| LC control no. | n 91027181 |
|---|---|
| Descriptive conventions | rda |
| Personal name heading | Mendes, Aristides de Sousa, 1885-1954 |
| Variant(s) | Sousa Mendes, Aristides de, 1885-1954 De Sousa Mendes, Aristides, 1885-1954 Abranches, Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e, 1885-1954 Amaral e Abranches, Aristides de Sousa Mendes do, 1885-1954 Sousa Mendes, 1885-1954 Mendes, Sousa, 1885-1954 |
| Biography/History note | Mr. Sousa Mendes was Portugal's consul in Bordeaux when Germany invaded France in 1940 during World War II. According to the Sousa Mendes Foundation which is run by descendents of the visa recipients, he provided approximately 30,000 people with Portuguese visas to escape Nazi persecution. His status as one of the most important protectors of the Jewish people, if not the precise number of visas, has been confirmed by Yehuda Bauer, a Holocaust historian at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Mr. Sousa Mendes started ignoring Lisbon's orders and delivering his visas in 1939, several months before Germany's invasion of France, in part because he had a twin brother, a fellow Portuguese diplomat, who was stationed in Warsaw and told him about Nazi atrocities there. When the Portuguese government realized the scale of his disobedience, Mr. Sousa Mendes was recalled to Lisbon, tried and dismissed from the diplomatic service. Stripped of his pension rights, he died in poverty in 1954. |
| Associated place | Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France |
| Birth date | 18850719 |
| Death date | 19540403 |
| Place of birth | Cabanas de Viriato, Portugal |
| Affiliation | Yad ṿa-shem, rashut ha-zikaron la-Shoʼah ṿela-gevurah |
| Profession or occupation | Consuls--Portugal Diplomats--Portugal |
| Found in | Afonso, R. Injustiça, c1990: t.p. (Sousa Mendes) introd. (Aristides de Sousa Mendes; Counsel-General of Portugal in Bordeaux, France, 1938-1940; career diplomat; d. 1954; Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches) p. 17 (b. 07-19-1885 in Cabanas de Viriato, near Mangualde, Portugal) Grande encic. port. e bras., 1936-1960: v. 16, p. 870 (hdg.: Mendes, Aristides de Sousa) Wikipedia, 12 July 2013 (Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches, GCC, OL (July 19, 1885-April 3, 1954); Portuguese diplomat. He ignored and defied the orders of his own government for the safety of war refugees fleeing from invading German military forces in the early years of World War II. Between June 16 and June 23, 1940, he frantically issued Portuguese visas free of charge, to over 30,000 refugees seeking to escape the Nazi terror, 12,000 of whom were Jews.) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristides_de_Sousa_Mendes> New York times, 10 July 2013: page A4 ("In Portugal, a protector of the people is honored"; Aristides de Sousa Mendes) <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/world/europe/in-portugal-a-protector-of-a-people-is-honored.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0> |
| Associated language | por |
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