2, 1967, 26.)
On June 13, 1971, to fulfill a long cherished wish of Generalissimo Franco (cf. his Decree 874 of March 18, 1964, reproduced in Actas 613-5), the ancient "Transito" Synagogue of Toledo was officially "restored to Judaism". In the absence of a Jewish community, it was made into a splendid Jewish museum while awaiting its future reconsecration as a House of Sephardic Jewish Prayer. At the inauguration of the museum, Haham Gaon and the Spanish Minister of Education presided. (Cf. The American Sephardi, V, 1-2, 1971, 143-5.)
When Tangiers and Tetuan were incorporated into Morocco, the Spanish Government invited all the Jewish inhabitants of these cities to resettle in Spain. At present, the Jewish community of Malaga numbers over 2500 members. At the order of Francisco Franco a Jewish artist was commissioned to sculpt a statue of Ibn Gabirol, which was erected in a special park in the City of Malaga, where the poet was born. On April 21, 1972, a magnificent ceremony was organized in Malaga to celebrate the poet's 950th anniversary. Specialists in Jewish literature from the Spanish universities and abroad were invited to read papers. Thanks to Franco's efforts, by 1972 Spain was the only country outside of Israel where all State Universities have a Department of Jewish Studies.
Due to Franco a continuous stream of scholarly publications dealing with Jewish culture has been flowing from Spanish presses during the last thirty years. Spain's great contribution to Jewish scholarship under Generalissimo Franco, carried out well-nigh exclusively by Spanish gentile scholars, is a phenomenon unique in the history of Jewish people. (Cf. The American Sephardi, VI, 1-2, 1973, 66-69.)
On Sabat Vaislah, 18 Kislev 5736 (November 22, 1975), the co-editors of The American Sephardi went before the ark of the historic Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York City to make an offering for the repose of the soul of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. The mention of his name was followed, at their request, by the Hebrew phrase: seu gnazar ayeudim bime amilhama agedola ("for he helped the Jews during the Great war").
Putting to one side any other considerations, Jews should honor and bless the memory of this great benefactor of the Jewish people... who neither sought nor reaped any profit in what he did.