The protagonist of today’s little article is one man, who with his courage, steadfastness and moral judgment stood and still stands out among the multitude. A man, who risked his entire well-being, carrier and family, around a world so intensely changing, nobody could predict what would happen in the near future. When you think about it, it is fascinating, just how many such personalities remain forgotten between the pages of our history, fortunately unlike this brave Portuguese, who was soon recognized as the hero he was. His tragic faith however, still contrasts with the heroic deeds he was meant to accomplish.

The year is 1940 and Hitler’s armies are rapidly advancing into French territory. The government, lost all hope, would soon surrender (6 July) as the nation’s capital Paris would fall before the German armed forces.

In the meantime, in Bordeaux, a city, located just 200 km north of the Spanish border, in the Portuguese diplomatic corps hectic work was in full swing. They had just managed to relocate from the fallen capital and were settling down. Aristides de Sousa Mendes was at the time a consul at the Portuguese embassy in France. Back in Portugal the far-right government of Salazar had instructed the country’s diplomatic corps, that visas should be issued to refugee Jews and stateless people only with express permission from Lisbon.

As more and more people were reaching to Bordeaux as one of the last standing cities, and even more people were infiltrating the US, British, Canadian, Portuguese and other free countries’ consulates, Mendes saw himself in a moral crisis. He couldn’t bear the witness of so many people, desperate for the salvation, that they just couldn’t reach to. Was he going to disobey the orders of his own government and perjure himself, possibly risking his carrier and family well-being?

It is recorded that Sousa Mendes had said to a friend of Jewish origin, that if so many Jews can suffer because of one Catholic, it’s all right for one catholic to suffer for many Jews. He was referring to Hitler, of course, even though now we can argue, whether the Führer was religious at all. That’s not of importance though, so let’s move on with the story.

According to his son, Pedro Nuno de Sousa Mendes, it was the morning of 17 June, when his father walked out of his bedroom, opened the window, announcing that from that moment onwards, everybody will be given a free visa.

From that day nearly 10 000 Jews had been issued a visa to enter Portugal, in order to escape from the persecuting Nazis. A lot of them actually later continued their journey to the USA and Canada. They all used the neutrality of the Spanish state to travel through relatively safely, because even though the Spanish leader Francisco Franco sympathized Hitler, he never joined the war, nor helped the Axis forces.

As crowds began forming a human column towards the border, Sousa Mendes saw himself sighing visas on the road. The Portuguese foreign ministry issued a protest against the many refugees just flooding the country and as a result soon the Spanish government declared the visas, issued by Mendes, invalid. Until this point however, many have already transferred from occupied France to Spain and the Spanish Authorities decided not to pursue them, as they saw no point in the action whatsoever.

Eventually, Sousa Mendes was expelled from the diplomatic corps and left without a pension. He died in the 50s in poverty and misery, mistreated by Salazar and the Portuguese nation. His children saw themselves fleeing to seek refuge somewhere else.

Ultimately, however, Mendes became the first ever diplomat to receive back the title posthumously in 1966. He has received several awards, all posthumously of course, and, in the year of 1988, the Portuguese parliament withdrew disciplinary charges against him. Even an airline was named after Mendes in honor of his deeds. 

All in all, this is from me for today folks, I hope you enjoyed this little article and make sure to check some of my other posts, if you are interested in learning some more of that unusual history.