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Aristides Sousa Mendes

Aristides Sousa Mendes: Encyclopedia - Aristides Sousa Mendes

Aristides Sousa Mendes (1885–1954) was a Portuguese diplomat, who fought against his own government for the safety of European Jews in the years before World War II. Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches was born in Cabanas de Viriato, in the district of Viseu, Beira region, Portugal, on July 19, 1885. His family had aristocratic origins. His father had been a judge, and Sousa Mendes’ twin brother César would become Foreign Minister in 1932–33 under the regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Sousa Mendes studied law ...

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Aristides Sousa Mendes: Encyclopedia - Aristides Sousa Mendes

Aristides Sousa Mendes

Aristides Sousa Mendes (1885–1954) was a Portuguese diplomat, who fought against his own government for the safety of European Jews in the years before World War II. Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches was born in Cabanas de Viriato, in the district of Viseu, Beira region, Portugal, on July 19, 1885. His family had aristocratic origins. His father had been a judge, and Sousa Mendes’ twin brother César would become Foreign Minister in 1932–33 under the regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Sousa Mendes studied law at the University of Coimbra and obtained his law degree in 1908. In 1910, he married his childhood sweetheart, Angelina. Shortly after, he began his diplomatic career which would take him and his family around the world. After almost 10 years of dedicated service in Belgium, the Portuguese fascist dictator António Salazar gave Sousa Mendes the consulate of Bordeaux in France.

The consul was still in Bordeaux at the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of France by the Nazi army of Hitler. Salazar managed to maintain Portugal's neutrality in the war, but his own personal opinions favoured Hitler. Thus, it was in clear disrespect of the hierarchy that Sousa Mendes issued about 30,000 visas to Jews and other persecuted minorities. He saved an enormous number of lives, but risked his career for it. In 1941, Salazar lost political trust in Sousa Mendes and forced the diplomat to quit his career. He died in poverty in 1954.

People who received one of these special visas include:

Otto von Habsburg, heir of the Austrian-Hungarian Emperor, who was detested by Hitler
Norbert Gingold, pianist
Charles Oulmont, French writer

In 1967 he was honored at Israel's Yad Vashem memorial to the Holocaust as one of the "Righteous Among The Nations." In 1987, the Portuguese Republic rehabilitated his memory and granted a posthumous Order of Liberty medal. In 1994 former President Mário Soares dedicated a bust of Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux to him.

A great hommage was done In memoriam Aristides Sousa Mendes at the Unesco on 11 May 2005. The baritone Jorge Chaminé gave a brilliant recital at the Great Hall. The french writer Jean Lacouture wrote that "since more than 50 years as an auditor all over the world, I never heard such an incredible performance. What a marvellous hommage to this great man !".