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, Sp ...

, known as a torturerIglesias, 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 or ...

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'' (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 pol ...

, which had been revived in the 1960s, and, in particular, to the then fledgling organisation

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 Txabi Etxebarrieta (14 October 1944 – 7 June 1968), also known as Xabier Etxebarrieta Ortiz, was a Basque nationalist and one of the founders of the armed pro-independence organization Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA). He was the perpetrator o ...

. 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 José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spain. A member of the F ...

. 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.

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 {{paramilitary-action-stub

Background

Death and aftermath

See also

Notes