This is instalment 12 of #deanehistory. It’s the first request job: thanks @drjones84852710! We continue the Portuguese theme, and in the Second World War – but rather different.

Because not every man need wield a gun to be a hero. Sometimes a bureaucrat’s stamp will do.

Aristides de Sousa Mendes was Portuguese Consul-General in Bordeaux when France fell to the Nazis in the Second World War. Think Casablanca, last days of freedom etcetera, only in wine country.

Irrelevant side note. He was a twin, with a different birthday to his older brother, as they were born either side of midnight. Must be uncommon, & made sure each had their own “special day” in family celebrations.

The Salazar regime sought to maintain its neutrality & feared the Axis powers greatly, especially given the Spanish government’s closeness to them. It had a very tough regime for immigration, as so many sought to flee the Nazis via Portuguese neutrality.

Lisbon sent all its consuls “Circular 14” setting out “inconvenient or dangerous” refugees who shouldn’t be granted a visa without OK from Lisbon- which given the pressure, volume & speed required, effectively meant refusing them. The list included fleeing Jews.

Historians stress this was Portugal attempting to avoid danger to itself from Axis & not any sort of ideological point of view. That is right. Portugal avoided antisemitism more thoroughly than almost anywhere. But it still left thousands fleeing Nazism worse off.

Sousa Mendes disobeyed this instruction immediately, granting visas without approval from Lisbon, & soon went further, actively assisting refugees with false passports & papers. As the German tanks rolled westwards, demand increased; so did his subterfuge for those fleeing.

The day after Pétain announced the French should seek an armistice with Germany, Sousa Mendes announced to his family that he’d just issue visas to… everybody.

Bordeaux was bombed the next day. Beyonne, on the Spanish border, was packed with refugees. Sousa Mendes went there (happily dodging panicked instructions to desist) & relieved the diplomat on duty, who’d been refusing visas. Our man had other ideas.

Soon he was recalled to Lisbon. He obeyed… rather slowly. Via posts that hadn’t heard Lisbon’s orders yet, and crossings without telephones, granting visas and waving refugees over the borders wherever he went.

He was punished when home, of course. Pay docked, career effectively ended, family shunned. After the war, Salazar claimed credit for his country for all the refugees it had accepted, understandably & with some truth- but perhaps rather more recognition belonged to someone else.

Sousa Mendes today is honoured as righteous among the nations, rescuer of thousands from the Nazis.

None of this is meant to be criticism of our oldest ally- the oldest alliance anyone has had, anywhere, ever. We are lucky to have such friends. It’s just to say that sometimes unlikely people are the most wonderful heroes, civil servants included- Sousa Mendes was such a one.