In memory of
Aristides de Sousa Mendes
Consul who disobeyed and signed visas for thousands
- Born
- Died
- Lived
- 68 years
- Resting place
- Cemetery of Cabanas de Viriato, Carregal do Sal, Viseu, Portugal
In June 1940, with the German army closing on Bordeaux, Portugal's consul there was ordered not to issue visas to refugees, and above all not to Jews. After three days shut in his room he came out and said he would give a visa to anyone who asked. For a week he and his sons signed without pause, day and night.
Recalled and stripped of his post, he was barred from working and died in a charity hospital, his family destitute. Portugal formally apologised in 1988. The number he saved is usually put in the thousands; his own answer was that he would rather stand with God against men than with men against God.
This page was written by the site, from public historical records.