Aristides de Sousa Mendes

A Portuguese diplomat and consul. During World War II, as Consul-General in Bordeaux, France, he issued visas against the instructions of the Portuguese government to numerous refugees, including Jews, who were attempting to flee Nazi German persecution. He was disciplined as a diplomat in 1940 and forced into retirement, but his humanitarian actions were re-evaluated after the war. In 1966, he was recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem, and in 1988, his honor was formally restored by the Portuguese Parliament.

Timeline

Category
Element

Year	Aristides de Sousa Mendes
1885	Birth of Aristides de Sousa Mendes (Period: July 19, 1885, Location: Cabanas de Viriato (Present-day Carregal do Sal, Viseu District, Portugal))
1900	Law Studies at the University of Coimbra (Age: 14 years old, Period: Early 1900s – 1908, Location: Coimbra, Portugal)
1909	Marriage (Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Maria Angelina Coelho de Sousa Mendes, Age: 23 years old, Period: February 18, 1909, Location: Beijós, Portugal)
1910	Beginning of Career as Diplomat and Consul (Age: 24 years old, Period: 1910–1938, Location: British Guiana, Zanzibar, Brazil, United States, Spain, Belgium, etc.)
1938	Appointment as Consul General in Bordeaux (Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Age: 52 years old, Period: 1938, Location: Bordeaux, France)
1939	World War II (Age: 53 years old, Period: 1939–1945, Location: UK, France, North Africa, Mediterranean, Atlantic, etc.) Violation of the Portuguese Government's Circular 14 (Age: 54 years old, Period: November 1939 – 1940, Location: Bordeaux, France)
1940	Refugee Rescue Operations in Bordeaux (Age: 54 years old, Period: May – June 1940, Location: Bordeaux, Bayonne, Hendaye, Toulouse) Recall and Disciplinary Action against Sousa Mendes (Age: 54 years old, Period: June – October 1940, Location: Bordeaux, France; Lisbon, Portugal) Issuance of Mass Visas to Refugees (Age: 54 years old, Period: June 1940, Location: Bordeaux, Bayonne, Hendaye, etc.) Dismissal from Diplomatic Service (Age: 55 years old, Period: October 1940, Location: Lisbon, Portugal)
1949	Marriage (Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Andrée Cibial, Age: 63 years old, Period: 1949, Location: Exact Location Unconfirmed)
1954	Death of Aristides de Sousa Mendes (Age: 68 years old, Period: April 3, 1954)
1960	Post-WWII Rehabilitation Movement (Age: 5 years after death, Period: 1960s–1988, Location: Portugal, Israel, United States, etc.)
1966	Recognition as "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem (Age: 11 years after death, Period: 1966, Location: Jerusalem, Israel)
1988	Rehabilitation by the Portuguese Parliament (Age: 33 years after death, Period: March 18, 1988, Location: Lisbon, Portugal)
2020	Honored at the National Pantheon (Age: 65 years after death, Period: 2020–2021, Location: Lisbon, Portugal)
2024	Opening of the Aristides de Sousa Mendes Museum (Age: 70 years after death, Period: July 19, 2024, Location: Cabanas de Viriato, Portugal)

Map

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Europe World

Related Links

Group	List
British Politics	David Lloyd George Winston Churchill Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain Clement Attlee Anthony Eden Edward Wood Ernest Bevin
French Politics	Georges Clemenceau Charles de Gaulle Paul Reynaud Édouard Daladier Léon Blum Philippe Pétain Maxime Weygand Maurice Gamelin
Jewish relief	Anne Frank Etty Hillesum Edith Stein Raoul Wallenberg Aristides de Sousa Mendes Varian Fry Nicholas Winton Chiune Sugihara
Nuclear Science	Lise Meitner James Chadwick John Cockcroft Ernest Walton Patrick Blackett Mark Oliphant Otto Hahn Otto Robert Frisch

Other Languages

Aristides de Sousa Mendes (Español) Aristides de Sousa Mendes (Français) Aristides de Sousa Mendes (Deutsch) 阿里斯蒂德斯·德·索萨·门德斯 (中文) アリスティデス・デ・ソウザ・メンデス (日本語)

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Aristides de Sousa Mendes