Aracy de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa

In 1938, Aracy de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa was Chief of the Passport Section at the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg, Germany.   Brazil's policy at that time (via the circulation of secret memos) was to refuse visas to all undesirable immigrants, which included Jews.   However, the anti-Jewish policy was applied somewhat irregularly, depending on the diplomat and country.  Exceptions were often made for scientists, artists, technicians, and wealthy people who could afford the exorbitant deposits made to the Bank of Brazil.  However, in Hamburg, the Consul's position was very clear:  absolutely no visas for Jews.  (Source)

Despite this, Carvalho secretly issued visas outside the Consulate, as well as handed out passports without the red "J" required to identify Jews.  (Source)  She ignored forged passports and did everything she could to facilitate the granting of visas.  Some of the Jewish refugees she helped recounted that she had the foresight add blanks and notes in the forms to transform the three-month tourist visas into permanent residency visas upon arrival in Brazil.  (Source)

"My mother decided to ignore the circular which forbade the granting of visas to Jews.  She thought it absurd, and at her own risk, continued to prepare the visa applications, against the orders of the Foreign Ministry and her superiors at the Consulate," says son Eduardo Tess, now a lawyer in São Paulo. "As she dispatched other things for the Consul-General, she sent out visas in the middle of those papers.  Many Jews came from other cities; but for their passports to be processed in Hamburg, they had to prove they lived in the region. She obtained confirmations of residency, and when they came in with the papers, they already had this difficulty taken care of." (Source)

Up until 1941, German policy actually encouraged emigration of Jews, even releasing detained Jews if they had somewhere to go.  The problem was no one wanted to take them.  Some of the Jews saved by Carvalho testified that they had been interned after Kristallnacht, but were released because of the visas granted by Carvalho. (Source)

She didn't stop there.  After Kristallnacht, she joined the rebel underground.  She distributed food to those in hiding, hid Jews in her home, and smuggled them across borders in her car using the cover of diplomatic immunity.  (Source)

Although Carvalho is still alive (as far as I could find), she is 102 years old and does not remember much from those days.   A lot of the underground work she did has now been lost to well, secrecy, and time.  The numbers she actually helped is likewise unknown.  Brazilian sources all say she helped hundreds of Jewish refugees, but one scholar cites the number as 80.  No one will ever know for sure.

In 1982, she was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.  Of the 18 diplomats so honored by the Yad Vashem, she is only one of two women.  (The other was Nina Langlet, who was honored together with her husband Vlademar as one name.)