Melitón Manzanas González (born 1906 in
Donostia-San Sebastián – 2 August 1968) was a high-ranking police officer in
Francoist Spain
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...
, known as a torturer
[Iglesias, María Antonioa]
"Hablan las víctimas de Melitón Manzanas" ''(The victims of Melitón Manzanas speak)''
''El País'', 2001-01-28. Retrieved 2011-10-23.
''El Mundo'', 2001-01-20. Retrieved 2011-10-23.[[https://web.archive.org/web/20111007162318/http://www.es.amnesty.org/com/2001/com_30ene01b.shtm "España: no deben tolerarse las recompensas a torturadores" ''(Spain: rewards to torturers should not be tolerated)''], Amnesty International. 2001-01-30.] and the first planned victim of
ETA
Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...
.
Background
Manzanas entered the police force in 1938, in Irun, where he established one of his infamous interrogation centers and collaborated with
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
[ — he helped the ]Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
to arrest Jewish people that were trying to escape from Occupied France
The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...
.[ He was assigned to Donostia-San Sebastián in 1941, eventually becoming commander of the '']Brigada Político-Social
The Political-Social Brigade ( es, Brigada Político-Social, BPS), officially the Social Investigation Brigade ( es, Brigada de Investigación Social, BSI), was a secret police in Francoist Spain in charge of persecuting and repressing oppositio ...
'' (BPS), the francoist political police
Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...
division, in San Sebastián. A Basque himself, he was a vehement opponent of Basque nationalism
Basque nationalism ( eu, eusko abertzaletasuna ; es, nacionalismo vasco; french: nationalisme basque) is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the poli ...
, which had been revived in the 1960s, and, in particular, to the then fledgling organisation ETA
Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...
.
Death and aftermath
On 2 August 1968, he was murdered in the first planned killing committed by ETA in response to the killing of Txabi Etxebarrieta. His killers waited for him at his residence and shot him seven times.
Thirty years after his death, Manzanas was awarded the medal of Civil Merit dedicated to the victims of terrorism by José María Aznar. Manzanas' service under Franco's regime, the fact that he was known for having used police torture,[ and the fact that he was not the first torturer rewarded by the Spanish Government][ raised some controversy about this award.][
]
See also
*List of unsolved murders
These lists of unsolved murders include notable cases where victims were murdered in unknown circumstances.
* List of unsolved murders (before 1900)
* List of unsolved murders (1900–1979)
* List of unsolved murders (1980–1999)
* List of u ...
Notes
1906 births
1968 deaths
Antisemitism in Spain
Assassinated police officers
Deaths by firearm in Spain
Francoist Spain
Male murder victims
People from San Sebastián
People killed by ETA (separatist group)
People murdered in Spain
People of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish collaborators with Nazi Germany
Spanish police officers
Spanish terrorism victims
Torturers
Unsolved murders in Spain
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