Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches GCC, OL was a Portuguese consul during World War II.
As the Portuguese consul-general in the French city of Bordeaux, he defied the orders of António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo regime, issuing visas and passports to an undetermined number of refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, including Jews. For this, Sousa Mendes was punished by the Salazar regime with one year's suspension on half-pay but afterwards he kept on receiving his full consul salary until his death in 1954. Sousa Mendes was vindicated in 1988, more than a decade after the Carnation Revolution, which toppled the Estado Novo.
For his efforts to save Jewish refugees, Sousa Mendes was recognized by Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, the first diplomat to be so honored, in 1966.
“I would stand with God against man, rather than with man against God.”
Quoted in Bard The Complete History of the Holocaust (2001), p. 327; see also "Aristides de Sousa Mendes" at Jewish Virtual Library http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Mendes.html.
“At a time when many men were cowards, he was a true hero to the West.”
Otto von Habsburg, quoted in The Independent, Sunday 17 October 2010
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Sonja Jarvik, quoted in The Independent, Sunday 17 October 2010
About
“I could not have acted otherwise, and I therefore accept all that has befallen me with love.”
Quoted in The Independent, Sunday 17 October 2010
Louis-Philippe Mendes, Huffington Post, 18 April 2012 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louisphilippe-mendes/holocaust-remembrance-day_b_1434733.html <br class="br">About
Quoted in The Independent, Sunday 17 October 2010 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/sousa-mendes-saved-more-lives-than-schindler-so-why-isnt-he-a-household-name-too-2105882.html
Quoted in Huffington Post, 18 April 2012 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louisphilippe-mendes/holocaust-remembrance-day_b_1434733.html
“Even if I am dismissed, I can only act as a Christian, as my conscience tells me.”
Quoted in The Independent, Sunday 17 October 2010
