The Museum of Byzantine Culture, in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain in Greece, presents in the Museum’s central atrium the temporary photographic exhibition “Above and beyond the call of duty: the Spanish Foreign Service’s humanitarian response to the Holocaust”.

The material of the exhibition tells the audience the heroic, and often opposite to the official policy of the country, efforts of Spanish Foreign Service officials to save the lives of Sephardic Jews who were fatally threatened during the Holocaust in the World War II. In their efforts, Spanish diplomats were helped, apart from the possession of Spanish passports by Jews, by the existence since 1924 of a decree which provided for the granting of Spanish nationality to foreigners, whose families were once residing in Spain, and were listed on Spanish Registers. As a result, thousands of Spanish Jews were able to escape Nazi barbarism by finding refuge in the territory of Spain. One of those who – with great risk – took part in this rescue operation was Consul General Sebastián de Romero Radigales, a savior of the Sephardic Jews of Thessaloniki and of Athens.

Exhibition duration: 5 until 19 October 2018

Working hours: 8.00-20.00

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