Early in 1940 thousands of refugees fleeing the invading Nazi armies poured into Bordeaux, France's temporary capital. Their only hope of salvation was to continue their journey to neutral countries like Spain and Portugal. But Franco and Salazar did not want to offend Hitler, and therefore instructed their embassies and consulates not to issue visas. Enter a truly exceptional man: Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux. Over a period of six months he doggedly defied Salazar's orders and signed many thousands of visas, thus rescuing their recipients, many of them Jewish, from a terrible fate at the hands of the Nazis. A vengeful Salazar forced Sousa Mendes to return to Lisbon and take early retirement, thus ensuring he would end his days destitute. But whereas few now have fond memories of the Portuguese dictator, Sousa Mendes has earned himself a place in the pantheon of truly just men.

Good Man in Evil Times: The Unknown Hero Who Saved Countless...

Fralon, José-Alain

Biographies & Memoirs

Viking Pr

A long-unknown story of individual courage in the face of an authoritarian fascist bureaucracy unfolds in this inspiring biographical tribute to Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul to France in the early years of the Second World War. After the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Aristides de Sousa Mendes found himself continually more restricted by the policies of Portugal's prime minister, Dr. Antonio Oliveira de Salazar, who, like Franco in Spain, assumed a position of neutrality but did not wish to offend Hitler. It was Salazar's Circular 14 -- which denied, on the basis of race and religion, visas to the swelling number of refugees to Portugal -- that prompted the fifty-five-year-old Sousa Mendes's first acts of disobedience in his office at the consulate in the temporary French capital of Bordeaux. Over a period of six months in 1940, in accordance with his own conscience rather than Salazar's dictates, Sousa Mendes signed many thousands of visas that spared their recipients, ten thousand of them Jews, a terrible fate in the Nazi death camps. Sousa Mendes's acts of private resistance earned him Salazar's wrath, a forced early retirement, and years of dire poverty. They also won him a place in the pantheon of truly just men and, in Israel, a forest commemorating his tremendous heroism.

A Good Man in Evil Times: The Story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes -- The Man Who Saved the Lives of Countless Refugees in World War II

Carroll&Graf

Les dessins du diable

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fralon, José-Alain. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Fralon, José-Alain

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fralon, José-Alain. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Good Man in Evil Times: The Unknown Hero Who Saved Countless...

A Good Man in Evil Times: The Story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes -- The Man Who Saved the Lives of Countless Refugees in World War II

Les dessins du diable