Spain has launched a campaign to track down the descendants of Hungarian Jews saved from the Nazis by a war-time diplomat dubbed the “Spanish Schindler”.

Ángel Sanz Briz, also nicknamed the “Angel of Budapest”, saved over 5,000 people in 1944, most of them Jews, while serving in Spain’s embassy in Budapest.

The diplomat was recognised by Yad Vashem in 1966 and died in 1980.

He persuaded Hungary to allow Spain to protect 200 Sephardim using an expired decree passed in 1924 to grant citizenship to anyone of Spanish ancestry.

He went further, falsifying records and offering shelter to thousands.

The names and professions of close to 2,000 of those saved by the diplomat were published last month to mark the 111th anniversary of his birth.

The records were released by Spain’s Centro Sefarad-Israel in partnership with the country’s national archives in a bid to tell the stories of survivors and pay tribute to his legacy.

"His work was absolutely memorable," said the centre’s director Miguel de Lucas.

"He was a young man in one of his first destinations and to save all those people he relied largely on a decree [...] that granted the possibility of giving nationality to Sephardim and that was no longer in force at that time. 

“For him, the principle of humanity prevailed over the principle of legality."

Descendants are asked to contact lalistasanzbriz@sefarad-israel.es.