Career
Manzanas entered the police force in 1938, in Irun, where he established one of his infamous interrogation centers and collaborated with Nazi Germany — he helped the Gestapo to arrest Jewish people that were trying to escape from Occupied France. 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. In 1968, he was murdered in the first planned killing committed by ETA. His killers waited for him at his residence and shot him seven times.
Manzanas" service under Franco"s regime, the fact that he was known for having used police torture, and the fact that he was not the first torturer rewarded by the Spanish Government raised some controversy about this award.
