Sousa Mendes, Aristide De

(1885–1954)

   A Portuguese diplomat who risked his career to help Jews. He was the consul-general of Portugal in Bordeaux when he found himself besieged by refugees seeking visas to reach Portugal by way of France. Although specifically ordered not to extend visas to refugees, and under no circumstances to Jews, Sousa Mendes nevertheless issued transit visas to approximately 10,000 Jews. For his act of courage, he was dismissed from the Foreign Service and denied his pension. He died in 1954, an almost forgotten hero of the Holocaust. In 1966, he was posthumously honored as one of the Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Sousa Mendes was formally rehabilitated by the Portuguese government in 1988. In 1994, Bordeaux belatedly paid homage to Sousa Mendes by erecting a bust in his memory.

   See also Refugee Crisis.