On Saturday, April 2, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Diplomat from Portugal who rescued 30,000 lives will be honored in the village of Mineola, NY. The event will be held at the Mineola Memorial Library located at 195 Marcellus Road and will include a storytelling, a film presentation, an exhibition, refreshments and more.

Guests of honor will be New York State Senator Jack Martins, a Portuguese-American politician, and J. J. Prins, a Sousa Mendes’ visa recipient who was rescued as a young child.

The program of the event will be as follows:

1:00 p.m. Storytelling for children from the Curious George series, whose authors

Hans and Margret Rey were saved by Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

1:45 p.m. Reception of Portuguese delicacies and a chance to view the exhibition“These are my people!The story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes.”

2:30 p.m. Remarks by Charles Sleefe, Director, Mineola Memorial Library, andSenator Jack Martins.

2:45 p.m. Presentation of the film “The Consul of Bordeaux,” a fictionalized accountof the story of Sousa Mendes.

4:15 p.m. A word from a Sousa Mendes’ visa recipient J. J. Prins, followed by a Q&A session and closing remarks by Olivia Mattis from the Sousa Mendes Foundation, curator of the exhibition.

On Sunday, April 3, Newark, NJ, will be a location for the events organized in honor of two diplomat rescuers Sousa Mendes from Portugal and Martins de Souza Dantas, from Brazil.

At 11.45 a Mass by Brazilian Bishop H.E. D. Edgar Moreira da Cunha dedicated to these exceptional men will be held at Our Lady of Fatima Church, at 82 Congress Street in Newark.

Later that afternoon at 6.00 PM a screening of the first feature film on Aristides Sousa Mendes, “The Consul of Bordeaux,” will be held at the Sport Club Portugues (SCP), located at 55 Prospect Street in Newark.

The entrance is free of charge.

All the events are organized by João Crisóstomo on behalf of the Sousa Mendes Foundation and the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and are made possible with the help of the Mineola Memorial Library, the Sport Club Portugues (SCP) and the Serranos Club.

Aristides de Sousa Mendes (July 19, 1885 – April 3, 1954) was the Portuguese Consul-General in Bordeaux, France duringthe Second World War. In 1940, after the invasion by the Nazi forces of Belgium,The Netherlands, Luxembourg and France, he found himself confronted with thereality of untold numbers of refugees desperate to escape to neutral Portugal. Although the Portuguese official government policy was to not allow any refugees within its borders, Sousa Mendes chose to defy these inhumane orders andfollow his conscience instead. Within a short period of time in May and June of1940 he issued visas to Portugal to anyone who asked, and consequently was harshlypunished by his government for his actions.
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Luis Martins de Souza Dantas (Rio de Janeiro, 1876 – Paris, 1954)was serving as the Brazilian ambassador to France and to the Vichy Government during the German occupation. Moved for what he later called ”a Christian feeling of mercy,”he granted diplomatic visas to enter Brazil to hundreds of people who, from the point of view of the Brazilian immigration policy, were considered undesirable. They were Jews, communists and homosexuals who were running away from the horror of Nazism. Due to complaints and after an official investigation of his actions, he was ordered to stop issuing visas, but he chose not to comply and instead continued issuing visas forging the issue date to a date prior to the order.With his actions, Souza Dantas saved around 800 people.
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The deeds of the diplomatic rescuers during the Holocaust can be used as an outstanding educational tool. Their category of “extreme cases” makes them a unique source of learning.

Hundreds of men and women who worked in foreign services careers helped the victims of Nazi persecution, while putting their own lives and the lives of their families in great danger. Most of the time, they were also disobeying the orders of their superiors.

March 30 is the anniversary of the birth of Carl Lutz (1895-1975), a member of a devout Christian family and the first neutral diplomat in Budapest to rescue Jews condemned to death by the Nazis. He was vice consul of the Swiss diplomatic mission from 1942 to 1945 and the creator of the “Schutzbrief” or “Letter of Protection” for Jewish refugees. The same strategy was later used by Raoul Wallenberg between July 1944 and January 1945.

In tough negotiations with the Nazis, Lutz got permission to issue protective letters to 8,000 Hungarian Jews allowing them to immigrate to Palestine. Using deception, he and his staff issued thousands of additional protective letters.

By 1943, in collaboration with the Jewish Agency in Palestine, Lutz had helped 10,000 children and young Jews to immigrate to the land that in 1948 would become the State of Israel. He also established 76 protective houses for Jews and continued rescuing them from deportation centers and death marches.

After the WWII he was doomed to oblivion for disobeying exact instructions from the Foreign Ministry not to engage in the “Jewish problem.” In fact the Swiss government prevented progress in Lutz’s diplomatic career. According to his daughter, Agnes Hirschi, Lutz was declared persona non grata after the war.

“Over twenty years after his death the Swiss government acknowledged the actions of my father by issuing a stamp in his honor,” said Hirschi, for whom the recognition, besides being small, came too late.

Colonel José Arturo Castellanos was the Salvadoran Consul General in Geneva, Switzerland in 1942-45. He appointed George Mandel-Mantello, a Romanian Jewish refugee living in Geneva, as the First Secretary at his consulate. He authorized Mantello to issue thousands of ”citizen certificates” to Jewish refugees throughout Nazi occupied Europe. These certificates stated that the holder was a recognized citizen of El Salvador who was then protected from deportation. In 1944, Castellanos requested that Switzerland represent El Salvador’s interests in Nazi occupied Hungary. Soon, Mantello was issuing thousands of Salvadoran citizenship papers to Hungarian Jews through the office of Swiss Consul Charles Lutz.

A Ceremony in Honor of Coronel Castellanos held in El Salvador

The Official Ceremony honoring Colonel José Arturo Castellanos, who was recently declared Righteous Among the Nations, was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of El Salvador on Tuesday, July 27 2010. The IRWF was part of the team that worked on achieving this recognition.

The loan of the ”Bordeaux Registry Book” was made possible thanks to the direct intervention of Mr. Luís Amado, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, who personally acceded to a request from John Crisostomo, vice president of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, to lent the book.

As Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux, France, and against the government’s orders, Sousa Mendes issued a great number of visas that allowed thousands of Jews and non-Jews to escape from the horrors of World War II and the cruelties of Nazism. More than 30,000 people survived the Holocaust thanks to Sousa Mendes’ courage.

As a result of his disobedience, Sousa Mendes was expelled from the Portuguese Foreign Service. For decades, his name could not be uttered publicly in Portugal. He lived the rest of his life as an outcast, eventually losing his family home and dying in poverty on April 3rd, 1954.

The exhibit of the ”Bordeaux Registry Book” marks the reintroduction of the Portuguese Diplomat into the ”Rescuers Gallery,” an area in the Museum dedicated to those brave men and women who saved persecuted people during the Holocaust that already includes other diplomats such as Raoul Wallenberg from Sweden.

Portuguese newspaper article about this event

A resident of the Bay Area for 50 years, Mr. Abranches was a tireless advocate for the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, who – as Portugal’s consul general in Bordeaux, France – ignored his government’s orders and issued transit visas to ”undesirables” fleeing the Nazis.

De Sousa Mendes is credited with saving 10,000 European Jews and 20,000 other European nationals – a defiance that prompted Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar to jettison de Sousa Mendes from the diplomatic corps, deny his pension, and black out de Sousa Mendes’ actions from official Portuguese records.

De Sousa Mendes, who is occasionally described as ”the Portuguese Schindler,” died in poverty in 1954.

Mr. Abranches – along with his siblings, relatives and others who learned about de Sousa Mendes’ life – organized petitions to Portugal’s government and spoke to groups around the United States in a campaign to highlight de Sousa Mendes’ achievements, and to force Portugal to redress its treatment of him.

In 1987 – 17 years after Salazar’s death – Portugal’s government apologized for its behavior, and in subsequent years restored de Sousa Mendes’ name to the ranks of diplomat, awarded him Portugal’s highest civilian medal, and held a state dinner in his honor – an event that Mr. Abranches attended outside of Lisbon in 1995.

Mr. Abranches was himself a victim of Portugal’s old campaign to discredit his father. In his early teenage years, while still in Portugal, teachers would ask Mr. Abranches if he were the son of Aristides de Sousa Mendes. When he confirmed the connection, ”He’d be failed. It was that dramatic,” said Sheila Abranches, one of Mr. Abranches’ four children. ”He pretty much had to (move) from Portugal.”

Mr. Abranches immigrated to the United States in 1950, he joined the Army, and later moved to the Bay Area, where he worked as an architectural draftsman. Like his father (who was Portugal’s consul general in San Francisco in the 1920s), Mr. Abranches made it his life’s mission to aid strangers. He helped other immigrants to the Bay Area learn English and gain housing, and was head of the Vietnamese Refugee Committee in Dublin, where he lived for most of his Bay Area years. Mr. Abranches was an active member of Dublin’s St. Raymond’s Catholic Church, where a memorial service was held Feb. 11.

As the story of his father became better known – through the 2000 documentary ”Diplomats for the Damned,” and such events as the U.N. exhibit in 2000 that honored de Sousa Mendes and other ”Righteous Diplomats” – Mr. Abranches took comfort knowing his activism made a difference.

Sheila Abranches will continue to speak publicly about de Sousa Mendes.

So will Joao Crisostomo, a friend of Mr. Abranches who is vice president of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. ”We need to let young people know about the heroes of the past,” Crisostomo said. ”They will be ignored if they are not kept being remembered. It’s a job that will never stop.”

Mr. Abranches is survived by his four children – Sheila of Queens, N.Y., Paul Abranches of Newman (Stanislaus County), Peter Abranches of Antioch, and Eileen Garehine of Oakley. He is also survived by his wife, Joan, and sisters Teresinha and Marie Rose.

E-mail Jonathan Curiel at jcuriel@sfchronicle.com

This act of moral courage resulted in Sousa Mendes’ dismissal by the Salazar government and in the impoverishment of his large family. Sousa Mendes died a pauper in 1954, and remained unrecognized in his native land even after the Carnation Revolution in 1974, which brought democracy to Portugal. The reception on April 6, 2005 will mark the opening of the Museum’s exhibit of the actual registry book used by Sousa Mendes for the first two thousands visas issued on June 17, 1940, and of the pen used to enter those names. The reception will also feature the presentation of humanitarian awards to three individuals who have worked to honor the memory and the example of Sousa Mendes: Robert Jacobvitz, Anne Treseder, and Antonio Rodrigues. In early 1986, Jacobvitz, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Greater East Bay (California), and Treseder, a San Francisco attorney, along with John Paul Abranches, Sousa Mendes’ youngest son and Joan Abranches, John Paul Abranches’ wife, founded the International Committee for the Commemoration of Aristides de Sousa Mendes. They established branches in Israel, Portugal, and Canada; coordinated efforts with French and English-based organizations; and successfully campaigned internationally for Sousa Mendes’ ”rehabilitation” in Lisbon. Today, almost twenty years later, Sousa Mendes has been exonerated and honored by the Portuguese government, and his story is viewed as an example of moral courage by Portuguese school children and by their parents.

Rodrigues, a Portuguese-American activist, has worked both in the United States and ”on the ground” in Portugal to honor Sousa Mendes’ life and memory, to restore the crumbling Sousa Mendes family home in Cabanas de Viriato, and to establish it as a museum and conference center dedicated to the study of the humanitarian values that Sousa Mendes represented. The reception, and the Museum’s exhibit, will also recognize the courage of Brazilian diplomat Luiz Martins de Sousa Dantas, who saved many Jews and others during the Holocaust by issuing visas to facilitate their escape. The names of both Aristides de Sousa Mendes and Luiz Martins de Sousa Dantas are recognized in the Rescuers Gallery of the Museum. The reception will be enriched by the presence of H.E. Pedro Catarino, Portuguese Ambassador to the United States who was appointed by Dr. Jorge Sampaio to represent him in this event, Ambassador Alexandre de Almeida Fernandes the Consul General of Portugal in New York, and Ambassador Julio Cesar Gomes dos Santos, Consul General of Brazil in New York. Among others whose presence is expected are Dr. Mario Silva, Member of Parliament in Ottawa, Canada, Mr. Baruch Tenenbaum, Founder of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, H.E. Mr. Felix Rohatyn, who was able to escape from Europe with a Brazilian visa issued by Luiz Martins de Sousa Dantas and other dignitaries. Kosher wine, made in Portugal by the Jewish community of Belmonte, where Jewish traditions have been transmitted in secret from generation to generation, will be served during the reception, through the cooperation of Ramos Pinto Wines, the ”Adega Cooperativa de Covilha,” and TAP, the national airline of Portugal. The reception, and the events described below, have been coordinated by Joao Crisostomo, Vice President of the IRWF and coordinator of the Aristides de Sousa Mendes and Luiz M. de Sousa Dantas 50th Anniversary Commemorations. A Thanksgiving Mass, honoring the good deeds of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and Luiz Martins de Sousa Dantas, will take place on Sunday, April 3rd, 2005, the anniversary of Sousa Mendes’ passing, at 11.00 AM at Saint Anthony Church, located at 159 Sullivan Street, New York. The mass will be celebrated by Brazilian Bishop D. Edgar Moreira da Cunha, and Father Joseph Lorenzo, OFM, the Pastor of this Parish. These events are the last in a series of year-long 50th Anniversary Commemorations, including worldwide Thanksgiving Masses; religious and civic ceremonies in Synagogues, Universities and other institutions; the presentation of the Aristides de Sousa Mendes Portrait to the Mission of Portugal to the United Nations; and a ceremony at the Consulate General of Brazil in New York City, wherein the Consulate’s Main Reception Room was named for Luiz Martins de Sousa Dantas, and Sousa Dantas was remembered by historian Fabio Koifman, author of ”Quixote nas Trevas,” about the life and courage of Sousa Dantas. The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, with branches in New York, Buenos Aires, Jerusalem and Caracas, is a non-profit organization, with the aim of promoting peace among nations and people, as well as developing educational projects based on concepts of solidarity, dialogue and understanding, with the aim of rendering homage, promoting the message, and remembering the actions of all those Heroes of the Holocaust, who, like Raoul Wallenberg, risked their lives to save persecuted people during World War II.

John Paul Abranches, who spearheaded efforts to honor and ”rehabilitate” his father, Portuguese diplomat and Righteous Gentile, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, passed away in Antioch, California, on February 5, 2009, after a long illness. John Paul was 78. He was the last surviving son of his parents, Aristides and Angelina de Sousa Mendes.

John Paul’s father, who had been Portuguese consul in San Francisco, California, in the early 1920’s, was the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, France, in 1940, when Paris fell to the advancing German army, and Jewish and other refugees fled southwestward to escape into neutral Spain. But the Spanish authorities would not allow refugees to enter Spain without a Portuguese visa.

Against the orders of Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar, who had directed that no Jews or other ”undesirables” be allowed visas, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, with the support and assistance of his wife Angelina, his older sons Pedro Nuno and Jose, and Rabbi Haim Krueger, issued Portuguese visas ”around the clock” in June 1940 to as many refugees as possible, without regard to nationality or religion. He is credited with saving the lives of 30,000 refugees, including 10,000 Jews. Aristides de Sousa Mendes’ acts of moral courage and ”disobedience” resulted in his dismissal from the Portuguese diplomatic corps, his public disgrace, and his own impoverishment. He died a pauper in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1954; his wife Angelina had predeceased him.

Because of his ”disgrace,” most of Aristides’ children could not find employment in Portugal and were forced to emigrate to other countries.

With the assistance of Jewish charitable agencies, John Paul moved to the US at the age of 19. He joined the U.S. Army in 1951 and was stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska. Following his Army stint, he moved to San Francisco and met the love of his life, Joan (Casey), to whom he was married for 51 years. Together, while living in Dublin, CA, they raised four children: Paul (Nelly), Newman, CA; Peter, Antioch, CA; Sheila, Queens, NY: and Eileen (Joe), Oakley,CA, all of whom survive him.

John worked as an Architectural Draftsman for The Hofmann Company in Concord for many years. As his family relates, in his spare time John was a big believer in helping others. As a member of the St. Raymond’s Catholic Church in Dublin, CA, he was an active participant in the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and the Chairman of the Vietnamese Refugee Committee in Dublin; he helped many new immigrants to his community learn to read, write and speak English.

But John’s great passion during his entire adult life was to honor and rehabilitate the name of his father Aristides, who, even after Portugal’s democratic revolution in 1974, remained a ”non-person” in Portugal. In 1967, through the efforts of John’s sister Joana, Aristides de Sousa Mendes was recognized as a Righteous Gentile at Yad Vashem in Israel.

Despite this honor in Israel, Aristides de Sousa Mendes remained largely unknown in the larger Jewish and Portuguese communities, and unheralded in his homeland. In early 1986, following a petition presented by John Paul Abranches, Mario Soares, Portugal’s President and himself had been a victim of the Portuguese dictator Salazar, rehabilitated and honored Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

In May 1987 Soares travelled to Washington, D.C. and presented a Portuguese medal dedicated to the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes. One day later he apologized to the Sousa Mendes/Abranches family for the wrong done to them and their father during the Salazar dictatorship.

On March 18, 1988, in the presence of Sousa Mendes family members, Aristides de Sousa Mendes was finally rehabilitated and posthumously honored by Portugal’s Assembleia da Republica (Parliament).

At present time, Aristides de Sousa Mendes is honored in Portugal as a hero and humanitarian. Schools and streets are named after him. In a recent public poll, he was voted among the ten greatest Portuguese of all times. And he continues to be honored worldwide.

In addition to his four children, John also leaves behind four grandchildren, two sisters, Teresinha Swec and Marie Rose, many beloved nieces, nephews, and in-laws, and many dear friends.

The altruistic actions of this wrongly overlooked hero represent the greatest rescue operation conducted by a single individual during the Holocaust.

Galleon Theatre Company has assembled a hugely talented and experienced team of artists to present what is surely to be one of the most exciting theatrical productions of early 2009.

DATES: 27 th January- 22 nd February 2009
Tues-Sat @ 7.30pm – Sun @ 4pm
PRESS NIGHT- Thursday, 29 th January 2009 @ 7.30pm Tickets: £12, £10 (concs)
Box Office: 020 8858 9256
boxoffice@galleontheatre.co.uk
VENUE: GREENWICH PLAYHOUSE, Greenwich Station Forecourt, 189 Greenwich HighRoad LONDON SE10 8JA

The company presenting Aristides – the Oucast Hero exceeds thirty theatre practitioners and is led by:

The Director: Bruce Jamieson who has previously directed over thirty Galleon acclaimed theatre productions which include Hamlet; Pygmalion; Cousin Basílio; Shadows on the Sun; The Importance of Being Earnest; 3 Sisters; The White Devil; ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore; The Maias ; Inês de Castro; King Lear; Absent Friends; A Doll’s House; The Heiress of the Cane Fields; The Seagull; The Crime of The Old Village; Thankfully there is Moonlight!; Hedda Gabler; and The Merchant of Venice. As an actor, he has played leading roles in some sixty stage plays; and his television and film credits include the recently released feature film The Oxford Murders (with John Hurt & Elijah Wood); Murphy’s Law (Tiger Aspect); Monarch of the Glen (Ecosse); Ali G-Inda House (Universal);
Roughnecks (BBC); In Suspicious Circumstances (Granada); Crime Solver (BBC); and Spongebob (BBC).

The Writer & Producer: Alice de Sousa who has written many critically acclaimed stage and screen scripts; produced over seventy theatre productions; as an actress, played leading roles in some thirty plays; and won in 2005 the American Biographical Institute’s awards – ‘Great Women of the 21st Century’ and ‘Woman of the Year 2005′. (These awards exclusively recognise worldwide the impact on society of the work of 1000 prolific women). In 2007, she was short listed for the Portuguese Government’s illustrious award ‘Prémio de Talento 2006′, in recognition of her internationally celebrated writing and theatrical productions of Portuguese literature.

Galleon’s cast of thirteen actors is led by Michael Hucks in the title role (Aristides de Sousa Mendes) has appeared in numerous West End productions, national tours and on television in popular programmes such as Eastenders, London’s Burning, ‘Allo ‘Allo, Only Fools & Horses; and by veteran actor Barry Davis (playing Rabbi Chaim Kruger) who has extensively worked in theatre, television and Hollywood films such as Schindler’s List, The Pianist, The Man Who Cried, The Merchant of Venice, Kingdom of Heaven. Other cast include: Owen G. Bevan (José); Sue Broberg – (Angelina); Janet Coulson (Fernanda); Suzanne Goldberg (The Woman); Chris Manning-Perry (Davenport/Oulmont); Daniel Moore (Synek & Degenfeld); Robert Paul (Seabra); Hannah-Jane Pawsey (Joana); Anna Ruben (Andrée Cibial); Richard Unwin (Barman/Villand/Laporte); and making his professional debut Paul Lawrence-Thomas (Pedro Nuno).

The dazzling and very experienced design team, who collectively have designed hundreds of theatre productions includes J.William Davis (Scenery/properties); Robert Gooch (Lighting/Sound); and Fiona Parker (Costumes).

For further information please consult their website www.galleontheatre.co.uk.

New Yorkers became familiar with that aspect of Portuguese history on April 6, 2005, when ”Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese Righteous Gentile who saved the lives of an estimated 30,000 Jews and others during the Nazi Holocaust,” was honored at the Museum of Jewish Heritage − A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. The tribute took place at a reception sponsored by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF), the Consulate General of Portugal in New York and the Consulate General of Brazil in New York.

Sousa Mendes was the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, France, in June 1940, when Paris fell to the advancing Nazi army, and Jewish and other refugees fled southwestward in an effort to escape by crossing into neutral Spain. Sousa Mendes, with the support and assistance of his wife Angelina and his children, issued visas to an estimated 30,000 refugees against the orders of the Portuguese dictator Salazar, who ordered that no visas were to be granted to Jews. Sousa Mendes was removed from his position and disgraced in Portugal for his act of courage. He died a pauper.

The 2005 reception marked the Museum exhibit’s opening of the actual registry book used by Sousa Mendes for the first 2,000 visas issued on June 17, 1940, and of the pen used to enter those names. The reception also featured the presentation of humanitarian awards to three individuals who have worked to honor the memory and the example of Sousa Mendes: Robert Jacobvitz, Anne Treseder and Antonio Rodrigues.

In early 1986, they – along with descendants of Sousa Mendes – founded the International Committee for the Commemoration of Aristides de Sousa Mendes with branches in Israel, Portugal and Canada. They coordinated efforts with French and English-based organizations and successfully campaigned internationally for Sousa Mendes’ ”rehabilitation” in Portugal. Today, 20 years later, Sousa Mendes has been exonerated and honored by the Portuguese government, and his story is viewed as an example of moral courage by Portuguese school children and their parents.

Historians have estimated that one million refugees fled from the Nazis through Portugal during World War II. The precedent was forcibly created in 1940 by the selfless moral courage of Sousa Mendes, who paid in suffering for his deeds. First in Bordeaux, then in Bayonne and in the streets of Hendaye near the Spanish border, he indiscriminately issued transit visas for entry into Portugal to over 30,000 refugees. By the very magnitude of his daring and the startling number of refugees saved, Sousa Mendes opened up a refugee escape route where none had existed. It remained active through the war and was to be used by an estimated million refugees.

As related by recipients of the visas and his descendants, he opened that route by risking his reputation, profession, income, health, social standing and the future of his family. His campaign to save the persecuted Jews began in Bordeaux on June 17, when he issued thousands of visas with the help of the refugees themselves in an improvised assembly line.

In Bordeaux, the consulate continued to be besieged through June 19. That night, German planes bombed the city. Panic stricken, the crowds decamped and ran blindly for Bayonne and Hendaye, closer to the Spanish border. Sousa Mendes left his wife and sons in Bordeaux and followed the terror- driven refugees.

He made his way through the perilously congested road to Bayonne, where he found the Portuguese consulate encircled by some 5,000 persons with another 20,000 lined up along the streets. The consular staffers locked themselves in the consulate, and had devised a passageway for themselves through the roof. They strictly adhered to the orders from Lisbon not to issue visas to the refugees. Normal service rules gave Sousa Mendes jurisdiction over the Bayonne consulate, and he promptly assumed control by issuing visas to everyone. He reassured the locked-in Consul Machado, pledging to assume all responsibility. Sousa Mendes then set about to recruit all available hands and duplicated in Bayonne the Bordeaux ”visa assembly line.” Over the next 48 hours, thousands of peoples’ names were called out and they were handed the precious signature and consular stamp that would save their lives.

Meanwhile, Consul Machado wired Lisbon to report the breach of norms and telephoned Ambassador Pereira in Madrid. Although Pereira had no jurisdiction over consulates in France, he decided to travel to the frontier and see for himself. It was a trip that would put an end to the rescue effort and to Sousa Mendes’ career and livelihood.

On the afternoon of June 22, Sousa Mendes left Bayonne for Hendaye. France had agreed to the armistice terms dictated by Germany, and the refugees on the run became hysterical. They took to the road in a mad frenzy, pushing for the Spanish border. Sousa Mendes followed them. Soon, he was in the Streets of Hendaye, handing out large numbers of visas. At this stage, many of the ”visas” were odd scraps of paper, stating that the bearers had the right to enter Portugal, and asking if Spain would kindly grant them passage through her territory. The unorthodox documents kept the rescue effort going. In the meantime, two telegrams were sent from Lisbon, instructing Sousa Mendes to stop issuing visas. He did not receive either one.

The situation was tragic. Sousa Mendes later spoke of those he was not able to prevent from committing suicide before him. Rabbi Kruger, who had befriended Sousa Mendes when he served as consul in Antwerp, wrote that when he stood at Irun awaiting admittance, disputes arose between the refugees and the Spanish guards. The gate remained closed. This time, Sousa Mendes went inside to mediate. Even though he had no authority, he returned two hours later to open the gate himself. One more group scrambled into Spain to board trains for Portugal.

One of the recipients of the Sousa Mendes visas was Henrie Zvi Deutsch, who became a member of the Sousa Mendes Society and a Sousa Mendes Scholar. He later testified that Mendes was a devout Catholic, but he came from a Marrano background and was very proud of his Jewish heritage. Furthermore, he noted that what was not stated in the story of the Sousa Mendes visas is that these visas were not to individuals but to families; in the case of the Deutsch family, his father and uncle were issued one visa each that rescued nine individuals. According to Deutsch, the number of people rescued by Mendes far exceeds 30,000, and the actual total remains unknown.

Later on that afternoon of June 22, Portugal’s highest-ranking envoy to Spain, Ambassador Pereira, arrived at Irun to survey the unusual situation and became furious at what he saw. He wrote to Prime Minister Salazar and effectively brought about the recall of Sousa Mendes to Portugal. Salazar stripped Sousa Mendes of his diplomatic standing for ”disobeying orders,” rendering him a ”disgraced non-person.” He was charged on 14 counts of disobeying orders, and although he was an attorney, he was not permitted to defend himself.

Sousa Mendes and his family were now faced with living in poverty, as he was not able to retire with a pension or secure another position. The education of the younger children had to be cut short, and the older ones could not find jobs. The entire autocratic country turned their back on the courageous diplomat who dared to defy Salazar. The Sousa Mendes family began to take meals, along with refugees, at a Lisbon soup kitchen run by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS).

The financial hardship and protracted humiliation took a toll. A few weeks before the end of the war, Sousa Mendes suffered a stroke, which left him partially paralyzed. His wife and children stood by him. However, Angelina’s own health did not hold for long. She died at the age of 50 after languishing for six months in a state of agony. Sousa Mendes survived his wife by six years.

He hoped that his government would some day restore his good name and reputation, but it did not happen. With the help of the HIAS, Sousa Mendes’ traumatized children emigrated – one by one – to seek lives in Belgium, Africa, Canada and the United States. Aristides de Sousa Mendes died on April 3, 1954, a penniless outcast in his own country.

The heavily mortgaged estate at Cabanas de Viriato was sold at auction to pay his debts. The building was missing some doors, which the diplomat had burned over the years to keep warm. Then it was looted of its contents. Still standing, the home was in an advanced state of decay.

Next to the half-ruined house stands a memorial − a 40-foot tall monument attesting to the spirit of a man who told his government, ”I would stand with G-d against man, rather than with man against G-d.”

The villagers keep the memorial protected and now point to it with great pride. Following his ”exoneration” by the Portuguese government, the Aristides de Sousa Mendes (ASM) Foundation was established, and the estate was bought back by the descendants of the Righteous of the Gentiles.

In an exclusive interview with The Jewish Press, his grandson Antonius points out, ”We are going to dedicate one of the rooms to a library, open to the public. This library will receive books from various origins, namely the collection of a former diplomat (deceased). Most books will focus on human rights and international relations, as well as the history of WWII. Special attention will be given to the ‘Literature of the Shoah.’ We have the support of the Israeli Embassy for that matter.

”Another activity of the ASM Foundation is the organization of conferences and seminars on the Shoah and human rights, and democratic values. We currently go to schools and invite specialists on these topics. Since many schools are interested in the recovery of the ‘Casa do Passal,’ after its restoration, we will receive visits from schools and universities, community centers, etc. We want to organize those events in the house. For that purpose, an auditorium will be built in the basement. Of course, for this, the Foundation welcomes donations and grants, and will be very grateful for all contributions and assistance in the rehabilitation effort.”

As for the involvement of the family, seven children of Aristides and Angelina immigrated to the United States (three of them served in the U.S. armed forces and two were present in Normandy on D-day, June 6, 1944), and most of the grandchildren were born and live in America or Canada. Others live in Belgium and France.

Antonius continued, ”Two grandsons are directly involved in the Board of the Foundation: Alvaro, who is Sousa Mendes’ daughter’s son, is chairman and I – the son of Sousa Mendes’ son – am on the Board of the Foundation. All descendants of Sousa Mendes are entitled to be involved in the administering of the Foundation and may contribute with criticism and ideas/suggestions.”

*A unique tour of Israel and Jewish Portugal is being planned for Jewish Press readers in Spring/Summer 2007, in coordination with the Aristides Sousa Mendes Foundation. The tour will include a special event at the ASM estate, Caso do Passal, and tours to additional Jewish sites in Portugal.

He dedicated the better part of his adult life to vindicating his father who was wrongfully and severely punished by then Portuguese dictator Antonio Oliveira Salazar, for having disobeyed the dictator’s explicit orders by saving an estimated thirty thousand refugees from the concentration camps in June of 1940, while he was a diplomat in Bordeaux, France. This was the largest single rescue act of the entire Holocaust.

In 1952 and at a time when not other voices could be heard on the subject, Sebastião distinguished himself by being the very first person to write a detailed account of what Aristides de Sousa Mendes had done, in a novella ”A Flight Through Hell”. Throughout the fifties Sebastião continued by repeatedly approaching newspaper and magazine journalists. Except for a few brief sympathetic newspaper articles, the story largely fell upon deaf ears. Undaunted and with the help of siblings, Sebastião persevered until momentum and interest in the story began to increase. This culminated in 1995 with a national homage in Portugal, at which time then Portuguese president Mario Soares publicly proclaimed Aristides de Sousa Mendes to be ”Portugal’s greatest hero of the twentieth century”. In 1997, an international homage was organized by the European Union, in Strasbourg, France. In 2004, the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation organized an international homage that was simultaneously conducted in some fifty cities around the world, including New York, Paris, London and Jerusalem.

During the eighties and nineties, Sebastião spoke publicly whenever he could at synagogues, community centers or institutions, which included the Simon Wiesenthal Institute, in Los Angeles and Israel’s official Holocaust memorial agency Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem. As a champion of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Sebastião received further recognition from a many institutions including the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and state and municipal legislatures.

Sebastião Miguel Duarte was born the tenth of fourteen children unto Angelina and Aristides in Berkeley, California, in 1923 while his father was Portuguese Consul General, in San Francisco. Two years after his father’s dismissal from the Portuguese diplomatic corps, Sebastião went to England where he volunteered for the US Army. He participated in the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge, among others. After the war, he immigrated to San Francisco where he spent most of his life.

Sebastião is survived by his wife of fifty-eight years, Ruth and their three sons Sebastian, Francis and Richard.

For more information about Aristides de Sousa Mendes visit:
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