Portugal, salazar and the jews by avraham milgram researchgate. When offered a visa by sousa mendes, the rabbi had refused it because he could not leave his people behind. Luis nuno rodrigues department of history, iscteuniversity institute of lisbon. With the nazi invasion of france came an order from portugal. Aristides sousa mendes a sua vida em filme imagens. He issued visas to 30,000 refugees, the majority of whom were jews fleeing the nazis, helping them to avoid certain death. News people profiles sousa mendes saved more lives than schindler so why isnt he a household name too. They were jews and nonjews, public figures and private citizens, most with passports but many without. Born into an aristocratic portuguese family, mendes chose a diplomatic career for himself. Portugals schindler is remembered, decades after his lifesaving deeds. Download citation portugal, salazar and the jews by avraham milgram.
His disobedience again angered the portuguese government. In addition, we learn about portugals neutral policy of the time. Today, mendes s name is engraved in gold in the pantheon of the righteous among the nations. Portugals schindler is remembered, decades after his. We saw the movie with a different english title, disobedience. Between june 16 and 23, 1940, he frantically issued portuguese visas free of charge, to over 30,000 refugees seeking to escape the nazi terror, 12,000 of whom were jews. Sousa mendes saved more lives than schindler so why isnt. Yet disobeying orders meant certain personal disaster for sousa mendes, and for his wife and 14 children. Sousa mendes left bordeaux on july 8 and returned to lisbon, portugal. Circa trentamila visti furono rilasciati dal console sousa mendes, dei quali diecimila a profughi di religione ebraica. On 9 november 1938, the nazi government of germany began open war against its.
The book begins with mendes s childhood, family, and career. The sousa mendes foundation is interested in tracking the fates of all visa recipients, no matter their stories. After filling posts in various capitals including the united states and europe, he was posted to bordeaux, france, as the portuguese consulgeneral. Sousa mendes saved more people than schindler but died a. With god against man, documentary by semyon pinkhasov u. The sousa mendes visa recipients came from fortynine countries and all walks of life. Having graduated in law, in the university of coimbra, in 1907, aristides unlike his father, who was a judge and his twin brother, who embarked in politics chooses to follow a consular career, mainly connected to administrative aspects, in particular the. The views expressed here are his own unless otherwise noted. Foreword jaime gama minister of state and of foreign affairs september 2000. In portugal, a protector of a people is honored the new. Following the occupation of france in the summer of 1940, foreign consulates were faced with large numbers of jews, desperately trying to obtain visas in order to leave nazi dominated territories. He was dismissed from the diplomatic service and was denied retirement and severance benefits.