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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This is one of the many initiatives of The International Souza Dantas Institute – created on the frame of the Wallenberg Foundation- and dedicated to celebrating the life and honoring the deeds of Brazilian diplomat Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas by developing cultural and educational activities in order to spread and keep his example around the world. Other initiatives included the presentation of the book ”Quixote nas Trevas”, written by historian Fabio Koifman, in NY and the issuance of a postal stamp by the Israeli Postal office.

Moved by what he later called ”a Christian feeling of mercy,” Souza Dantas granted diplomatic visas for hundreds of Jews, homosexuals and other ”undesirables” to enter Brazil. With his actions, Souza Dantas saved about 800 people from extermination.

The ceremony will include the presentation of Fabio Koifman’s book on Souza Dantas, Quixote nas trevas (Quijote in Darkness), and the awarding of a Commemorative Souza Dantas Medal, part of the Medals of the Saviors minted by the IRWF.

Ambassador Júlio César Gomes dos Santos, Consul General of Brazil will speak during the commemoration.

The ceremony to honor Dantas’ heroic deeds will take place on December 6th, 2004, at 6.00 in the Consulate General of Brazil, located at 1185 Avenue of the Americas, 21st floor New York, NY 10036.

Souza Dantas

Amid the years of Holocaust atrocities, Ambassador Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas, in charge of the Brazilian diplomatic mission in France, challenged both French and Brazilian dictatorships to grant hundreds of diplomatic visas for those fleeing Nazi Europe, to enter Brazil.

During the 1940’s, he steadfastly confronted Brazilian immigration policy. which did not allow entry to ”undesirables” defined as Jews, communists and homosexuals escaping from the horror of Nazism.

With his actions, Souza Dantas saved more than 800 people from extermination.

He became the Brazilian equivalent of the German industrial Oskar Schindler, who saved 1,200 people from the Holocaust, in accordance with what was narrated by Steven Spielberg in his movie, Schindler’s List.

The memory of the diplomat’s actions was forgotten for years. Only recently has his story gained public awareness, both in Brazil and internationally.

In June of 2003 he became one of the few to receive the ”Righteous Among Gentiles” distinction from Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Israel, an honor granted to those who, under the Nazi yoke, risked their lives on behalf of others.

Souza Dantas’ actions are not yet chronicled in schoolbooks. For decades they were restricted to the memory of those families he helped save.

An important part of that story was confined to the documents of the bureaucracy of the State, kept as memos in the historical files of Itamaraty (Brazilian State Department) and in the National File.

By putting together those two sources of information, a historian from Rio de Janeiro, Fabio Koifman, built a more precise biography of the Ambassador.

Out of the testimonies picked during those four years of work, one concerned the director of the Polish Theater Zbigniew Ziembinski, considered one of the greatest scenic arts revolutionaries in Brazil.

It was due to Souza Dantas that he arrived Rio de Janeiro in 1941, after wandering through Europe in search of an exit of the hellish war.

”I had people lying on the floor, next to the embassies, begging, waiting, subjected to the worst derisions, to the worst tortures”, remembered Ziembinski years later in an unprecedented registry of his memories.

”Until the moment that, suddenly, we learnt that there was a Quixote… the famous ambassador Dantas.”

From Koifman’s careful work arises one of the most dignifying Brazilian biographies.

The Foundation

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) is a public non-profit organization, dedicated to keep the example of Raoul Wallenberg alive all over the world, 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 no distinctions.

Raoul Wallenberg is the Swedish diplomat who disappeared in January 1945 after saving the lives of tens of thousands of Jews condemned to certain death by the Nazis during World War II.

He was captured by the Soviet troops which, in January 1945, took control of Budapest, never to be seen again.

The Foundation, with branches in Buenos Aires, Caracas, Jerusalem and New York, has focused all of its efforts to honor Raoul Wallenberg and carry his heroic legacy to future generations.

More information
www.raoulwallenberg.net

Moved by what he later called ”a Christian feeling of mercy”, Souza Dantas granted diplomatic visas for hundreds of Jews and other persecuted by the Nazi regime during WWII.

The ceremony included the presentation of Fabio Koifman’s book on Souza Dantas, ”Quixote nas Trevas” (Quixote in the Darkness).

With his actions, Souza Dantas saved about 800 people from extermination in spite of the orders issued by the Getulio Vargas’s administration, according to Koifman.

Baruch Tenembaum, founder of the IRWF, and John Crisostomo, Vice President and Coordinator of the Sousa Mendes and Souza Dantas 50th anniversary commemorations presented the Souza Dantas 2004 Award to Koifman and Ambassador Gomes dos Santos for their sincere commitment to honor Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas and for broaden his legacy throughout today’s diplomatic delegations. Moreover, Mr Tenembaum also presented to the Consul an official letter addressed to President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, inviting the Head of State to join the Honorary Board of the Wallenberg Foundation.

The presentation of the ceremony was in charge of Gustavo Jalife, IRWF Executive Director whereas Koifman and Ambassador Gomes dos Santos delivered speeches before an enthusiastic attendance which included diplomatic delegations of the Holy See, Sweden, Argentina, Israel, Switzerland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Mexico, Turkish, Czech Republic, China, El Salvador and Angola.

An excerpt of a letter of endorsement signed by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was read aloud:

”Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas was a tremendous leader of his era. He believed that religious persecution was intolerable and took the necessary actions to overcome it. At great personal risk, Souza Dantas granted diplomatic visas to hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust, saving countless lives from barbaric slaughter by the Nazis. I would like to applaud each of you for gathering tonight to celebrate his historic life.”

Moving letters sent by Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, and United States Congressman Tom Lantos were also mentioned.

The closing of the ceremony was in charge of Ambassador Gomes dos Santos who invited Tenembaum to unveil a portrait of the Brazilian diplomat after whom the Auditorium was named ”for ever”, Gomes dos Santos said.

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Your Excellency Ambassador Julio Cesar Gomes dos Santos, Brazilian Consul General in New York, Mr Baruj Tenembaum, Founder of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation; Mr João Crisóstomo, Vice President of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and Coordinator of the fiftieth anniversary commemorations of Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas and of Aristides de Souza Mendes; Ambassadors and other distinguished guests; Ladies and Gentlemen:

Ambassador Souza Danta’s performance as to the humanitarian help he gave to those who were persecuted by the Nazis, was the topic of my History Master Dissertation which was published in 2002.

In 1997 I had the first information about this unknown Brazilian diplomat and the role he played during World War II, through the testimony of Mr. Raphael Zimetbaum, one of those who had a diplomatic visa given by Souza Dantas.

Holocaust testimonies had been collected by the ”Shoah Foundation” an entity created by the American motion picture producer Steven Spielberg. By the end of the nineties he had collected testimonies of thousands of Jewish survivors from the Holocaust in several different countries.

As one of the recipients of visas obtained through the Ambassador SD, Mr. Zimetbaum was very surprised by the fact that there were no remembrances or records related to his humanitarian deeds, he who had been the direct responsible for the rescue of some of his relatives during the war.

This was the starting point of a long and careful research that lasted for three years, followed by another nine months which took me to write the text.

This I wrote in about five hundred pages to sum up all I could find during all this time, either researching in the public archives or listening to oral testimonies concerning Souza Dantas and his performance during World War II. I will try to summarize my work in the next few minutes.

Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1876 (eighteen seventy-six). His grandfather was one of the most outstanding senators of the nineteenth century in Brazil.

He graduated in Law school at the age of 21 and entered the Brazilian Foreign Affairs Office.

Souza Dantas managed to reach all diplomatic career positions. He served in several different capital cities, all over the world.

In 1916, during the first World War, he was designated temporary Brazilian Affairs Minister.

He reached the position of ambassador in 1919 (nineteen – nineteen) when he was called to lead the Brazilian representation in Rome.

By the end of 1922 (nineteen twenty-two) Souza Dantas was appointed Brazilian Ambassador to France, a position he would keep until 1944 (nineteen forty-four). He was at the time the dean of the Brazilian Diplomatic Office in Paris. Between 1924 and 1926, Souza Dantas represented his country several times in the League of Nations.

A bachelor, Souza Dantas was a habitual customer of the ”Comedie Française” theatre . It is said that he had romantic relationships with some of the actresses. At the age of fifty seven he married an American widow, a bit older than him, Elise Meyer Stern. In the same year one of Elise brothers, Eugene Meyer, bought a bankrupted newspaper, ”The Washington Post”. The well known publisher Katharine Graham who directed the newspaper for many years was Elise Souza Danta’s niece.

Before the invasion of France by the German Army, Elise left France and came to USA. She would only meet Souza Dantas again in the middle of 1944.

In June, 10th 1940 the French government left Paris. And so did some foreign ambassadors. Four days later the German troops captured the city. After some short periods in the cities of Tours and Bordeaux the French government moved its base to Vichy. In June 22nd 1940 the French surrendered and the Armistice was concluded four days later.

In July 10th a new government began, led by Marshal Petain.

According to the Armistice the French territory was divided into two parts: Paris and all the north part of the country occupied by Germany was administrated by the German military ; the south part of the country was considered a Free Zone, administrated by a collaborationist French government but without the ostensive Nazi troops presence.

To the refugees an exit visa from Europe represented a matter of life or death, for, most of the countries had been practicing a diplomacy of severe restrictions to new entries for a long time. The diplomatic offices still open had very long lines at their doors. So, it was extremely difficult to obtain a visa.

In 1937 (nineteen thirty-seven) the ”New State Dictatorship” was established in Brazil. President Vargas closed the Congress and ruled by means of law-by-decree, an authoritarian regime.

Brazil was one of the few countries in the world that was still interested in attracting new immigrants despite the war. But for the Varga’s government this did not mean a policy of equal opportunity, as rules were introduced in order that only those considered right people were allowed entry.

Brazilian consuls were directed not to give visas to most of the refugees. The exceptions were well defined.

There are indications that Souza Dantas had already intervened in favor of refugees from Nazism before he had left Paris in June 1940 (nineteen forty). However I only was able to prove the Ambassador’s humanitarian help from that period onwards. And his help was not limited to Jews, but was given also to other groups that were being persecuted by the Nazis.

On these days the Consulate was in charge of emitting visas. An Ambassador would only concede personally a visa under exceptional circumstances.

In 1938 (nineteen thirty-eight) the Brazilian government, through a law-by-decree, established precise rules and a number of special criteria to concede visas to foreign people. The consulate authority that emitted the visa had to abide by extensive bureaucracy, such as declarations and all kind of documents, demands that were almost impossible for the refugees to fulfill.

Thousands of people were displaced persons: Some were ”Nansen” passports holders; others had no documents to travel at all, specially the ones coming from the countries then already occupied.

The first records of irregular diplomatic visas issued by the ambassador I could spot, started to appear after the time Souza Dantas left Paris.

The visas were issued in his own handwriting and thus constitut an evident material of Souza Dantas´ humanitarian efforts.

On his way from Paris to Vichy, Souza Dantas passed by Perpignan and Bordeaux. There he started signing foreign passports to many, with no considerations of origin, social and economic conditions or ethnicity, without following the severe Brazilian bureaucratic rules and restrictions.

The majority of the about five hundred diplomatic visas that I found, were given to common people. They are dated from June 1940 to 12th December 1940, the date when S.D. was officially forbidden to issue any kind of visas. However, according to some testimonies, many refugees came to the ambassador in the first months of 1941 and received their visas from him. Those visas were stamped with dates previous to December 12th 1940.

From August 1940 on, when the refugees started arriving in Brazil with visas given by S D, a large number of complaints and protests from the Maritime Police and from the immigration and Justice Cabinet arrived to the Foreign Affairs Office. They denounced the massive issue of irregular diplomatic visas given by SD.

During the year of 1941 the arriving refugees were an important preoccupation for the Brazilian Government due to political disputes in the high levels of the government. From April 1941 onwards, The Justice Cabinet took control of visa permits to foreigners.

After a number of incidents that had restrained the refugees from disembarking in the Brazilian harbors – lots of them carrying visas given by SD – the Ambassador was perceived as recalcitrant. Dictator Vargas became profoundly irritated not only because of the international pressure concerning the ships full of refugees that were being refused in Brazil, but specially because of the visas to foreigners given by SD that had already been unauthorized by Vargas himself.

It became a personal matter to Vargas.

On October11th 1941 Vargas ordered an administrative process against the ambassador and started arrangements for his replacement. War-related problems prevented Vargas to find a quick solution.

As SD learnt that he was to be prosecuted because he had issued irregular visas, he sent the following telegram to Rio de Janeiro:

”I remind you that, due to the fact that there was no Consulate here, I was forced to take over the consulate functions because of the greatest catastrophe mankind has suffered up to our days, in order to save human lives. I did what had to be done, with the nobility of the Brazilian soul, moved by the most elementary Christian feelings. Almost all the visas were given only to facilitate the exit from France of those unhappy people wanting to commit suicide and a few others that were given only to get to Brazil, not having caused any inconvenience to the country, as I was informed by this Office”

The process started. However it was weakened due to the rupture between Brazil and Germany. Brazil declared war on Germany and soon after that, in August 1942, Vargas gave order to file the lawsuit.

From August of 1942 on, while waiting for his substitute, SD kept sending information about the refugees situation in France. The following telegram is very explicit:

” The Gestapo has been performing a true enslaving and extermination of Jews. Their families are literally split up, the husbands, with their heads shaved, are taken to work in Silesia. The wives are sent to concentration camps in Poland. All of them are being sent to unknown locations and probably they will never meet each other again. Their children, even the youngest ones are violently pulled out of their mothers and confined to special asylums where they die.”

A few days later he would complete his report:

” The foreign Jews, specially the ones from countries under Nazi occupation, who are in the non-occupied France, are being delivered to the Germans. Many are sent, closed inside wagons shut with lead, more adequate to the transportation of animals. Men and women take different ways. All of them are kept apart from their children who are left in distress. Many of these people commit suicide and numerous painful scenes are taking place when their families are destroyed. (.) This government, alleges that these are German demands, and they are concerned with the French Jewish people. They want to prevent them from being expelled too, so they do what they are asked to do by the Germans. (And SD continues:.) ” These are acts that violate traditional rights of protection and the most elementary principle of humanity, dishonoring France.”

As it is easily understood, by these telegrams of August 1942, SD is in fact informing that the Holocaust is already well under way.

In November 1942 Germany invaded the ”Free Zone”, until then under the French collaborationist government of Vichy, thus occupying all French territory. On the following day the Brazilian Embassy was invaded by a group of Nazi officials. SD interposed himself in front of the German soldiers shouting and protesting. The Nazi soldiers threatened him with their guns but eventually everybody calmed down thanks to the counselor Trajano Medeiros who spoke fluent German.

SD and his subordinates ended by being arrested and were deported in January 1943 to Bad Godesberg in Germany. They remained confined in a hotel until the end of March of 1944.The diplomats would only arrive in Brazil in May of 1944.

The Brazilian newspapers treated SD as an hero due to the fact that Brazilian soldiers were fighting in the war, the news about SD resistance in the embassu in Vichy and the long time he remained detained.

Brazil was still under Vargas’ dictatorship and the transformation of the prosecuted diplomat into a hero did not please the dictator at all. Soon the news about paying homage to him disappeared from the media. During the time Vargas ruled, SD was kept out of any limelight.

In October 29 1945 Vargas was thrown out of office and the Ambassador good standing reemerged, thanks to the political influence of his former colleague-diplomats.

He was already retired when he was invited by the Foreign Affairs Minister to head the Brazilian delegation in the first part of the United Nations General Assembly in London, between January 10 and February 14, 1946.

There he was called the ”Dean of the World Diplomatic Corps”. On January 14 SD was the second speaker to address the General Assembly, right after James Francis Byrnes, the American Secretary of State.

Between 1951 to his death in 1954, Vargas was President of Brazil again, as a result of free elections this time.

SD lived his last years in Paris and died in April 1954, just a few days after the Portuguese Savior Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

A series of political events, specially those related to so called Vargas heirs, were determinant to cause the silence around SD ´s name after his death: any reference to SD was always avoided by those who looked after the memory and legacy of President Vargas.

SD never had any children, and after his death there was no voice left to remember his name.

After almost fifty years of oblivion, I see with joy, emotion and satisfaction a homage like this taking place. I see with joy the name of SD as a reference to exemplary humanitarian behavior. It is fitting that his name be associated with great humanitarians such as Raoul Wallenberg and Aristides de Sousa Mendes – the pioneer of the Holocaust Rescue Operation whose 50th(fiftieth) anniversary of his death we also commemorate this year.

I have no doubts that this would be his greatest wish and the best homage that someone could pay to him.

Thank you very much.

Moguilevsky, Rabbi of the Israeli Congregation of the Argentine Republic (Libertad Temple), participated on 13 June 2003 in a Kabalat Shabat ceremony of the Israeli community in Curitiba together with evangelical sisters of the Order of Mother Basel of the ”Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary” (ESM), an organization founded in 1947 within the German Evangelical Church. Its mission is to work for inter-religious dialogue.

After the Shabat welcome ceremony, the Rabbi awarded sister Adola of the Evangelical congregation with the Luiz Martins Sousa Dantas medal, specially coined by the IRWF.

The founder of the ESM was mother Basel who held a very strong opposition towards Hitler’s regime. As leader of Christian students in Germany between 1933 and 1935, mother Basel refused to support nazi regulations that prohibited the attendance of Christian Jews to congregation meetings. She risked both her life and her career by speaking publicly of the singular destination of Israel, God’s people. She was arrested twice by the Gestapo for proclaiming the authority of Jesus Christ and released in spite of her strong position. Furthermore, Mother Martiria, another of the founding members of the Sisterhood, taught the Old Testament to young students, an activity that was forbidden under Adolf Hitler’s racial laws.

On Monday, 16 June Rabbi Simón Moguilevsky attended the Studium Teologicum, a seminar for the education of priests run by Father Victor Calixto Dos Santos. The Lateran University of the Vatican is responsible for running this seminar. Professor Carlos Coelho, and enthusiastic activist of the inter-religious dialogue participated in the encounter.

During the course of the meeting Rabbi Moguilevsky presented Father Victor the Souza Dantas medal.

Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas was the Brazilian diplomat savior of Jews and other persecuted during the Second World War. He has been declared Righteous Among the Nations by the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. His biography, ”Quixote nas trevas. O embaixador Souza Dantas e os refugiados do nazismo” (Record Publishing, Rio de Janeiro – Sao Paulo), written by the Brazilian scholar Fabio Koifman, was published in 2002.

Souza Dantas issued, at risk of his own diplomatic career, exit visas to hundreds of Jews in France, occupied by the Third Reich army. His activity flagrantly contradicted the rules of Getulio Vargas’ pro fascist Brazilian government. Thanks to Souza Dantas many Jews could get to Brazil where they where detained by the immigration authorities to be released later.

At the end of his Brazilian tour, Rabbi Moguilevsky visited the Raoul Wallenberg Educational Center, a school carrying the name of the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of lives in Hungary in 1944. There he was received by the Director of the educational institution, Mrs. Maria Agostinha Drulla Felipe.

Moguilevsky presented the Raoul Wallenberg Medal to the educational institution. One of the students with best school marks received the award.

The IRWF will open in his website a section entirely dedicated to Souza Dantas soon.

In that scenario, the most intense chapter in the life of Ambassador Luis Martins de Souza Dantas took place. During twenty years Souza Dantas was in charge of the Brazilian diplomatic mission in France. Moved for what he later called ”a Christian feeling of mercy”, he challenged both dictatorships at the same time. 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. With his actions, Souza Dantas saved about 800 people from extermination. He became the Brazilian equivalent of the German industrial Oskar Schindler, who saved 1,200 people from the Holocaust, in accordance with what was narrated by Steven Spielberg in his movie, ”Schindler’s List”. The memory of the diplomat’s actions was forgotten for years. Only now it is starting to be given its real place in history. During June of 2003 he was proclaimed ”Righteous Among the Nations”. He became one of the few to receive such distinction from the Holocaust Museum, in Israel, only granted to those who, under the Nazi yoke, risked themselves for other people’s good.

Souza Dantas’ actions are not yet in schoolbooks. For decades they were restricted to the memory of those families he helped. An important part of that story was confined to the documents of the bureaucracy of the State, kept as memos in the historical files of Itamaraty (Brazilian State Department) and in the National File. By putting together those two sources of information, the historian from Rio de Janeiro, Fabio Koifman, built a more precise biography of the Ambassador. The result is the dissertation of his master’s degree at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ in its original language). The more than 7,500 documents he put together helped him make the list of the 425 Jews saved by Souza Dantas, who are the foundation of the acknowledgement process of the Holocaust Museum. Out of the testimonies picked during those four years of work, impressive stories arise hitherto unknown such as the director of the Polish Theater Zbigniew Ziembinski, considered one of the greatest scenic arts revolutionaries in Brazil. It was due to Souza Dantas that he arrived Rio de Janeiro in 1941, after wandering through Europe in search of an exit of the hell of war. ”I had people lying on the floor, next to the embassies, begging, waiting, subjected to the worst derisions, to the worst tortures”, remembered Ziembinski years later in an unprecedented registry of his memories. ”Until the moment that, suddenly, we learnt that there was a Quixote… the famous ambassador Dantas”.

Ziembinski, whose Jewish origin was never corroborated, was among the hundreds of people who came to Brazil in the ships that sailed through the Atlantic. The travel was not a major problem. The greatest obstacle for the refugees was not to get a ship, though they were rare. The necessary visas to get to the destination countries were hard to obtain. As it happens nowadays, the exodus of refugees was a ghost to many nations. In Brazil, there was another problem added to the list of difficulties, the contrary orientation to the Jewish immigration. Nevertheless, being aware of the risk involved in contradicting Vargas, Souza Dantas ordered to open the doors of his embassy in Vichy, where the diplomatic representation was transferred after the Nazi occupation of France.

His courage, meanwhile, brought him problems, such as an investigation opened by the administrative department of the public service in charge of Vargas. He was accused of granting irregular visas. In an Itamaraty telegram, Souza Dantas affirmed in his defense that after the prohibition he did not grant ”even a visa”. It was a lie. By disobeying express orders, he still saved dozens of people. The living proof of the diplomat’s lack of fear came to Koifman by means of the testimony of the Polish Chana Strozemberg, whose visa was issued in January 1941, a month after the prohibition, but with false information.

To put in practice these actions of solidarity, Souza Dantas used the most diverse files. He granted diplomatic visas to bearers of ordinaries passports, so that they possessed a greater possibility of acceptance. Some of them did not even have the document. He usually wrote in French on the passports to facilitate the reading at the boarding port. In spite of using a foreign language, French, in a paper destined to the Brazilian immigration authorities, at least he followed the routine procedure for the sealing. Koifman assures that it was one of the many cases of visas granted to people. In other cases, he was a mediator to colleagues of other embassies to obtain visas as if they were Brazilians. The best of the ambassador’s memories is that in a time where many diplomats sold visas and accepted jewels as payment, he was never corrupted. Chana Strozemberg’s husband, in gratitude, insisted on Souza Dantas to accept him a present. As an answer he heard a suggestion: that he should donate it to the International Red Cross. The list of assets left by the diplomat, picked at his room in the Great Hotel of Paris, where he lived when he died in 1954, registers as the most valuable item a gold necklace with the medallion of the Rio Branco baron. From Koifman’s careful work arises one of the most dignifying Brazilian biographies.

At the beginning of the forties, to challenge the most banal orientations of the New State was frightening. According to the case, the inevitable destination was prison. It was a much worse period for Europe, where the advance of the Nazi occupation established an atmosphere of terror.

In that scenario, the most intense chapter in the life of Ambassador Luis Martins de Souza Dantas took place. During twenty years Souza Dantas was in charge of the Brazilian diplomatic mission in France. Moved for what he later called ”a Christian feeling of mercy”, he challenged both dictatorships at the same time. 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. With his actions, Souza Dantas saved about 800 people from extermination. He became the Brazilian equivalent of the German industrial Oskar Schindler, who saved 1,200 people from the Holocaust, in accordance with what was narrated by Steven Spielberg in his movie, ”Schindler’s List”. The memory of the diplomat’s actions was forgotten for years. Only now it is starting to be given its real place in history. During April, the process of acknowledgement of the Ambassador as a ”Righteous Among the Nations” will be started. He will become one of the few to receive such distinction from the Holocaust Museum, in Israel, only granted to those who, under the Nazi yoke, risked themselves for other people’s good.

Souza Dantas’ actions are not yet in schoolbooks. For decades they were restricted to the memory of those families he helped. An important part of that story was confined to the documents of the bureaucracy of the State, kept as memos in the historical files of Itamaraty (Brazilian State Department) and in the National File. By putting together those two sources of information, the historian from Rio de Janeiro, Fabio Koifman, built a more precise biography of the Ambassador. The result is the dissertation of his master’s degree at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ in its original language). The more than 7,500 documents he put together helped him make the list of the 425 Jews saved by Souza Dantas, who are the foundation of the acknowledgement process of the Holocaust Museum. Out of the testimonies picked during those four years of work, impressive stories arise hitherto unknown such as the director of the Polish Theater Zbigniew Ziembinski, considered one of the greatest scenic arts revolutionaries in Brazil. It was due to Souza Dantas that he arrived Rio de Janeiro in 1941, after wandering through Europe in search of an exit of the hell of war. ”I had people lying on the floor, next to the embassies, begging, waiting, subjected to the worst derisions, to the worst tortures”, remembered Ziembinski years later in an unprecedented registry of his memories. ”Until the moment that, suddenly, we learnt that there was a Quixote… the famous ambassador Dantas”.

Ziembinski, whose Jewish origin was never corroborated, was among the hundreds of people who came to Brazil in the ships that sailed through the Atlantic. The travel was not a major problem. The greatest obstacle for the refugees was not to get a ship, though they were rare. The necessary visas to get to the destination countries were hard to obtain. As it happens nowadays, the exodus of refugees was a ghost to many nations. In Brazil, there was another problem added to the list of difficulties, the contrary orientation to the Jewish immigration. Nevertheless, being aware of the risk involved in contradicting Vargas, Souza Dantas ordered to open the doors of his embassy in Vichy, where the diplomatic representation was transferred after the Nazi occupation of France.

His courage, meanwhile, brought him problems, such as an investigation opened by the administrative department of the public service in charge of Vargas. He was accused of granting irregular visas. In an Itamaraty telegram, Souza Dantas affirmed in his defense that after the prohibition he did not grant ”even a visa”. It was a lie. By disobeying express orders, he still saved dozens of people. The living proof of the diplomat’s lack of fear came to Koifman by means of the testimony of the Polish Chana Strozemberg, whose visa was issued in January 1941, a month after the prohibition, but with false information.

To put in practice these actions of solidarity, Souza Dantas used the most diverse files. He granted diplomatic visas to bearers of ordinaries passports, so that they possessed a greater possibility of acceptance. Some of them did not even have the document. He usually wrote in French on the passports to facilitate the reading at the boarding port. In spite of using a foreign language, French, in a paper destined to the Brazilian immigration authorities, at least he followed the routine procedure for the sealing. Koifman assures that it was one of the many cases of visas granted to people. In other cases, he was a mediator to colleagues of other embassies to obtain visas as if they were Brazilians. The best of the ambassador’s memories is that in a time where many diplomats sold visas and accepted jewels as payment, he was never corrupted. Chana Strozemberg’s husband, in gratitude, insisted on Souza Dantas to accept him a present. As an answer he heard a suggestion: that he should donate it to the International Red Cross. The list of assets left by the diplomat, picked at his room in the Great Hotel of Paris, where he lived when he died in 1954, registers as the most valuable item a gold necklace with the medallion of the Rio Branco baron. From Koifman’s careful work arises one of the most dignifying Brazilian biographies.

NEW YORK, DEC. 21, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation recently paid tribute to Brazilian diplomat Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas, who saved numerous Jews from the Nazis.

Souza, motivated by what he later called a ”feeling of Christian mercy,” granted diplomatic visas to hundreds of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution during World War II, the Wallenberg Foundation said.

A ceremony in Souza’s honor marked a key event of Human Rights Week and took place at the Brazilian Consulate General in New York. The ceremony included the presentation of Souza’s biography, ”Quixote nas Trevas” (”Quixote in Darkness”), by historian Fábio Koifman.

According to his biographer, Souza saved around 800 people from extermination, contravening orders given by then president of Brazil, Getúlio Vargas.

The ambassador (1876-1954), who for 20 years led his country’s diplomatic mission in France, granted diplomatic visas to hundreds of people to enter Brazil who were otherwise deemed ”undesirable” under immigration policy. Many of those saved were Jews.

In June 2003 Souza, a Catholic, was recognized as ”Righteous Among the Nations” by the Holocaust Museum in Israel. The award is conferred annually on those who, under the Nazi regime, risked their lives for the good of others.

Baruj Tenembaum, founder of the Wallenberg foundation, and John Crisóstomo, vice president and coordinator of the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of Aristides de Sousa Mendes y Souza Dantas, conferred the 2004 Souza Dantas Award on Koifman and the Brazilian consul general in New York.

The award, given Dec. 6, is conferred for the sincere commitment made to honor the ”Brazilian diplomat savior of Jews,” and extend his legacy in the contemporary diplomatic world.

Attending the meeting were diplomatic delegations from the Holy See, Sweden, Argentina, Israel, Switzerland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Mexico, Turkey, the Czech Republic, China, El Salvador and Angola.

During the ceremony, messages were read from the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano; the former mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani; and U.S. congressman Tom Lantos.