[4] Sagaz emphasized, as a ploy, that he did not believe that Egypt was discriminating for reasons of race or religion, but was taking prudent steps during wartime.
[3][4] The first tranche of Jews departed from the Alexandria Port on the Spanish ships Benidorm and Benicarló and traveled to Marseille, Genoa, or Barcelona.
Sagaz would personally pick up the Jews at the prison, sign their passports, and drive them in a car with diplomatic license plates to Alexandria.
The second group left on regular Air France flights, averaging four people per day, on tickets paid for by global Jewish organizations such as HIAS.
[3] As Spanish ambassador, Sagaz also represented the interests of the United States after the severing of relations between Egypt and the U.S. after the war.
Due to illness, Sagaz temporarily returned to Spain on 16 April 1974, flying on a U.S. Air Force plane provided by President Richard Nixon.
[1] He married his wife Ursula Zinsel Steeger de Sagaz in Washington in 1956 and had five sons: Jose, Gabriel, Juan Carlos, Manuel, and Santiago.