Aristides de Sousa Mendes est un diplomate portugais du XXe siècle. En poste à Bordeaux lors de la débâcle française de 1940, il refuse de suivre les ordres du gouvernement Salazar et délivre sans distinction plusieurs milliers de visas aux personnes menacées souhaitant fuir la France.
Il sera déclaré « Juste parmi les nations » en 1966, puis réhabilité par la République portugaise le 15 novembre 1986. Le nombre de visas délivrés par Aristides de Sousa Mendes ne peut être estimé exactement, mais selon l'historien Avrham Milgram, dans une étude publiée par le Shoah Resource Center, International School for Holocaust Studies, en 1999, les chiffres habituellement annoncés sont exagérés.
Wikipedia
“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
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“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
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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
