The Spanish Embassy here has published a pamphlet designed to prove that Gen. Francisco Franco’s regime treats the Jews of Spain will, it was learned here today. Entitled, “Spain and the Sephardic Jews,” the brochure emphasizes that the expulsion of Spain’s Jews during the 15th century was for religious and not for racial reasons.”
Since the period of the Spanish Inquisition, the Embassy leaflet declared, the Spanish Government has from time to time intervened in behalf of Sephardic Jews living outside Spanish territory. Until Franco assumed control of Spain in 1939, the pamphlet noted, “Spain’s protection of the Sephardic Jews was more potential than actual.” Sephardic Jews living in Vichy France were offered protection by Spanish consuls in France, the leaflet stated, recalling that in 1942 the Madrid consul-general in Paris reported that he “had been able to get the Sephardi excepted from the impulsion to wear the Star of David.”
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