Aristides de Sousa Mendes - Dishonor and Disgrace

Dishonor and Disgrace

He saved an enormous number of lives, but lost his career. In 1941, Salazar lost political trust in Sousa Mendes and stripped the diplomat to his title, subsequently ordering that no one in Portugal show him any charity. He also found he could not resume his law career, as he was blocked from registration, and he was forced to surrender his foreign-issue driver's license. Just before the war's end in 1945, he suffered a stroke that left him at least partially paralyzed. In his later years, the formerly much-honored diplomat was abandoned by most of his colleagues and friends and at times was blamed by some of his close relatives. Aided by a local Jewish refugee agency — which had begun to feed the family and pay their rent upon discovering the situation — the children moved to other countries in search of opportunities they were now denied in Portugal, though all accounts by them indicate they never blamed their father or regretted his decision. His wife, Angelina, died in 1948. Stripped of his pension, he died in poverty on April 3, 1954, still in disgrace with his government.

This ill-treatment by his government for acts considered heroic in other countries was not unique to Sousa Mendes. Others similarly dishonored include Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Kaunas, Lithuania; Carl Lutz, the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary; and Paul Grüninger, chief of police in the Swiss canton of Sankt-Gallen (Saint-Gall). Ironically, the actions that caused Salazar to dismiss his diplomatic representative brought considerable praise to him and to Portugal, seen internationally as a haven of hospitality for refugee Jews; for example, the magazine Life praised Salazar as "the greatest Portuguese since Henry the Navigator" (July 29, 1940).