Both Portugal and Spain were neutral during WWII, though both had definite German sympathies. In November 1939, Portuguese Prime Minister Salazar issued an order to disallow visas for Jewish refugees and other "stateless" persons. Mendes discreetly disobeyed, granting enough exceptions to the rule that he was officially reprimanded.
Six months later in May 1940, when Germany invaded France, Salazar ordered that no visas be issued at all without individual approval from Lisbon. Mendes tried to get approval for various visas, but was ignored. By June 1940, the refugee situation at the port city of Bordeaux became very desperate. Then Mendes did something astounding.
He opened the consulate (which was also his home) to the refugees 24 hours a day to accommodate the lines of people begging for visas.
"All the rooms in the consulate building were full of people. They slept on chairs, on the floor, on the rugs. Even the consul's offices were crowded, with dozens of refugees who were exhausted. dead tired, because they had waited days and nights on the street, on the stairways, and finally in the offices.
They could not take care of their needs, they did not eat or drink for fear of losing their places in the lines, which happened nevertheless and caused some disturbances." (Source.)Mendes fell ill for three days under this pressure, nursed patiently by his wife Angelina. When he recovered, he had made his choice. Beginning on June 17th, he worked without sleep in an assembly line to issue visas indiscriminately and for free to anyone who asked.
When the German planes began to bomb Bordeaux on June 19th, the refugees ran blindly for the border. Mendes followed them to the last large city before Spain named Bayonne. Using his position as a superior, he took over the Consulate in Bayonne and re-formed his visa assembly line.
On June 22nd, he followed the refugees to Hendaye, the French border town across from Irun, Spain. There, Mendes used all his authority to help refugees cross the border, even physically lifting the gate himself.
At this point, the Portuguese Ambassador to Spain annulled any and all visas signed by Mendes. On June 24th, Mendes had been fired and ordered to leave France. Until he left France on July 8th, Mendes didn't give up. Since visas were no longer honored, he started to issue Portuguese passports with his consular stamp. Yes, passports.
Yad Vashem estimates he issued 1,575 visas between June 15th (when he got ill) and 22nd. The Jewish Virtual Library estimates that he helped a whopping 30,000 refugees, 12,000 of them Jews, win passage to Portugal.
The Spanish border honored the Portuguese consular stamp to allow free passage through Spain to Portugal. The Portuguese protested at having to accept these refugees, but could not refuse after Spain had already honored the visas. With tens of thousands of refugees pouring into Portugal, the worldwide press was giving Portugal credit for providing safe haven for displaced persons. After accepting the credit (or at least, not disputing it), Salazar had no choice but to honor the unofficial escape route carved by Mendes. However, Salazar was determined to make Mendes pay.
When Mendes returned to Portugal, Salazar declared him insane and incompetent. His twin brother was censured for trying to defend him. Despite being an accomplished lawyer, Mendes was blacklisted from all employment. He and his family starved, literally, living off the soup kitchen established by Jewish refugees. When he became paralyzed by a stroke, and his wife suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, they were not able to get decent medical care. They both died in complete poverty. Mendes was so poor, he was buried in a Franciscan tunic because he had no good clothes of his own.
His heirs now have been given reparations by the Portuguese government, which were spent repurchasing and restoring Mendes' dilapidated former mansion into a museum. However, the rehabilitation remains unfinished, presumably because of insufficient funds.
In 1966, Yad Vashem honored Aristides de Sousa Mendes as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.
For more information:
Sousa Mendes Saved More Lives than Schindler -- The Independent
Yad Vashem: The Insubordinate Consul
Sousa Mendes Foundation
Sousa Mendes Museum: Video of testimonies from survivors
No comments:
Post a Comment