This blog is part of a site named landinportugal.org where you can find the stories of more than one hundred planes that during WWII landed or crashed in Portugal. Here I will announce the updates and also publish stories and information related with WWII in Portugal. All the stories will be in English and there another twin blog in Portuguese... forgive if sometimes the English is not always correct...



Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Searching for Sousa Mendes refugees


In 1940 the Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, was suddenly confronted with thousands of persons asking for a visas to get to Portugal.

The government had forbidden the Portuguese diplomats to give those visas knowing that the country would be over flooded by thousands of persons that had only one idea – escaping the Nazis.

He disregarded the order and passed thousands of visas…

The Government would – during and after the war – win the recognition as a country that was a friend to the refugees, and also get the respect of the international press…

Sousa Mendes would loose his career and fall in disgrace…

The Sousa Mendes Foundation, in Seattle, has now started a global search for those who were saved by the action of this Portuguese consul. They are trying to locate survivors or family of those who survived…

To know more about Sousa Mendes click HERE.

To know more about the search click HERE.

Best regards
Carlos Guerreiro