A CONSUL OF CONSCIENCE
Aristides de Sousa Mendes was born in Portugal on 19th July 1885. He came from an aristocratic family, studied Law, and entered the Diplomatic Corps. After postings in the USA, Belgium. Italy and Africa. he was appointed to Bordeaux as Consul General in 1938.
In 1940, as the Germans swept through France, Spain closed its borders to refugees unless they had transit visas to another country. Portugal too, issued instructions to all its diplomats that no visas were to be given to refugees. Thus, at Bordeaux in 1940, it was the end of the road for many thousands - Jew and Gentile - desperately trying to keep ahead of the German advance. Without shelter they hoped against hope for a precious visa to enable them to continue their journey south to neutral Portugal and Spain.
Among them was Rabbi Kruger with his wife and family, including six young children. They had fled from Poland to the safety of Brussels, but by May 1940, they were again in danger, and had travelled south to Bordeaux.
The Rabbi went to the Consul and asked for help for the
refugees...
"If we should be trapped here I do not know what would become of us."
Dr Mendes told him that the issue of visas to refugees had been forbidden by the Portuguese Government, but when he discovered the family had nowhere to sleep, he invited them to stay with him in the Chancery.
The two men talked all night and by the morning Dr Mendes was determined to save as many refugees as possible from falling into Nazi hands.
For the next three days, the Consul and his sons signed visa after visa, refusing to stop for food or rest. Visas were issued for 30,000 families, 10,000 of these families were Jews.
The Portuguese Government ordered him to stop, but he refused. Escorts were sent to bring him home but even then, he insisted that the frontiers remain open until all those with visas had passed through.
Back home, he was dismissed from his post and forbidden to practise law. His brother, an Ambassador, was also dismissed and his whole family ostracised.
With no way left to him of making a living, he gradually sold his possessions and his home. Most of his children emigrated- some never to see him again - and he died penniless.
Rabbi Kruger tells that when the two men met again in Lisbon, the Rabbi in freedom, the Consul in disgrace, Dr Mendes said to him:
This great man of Portuguese modern history has been honored by the State of Israel, the United States of America and by Yad Vashem, where he has been honored as a "Rightious Gentile."
E-mail: Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum