Nadene Goldfoot
On May 10, 1940, Hitler launched his invasion of France and the Low Countries. Within weeks, millions of civilians were driven from their homes trying to stay ahead of the advancing German army. It turMesndes's city was already packed with refugees from the war zones from the Paris region, Belgium and France of 6 million and 10 million in all, coming in private cars, auto trucks, bicycles and on foot. Dog owners killed their pets so they would not have to feed them.
Aristides de Sousa Mendes (European Portuguese pronunciation: ; July 19, 1885 – April 3, 1954) was a Portuguese diplomat who is recognized in Portugal as a national hero for his actions during World War II. In 1938, he was assigned to the post of Consul-General of Bordeaux, France, with jurisdiction over the whole of southwestern France.
As the Portuguese consul-general in the French city of Bordeaux, he defied the orders of António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo regime, issuing visas to thousands of refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied France, including Jews.
Unknown to others, Portugal's austere dictator, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, had issues a missive, Circular 14, forbidding his diplomats from offering visas to most refugees,---especially Jews, ethnic Russians and anybody else whom the conflict rendered as a "stateless person." He maintained that he himself was neutral which meant nothing. He didn't want to make Hitler or Francisco Franco of Spain mad.
He was a 54 year old man who loved his wife who gave him 14 children. Sousa Mendes married his childhood sweetheart, Maria Angelina Coelho de Sousa Mendes (born August 20, 1888), who was also his cousin. They eventually had fourteen children, born in the various countries in which he served, and he loved his mistress who was 5 months pregnant with his 15th child when he was about to have a nervous breakdown.
The French government fled Paris. German soldiers raised the swastika at the Arc de Triomphe. Mendes was in the Portuguese consulate, living upstairs. 2 blocks away were one of the largest city squares in all of Europe where refugees set up camp in cars, boxes and tents. That's where statesmen, ambassadors and ministers, generals and other high officers, professors, men of letters, academics, famous artists, journalists, university students, Red Cross workers, members of ruling families, princes...soldiers of all ranks and posts, industrialists, businessmen, priests, nuns, women and children who all needed protection landed. Many of them were Jews who were already persecuted and sought to escape the horror of further persecution.
Sousa Mendes was a devoted Catholic who suspected he descended from conversos, Jews who had been forced to convert during the Spanish Inquisition, was appalled by the suffering. He invited elderly, ill and pregnant refugees to shelter in his flat and sleep on chairs, blankets and rugs on the floor. The offices became crowded with refugees.
Mendes rode around in a car to look at the city streets and saw the Polish rabbi, Chaim Kruger and his wife, Cilla and their 5 young children. Mendes invited him back to the consulate. Then Mendes declared, "No Jews may receive a visa". This was from the order of the dictator, Salazar.
Then Mendes asked permission from Portugal to issue the visas and on June 13, 1940 it was denied. Mendes offered Rabbi Kruger a visa anyway, and Kruger didn't take them as it made him special. He said, "It is not just me who needs help, but all my fellow Jews who are in danger of their lives. He went on saving Jews. He saved thousands. Rabbi Kruger worked with him.
As a result of his actions, Sousa Mendes was recalled to Portugal and stood trial for defying the regime. He was punished with demotion and forced retirement. He was unable to find other employment and died in poverty in 1954, 14 years later.
For his efforts to save Jewish refugees, Sousa Mendes was recognized by Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1966, the first diplomat to be so honored. To many, Aristides de Sousa Mendes was one of the greatest heroes of World War II. Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer characterized Sousa Mendes' deeds as "perhaps the largest rescue action by a single individual during the Holocaust."
Resource:, righteous
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristides_de_Sousa_Mendes
Smithsonian Magazine, November 2021, p. 68-82
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