Aristides de Sousa Mendes

[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.]

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.