The efforts of Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes (pictured, top right) helped 10,000 refugee Jews flee Nazi-occupied France. In his position as Portuguese consul, stationed in Bordeaux, France, Mendes signed transit visas for thousands of Jews hoping to escape through Portuguese ports.

In May 1940 Mendes defied his government's instructions to curtail the flood of refugees requesting entry into Portugal via Spain. Despite specific orders to issue no visas to Jews, Mendes, a devout Catholic, asserted that he could not "allow these people to die." Acting on humanitarian principle, he worked day and night signing documents for the unending throng of refugees crowding the offices of the consulate. When supplies of official stationery ran out, he used odd scraps of paper. Even when recalled by his government, Mendes personally escorted a small band of refugees across the Spanish border. Supplying them with makeshift, handwritten visas, he instructed them to walk behind his car through a little-used checkpoint where the guard was unable to notify his superiors.

For his disobedience, the Portuguese government dismissed Mendes from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and stripped him of all pension benefits. The head of a family of 13 children sank into deep poverty. Forgotten and heartbroken, Mendes died in 1954.
Photo: Yad Vashem Photo Archives/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive