When I consider World War II and the terrible choices, and sacrifices, so many made to help defeat Hitler, I face the daunting question, “What would I have done?” I want to believe I would have been brave enough, strong enough, to fight for right even in the face of my own death or the deaths of those I love. But it seems an impossible question to answer without being there, in the moment, facing the horror of war as time runs out.
I am drawn to figures in history who’ve faced this choice. One of these figures, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, gave me inspiration for Luca Caldeira’s character in my Zando historical fiction novel, The Librarians of Lisbon.
Aristides de Sousa Mendes is a man who, for decades after World War II ended, was lost to the annals of history. While today, he is sometimes known as the “Oskar Schindler” of Portugal, in the years following his death his name was nearly forgotten.
While Luca Caldeira’s story in my novel, and his relationship with Selene, are fictional, I drew inspiration from Sousa Mendes’s history to “set the stage” for Luca’s dissolution with Portugal’s neutrality and Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar’s policies towards wartime refugees.
One Man Battling a Dictator
Born in July of 1885, Aristides de Sousa Mendes was one of a pair of identical twins. His brother César was the “older twin,” born minutes before him. He was raised in an aristocratic family in Cabanes de Viriato, Portugal. He attended law school and eventually moved to Lisbon to become a diplomat. He and César both became involved in government.
In 1929, Aristides de Sousa Mendes was appointed as consul general for Portugal. He served first in Belgium and then later in Bordeaux, France. He married Maria Angelina Coelho de Sousa and eventually had fifteen children with her, traveling to various countries with his large family as he served the Portuguese government.
But in 1932, António de Oliveira Salazar became Prime Minister of Portugal and established the Estado Novo, an authoritarian government that last for over thirty years. As the rest of Europe became embroiled in World War II, and the Axis and Allied powers formed, Salazar was determined that Portugal would remain neutral. He walked a carefully crafted tightrope of neutrality, enlisting the PVDE (Polícia de Vigilância e Defesa do Estado), to help maintain order.
Salazar was careful never to betray loyalty to any one country or leader during the war, and newspapers in Lisbon were censored by the PVDE and government to ensure that Portugal’s citizens wouldn’t know or understand too much of what was happening in the rest of Europe.
Aristides tried to follow Salazar’s orders under this new government. But thousands of people were fleeing the rest of Europe, and when numerous other paths of escape closed to them, Portugal’s borders remained open.
Signing Visas, Saving Lives
Portugal’s neutrality made it a safe haven for people escaping the horrors of Hitler’s regime and Nazi occupation. Initially, Salazar allowed people to enter Portugal without restriction. Soon, however, he grew concerned over the numbers of refugees flocking into the country. In 1939, Salazar implemented Circular 14, which forbid giving visas to “stateless persons,” which included many Jewish people. For anyone deemed “stateless” in the eyes of the Portuguese government, escaping from Nazi territories became virtually impossible.
But Aristides de Sousa Mendes refused to obey Circular 14. He was serving in Bordeaux in 1939, and it was there that he signed over a thousand visas in direct defiance of Salazar. When Salazar ordered him to stop, Sousa Mendes asked fervently for permission to continue. Salazar refused. But Sousa Mendes was undaunted. With the help of his staff and his older children, he signed visas until Salazar demanded his return to Lisbon.
Upon returning to Lisbon, Sousa Mendes faced a trial for his actions. But the trial was rigged, with Salazar ensuring that Sousa Mendes was found guilty long before any verdict was announced. César de Sousa pleaded with his brother to ask for a pardon from Salazar, but Aristides refused. Sousa Mendes was stripped of his diplomatic position and left unable to find another job. Eventually, to pay off mounting debts, the family’s estate was seized by creditors. He, along with his wife, mistress, and children, was blacklisted. Many of his children left Portugal, seeking education opportunities and jobs elsewhere.
Sousa Mendes was left penniless. Sometimes, he joined refugees at the local soup kitchens in Lisbon for meals. He died in 1954 without his name or reputation being cleared.
Nevertheless, he always defended his actions, saying, “I would rather stand with God against Man than with Man against God.” You can read the statement he gave in October 1940 during his trial here.
For years following his death, Sousa Mendes’s name was forcibly forgotten by Salazar and his regime, even as Sousa Mendes’s children struggled to have his name cleared.
In 1966, Israel declared Aristides de Sousa Mendes to be a “Righteous Among Nations,” and other countries, including the United States, honored him as well. It wasn’t until 1988, thanks in part to the efforts of his children and descendants, that Sousa Mendes was finally exonerated by the Portuguese government.
Honoring Aristides de Sousa Mendes Today
In 2010, the Sousa Mendes Foundation was founded to honor Sousa Mendes, his bravery, and the lives of those he rescued. Since that time, it has become instrumental in preserving his legacy. Inaugurated in July of 2024, the Aristides de Sousa Mendes Museum in Cabanes de Viriato, Portugal, is now open daily to visitors and houses artifacts, documents, and photos contributed by the foundation.
Take some time to visit the foundation’s website. Or better yet, if you ever visit Portugal, visit the museum itself for a more in-depth look into the life of this instrumental man. When faced with the question, What should I do?, Sousa Mendes rose to the occasion, responding with a resounding: Whatever I can do to help.
For more information about Aristides de Sousa Mendes, visit:
Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Or read:
