José Finat y Escrivá de Romaní

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José Finat y Escrivá de Romaní as Ambassador to Germany in 1941 (National Digital Archive, Poland)

José María de la Blanca Finat y Escrivá de Romaní (Madrid, February 11, 1904 - Madrid, May 30, 1995) was a Spanish politician and government official who held several important posts in Francoist Spain. After the Civil War he was named Director General of Security and from 1952 to 1965 he was the Mayor of Madrid.

Biography

Early years

His father was José Finat y Carvajal, a nobleman who held several titles including Count of Mayalde, Finat and Villaflor.[1] His mother was Blanca Escrivá de Romaní y de la Quintana, daughter of the Count of Casal.

He entered public life in Toledo as a political protégé of the Count of Romanones in the last years of the reign of Alfonso XIII. In 1919, he assumed his father's title of Count of Mayalde. He took a degree in law and began a military career as an artillery commander.

He became an activist for the

Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups (CEDA). During the Civil War he was personal secretary to Ramón Serrano Suñer
.

Francoist Spain

As DGS, he arrested and detained

President of Catalonia, who was put on trial and executed by firing squad in 1940. His final act as DGS was to establish the "Jewish Archive", a collection of documents put together by the civil authorities to register and manage the Jewish residents of Spain; approximately 6,000 at that time.[3] Finat increased police cooperation with Nazi Germany. This cooperation involved Paul Winzer, the head of the Gestapo in Madrid, who was directing an instruction program for Franco's secret police.[4][5]

Between 1941 and 1942 he served as the Spanish Ambassador to Germany,[6] coinciding with Operation Barbarossa, which saw volunteers of the Blue Division at the front. In 1952 he was named Mayor of Madrid, a post he occupied until replaced by Carlos Arias Navarro in 1965, making him Madrid's longest-serving mayor. In 1971 he became a member of the Cortes and a Minister in Franco's National Movement. In his later years, he retired to a ranch.

Later life

A noted cattleman, the Conde de Mayalde became the President of the Union of Breeders of Fighting Bulls in 1982.[7] The Avenida del Alcalde Conde de Mayalde in Hortaleza is named after him, as is the Public School "Conde de Mayalde" in Añover de Tajo.

Titles held

References

  1. ^ "Genealogía de la familia y del apellido Riquelme-Bustos: La descendencia de Mosén Juan Fontes y de doña Isabel de Albornoz y Roca Rocafull, y la genealogía de las distintas ramas de la familia y del apellido Riquelme Bustos, Bustos, Finat, Finat Walford, Fontcuberta Bustos". Archived from the original on 2012-06-22. Retrieved 2013-12-13.
  2. ^ Foro por la Memoria
  3. ^ La lista de Franco para el Holocausto, El País, 20 de junio de 2010.
  4. ^ Bowen 2006, p. 46.
  5. ^ Bowen 2006, p. 49.
  6. ^ BOE núm. 198, pág. 5331 (17 de julio de 1941)
  7. ^ "El conde de Mayalde, presidente de los criadores de toros". El País. 22 April 1982.

Sources

  • Bowen, Wayne H. (2006). Spain During World War II. University of Missouri Press.


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