Nathan Cheiman
Much has been written about the man they called “Sousa Mendes”, who saved more lives than Oscar Schindler – and yet he is not a household name. He was a Catholic and at the time the Portuguese consul to Bordeaux.
The Portuguese dictator, Antonio Salazar, to appease Hitler, issued his “Circular 14”, decreeing that no Jews or dissidents were to be granted passage to Portugal.
“I cannot allow all you people to die,” Mendes announced to his staff. “Many of you are Jews and our constitution clearly states that neither the religion nor the political beliefs of foreigners can be used as a pretext for refusing to allow them to stay in Portugal.”
On June 17, 1940, a production line was set up where he issued 30 000 visas, passports and travel documents – 12 000 to Jews.
After defying his government, Sousa Mendes was hauled back to Lisbon where Salazar declared him mentally unfit and sacked him.
Sousa Mendes declared shortly thereafter: “Even if I am dismissed, I can only act as a Christian, as my conscience tells me.”
He was stripped of everything and declared a “non-person”. He died in abject poverty.
Hellen Kaufmann runs a charity in Bordeaux and has created a database of “human salvage” – every person that was saved by Sousa Mendes that summer.
Kaufmann believes that Sousa Mendes’ actions were pivotal to the reconstruction of Europe after the war. It wasn’t the number of people he saved, but who many of them were. The royal families of Luxembourg and Austria, along with political activists, were among them. Many families, however, did not know that he had saved them.
After receiving an e-mail from Kaufmann, Harry Oesterreicher, whose father was one of those granted a visa, attended an anniversary in June at the consul building. He had “a crying week”, says Kaufmann.
Post-war, Sousa Mendes declared: “I could not have acted otherwise.”
For many years, Aristides De Sousa Mendes remained uncelebrated, but now his memory will be perpetuated and a story will be revealed about an unexpected hero who they now call “The Angel of Bordeaux”.
Northcliff, Johannesburg
