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This thesis analyzes the particular circumstances of the Spanish Jews living in Nice, France, between 1940 and 1944, who tried to use local Spanish diplomatic channels for obtaining safe passage to Spain. It argues that the Spanish government and its diplomats in France failed to make full use of the existing possibilities for rescue and were therefore at least partly responsible for the deaths of members of that Jewish community.
Jews of Spanish heritage had settled in Southern France during the 1920s and 1930s, moving there form Eastern Europe and Turkey. Some could still claim Spanish citizenship based on the Primo de Rivera Law of 1924. When France fell to the Nazis in 1940, the fate of these Jews was put into question. Assuming they could expect some level of protection as Spanish citizens, they petitioned Spanish authorities from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for assistance, protection, and repatriation. Their requests were met with a variety of responses, most of which were hesitant and ineffective. As the war progressed, the Spanish government under General Francisco Franco made Sephardic repatriation increasingly difficult. Rules created to keep Spanish Republicans out of Spain after their Civil War ended in 1939 were refocused and refined during the course of the Holocaust to obstruct rather than facilitate the transit of Spanish Jews into Spanish territory. Simultaneously, Spanish officials worked to protect the assets of these Jews, not for the victims themselves, but as a source of revenue for the Spanish government. The actions of the Spanish government have to be understood against the backdrop of Spanish-Nazi military and economic cooperation, deep-seated anti-Semitism in Spain, and a convoluted and weak foreign policy that changed depending on what seemed most politically expedient to the Franco regime. The case studies presented in this thesis also illustrate the agency Spanish Jews in Nice demonstrated as they tried to navigate the diplomatic obstacles erected by the Nazis, the French, and by Spain itself. The cases show that the Spanish government was not fully committed to the rescue of its Jewish citizens in Nice but instead favored political expediency over humanitarian concerns.