| Melitón Manzanas | |
| Birth Date: | 9 June 1909 |
| Birth Name: | Melitón Manzanas González |
| Birth Place: | Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain |
| Death Place: | Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain |
| Death Cause: | Gunshot wounds |
| Occupation: | Police officer Torturer |
| Known For: | Collaboration with Nazi GermanyTorturing dissidents of the Francoist regimeVictim of ETA |
Melitón Manzanas González (9 June 1909 – 2 August 1968) was a high-ranking police officer in Francoist Spain, known as a torturer and the first planned victim of ETA.[1] [2] [3]
Manzanas entered the police force in 1938, in Irun, where he established one of his infamous interrogation centres and collaborated with Nazi Germany[1] — he helped the Gestapo to arrest Jews who were trying to escape from occupied France.[3] He was assigned to Donostia-San Sebastián in 1941, eventually becoming commander of the Brigada Político-Social (BPS), the francoist political police division, in San Sebastián. A Basque himself, he was a vehement opponent of Basque nationalism, which had been revived in the 1960s, and, in particular, to the then fledgling organisation ETA.
On 2 August 1968, he was murdered in the first planned killing committed by ETA in response to the killing of Txabi Etxebarrieta.[4] [5] [6] His killers waited for him at his residence and shot him seven times.[7]
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,[1] and the fact that he was not the first torturer rewarded by the Spanish Government raised some controversy about this award.[3]