Work made by:Beatriz Silva, Escola Secundária Camilo Castelo Branco, PT

Portugal and the World War II

 Portugal Situation:
During World War II Portugal was under the regime of the “New State”, under the rule of
António de Oliveira Salazar. Officially, Portugal declared neutrality in 1939, having maintained
it until the end of hostilities. The Portuguese State, in March 1939, signs a Treaty of Friendship
and Non-Aggression (known as the Iberian Pact) with nationalist Spain, represented by the
Junta de Burgos and the Nuevo State run by Franco, refusing the invitation of the Italian
ambassador in April of the same year to join the Anti-Komintern Pact, an alliance of Germany,
Italy and Japan against the communist threat.

Antonio Oliveira Salazar The New State

 Situation in Europe
In the 1920s and 1940s, Europe, including Portugal, hosted a refugee wave. In addition to
maintaining a position of neutrality in the context of war, other factors had made the
Portuguese territory one of the countries of choice for shelter of thousands of refugees, mostly
Jews. Its strategically geographical situation had become a key point for mass flee, given that
"Lisbon had become the only port on the continent with more or less regular links to the
Americas and Africa ... the Portuguese capital had thus become the emergency exit from
Europe" (Afonso, 1995: 49).

Since the vast majority wanted to leave Europe, getting a place on one of the shipments to
the American continent would be the great goal of these individuals, something that had
become increasingly expensive and inaccessible due to the huge demand for boarding visas.
They had run away from Central Europe, mainly from Germany, Austria, Poland and all the
territories occupied by Nazi troops.

The need to escape that refugees felt was due to Hitler's political, racial and anti-Semitic
persecutions, as well as war. At that time, they didn’t know that they were escaping from a
certain death, especially from the Holocaust, after the end of 1941.
 But… how neutral was Portugal?

 PORTUGAL AND THE GRANTING OF VISAS:

It will be curious to note that the reality of the granting of visas by the Portuguese
authorities to all those who tried to enter Portugal during the 1930s embodies an entire
evolutionary process, which is characterized from an early age by the existence of a wave of
strong repression. Even before the war, Portugal was already the best choice for those who
wanted to leave Europe. The migratory current that would flood the country from 1939 had a
historical precedent; consequently, the PVDE had long been aware of the danger of the flood
of refugees who, from 1939, entered Portugal and, from the outset, started its policy of
"repression‐deterrence".

The political-ideological background of the New State made communism the great
threat to the safeguarding of the order and balance desired by the regime, so, as early as 1933,
the PVDE warned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the need for a stricter strategy for the
granting of visas, and especial attention to the possibility of entry into national territory of
individuals considered subversive. Being exacerbated during Spain's civil war, this anti-
communist dimension of the New State runs throughout the period in which World War II
takes place.

Portuguese Visas

 The desired portuguese visa- The case of Aristides Sousa Mendes

In addition to its advantageous neutral position, Portugal had become the only safe
destination for leaving Europe which was at war, therefore obtaining a Portuguese visa
became synonymous with survival. As you would predict, this situation caused a great influx of
people to the Portuguese consulates in the various European countries.

One of the best documented cases is that of the general consul of Portugal in Bordeaux,
Aristides de Sousa Mendes, who granted entry and transit visas to thousands of refugees
trying to escape the Nazi terror.
 One of the first occasions when the diplomat was accused of irregularity in granting
visas, took place in November 1939, with Arnold Wizniter, an Austrian Jew and former
university professor, who managed to flee from France with the help of a visa granted by the
Portuguese consul. Shortly thereafter, in March 1940, Sousa Mendes granted a visa without
prior authorization from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was issued a warning for the
offence. This time, he helped a Spanish political refugee, Eduardo Neira Laporte, a doctor who
had held the position of professor at the University of Barcelona and who at the time was the
leader of the Spanish community in Rivière. The Ministry had previously informed Sousa
Mendes of the refusal to grant a visa for this case that, like so many others, was scrupulously
analysed by PVDE. This police was in charge of communicating their suspicions to the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs so that this body would refuse certain visa applications and thus prevent
undesirable and dubious individuals from entering the welfare of the Salazar regime.

However, the influx to the Portuguese consulate in Bordeaux did not stop and the
situation became chaotic from 16 June, on the occasion of the resignation of the French
Minister Reynaud, and the consequent rise to power of the Pétain government. This
conjuncture meant the total surrender to the Nazi movement and, consequently, the
surrender of refugees trapped in southwestern France.

It is in this context that Aristides de Sousa Mendes makes the decision: " He would give visas to
all who needed them, to all who requested them. He would not ask questions or discriminate",
because his conscience told him that it was wrong to stop assisting all that desperate crowd.

Aristide Sousa Mendes

The Ministry becomes aware of the situation through a complaint, which Rui Afonso
(Afonso, 1995: 137), in one of his works on the consul, claims to have come from the British
Embassy in Lisbon, from the information of a British citizen, who had understood that the
granting of visas spread outside office hours, was due to the illegal charging of an
extraordinary comission for each Portuguese visa.

As soon as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that, in fact, numerous visas were being
passed without proper authorization, contrary to the orders in force, the diplomat is
immediately summoned to return to Lisbon, where he will face disciplinary proceedings that
will condemn him to a situation of "availability awaiting retirement" (Pignatelli, 2000: 87), thus
seeing his diplomatic career ruined.

It will probably never be known for sure how many visas Aristides de Sousa Mendes
had granted the numerous refugees who sought him for help. It will also be difficult to count in
fact how many lives the Portuguese consul saved with his courageous attitude, motivated by a
strong humanitarian sense and without having taken any personal advantage of the situation
(Something rare in a war scenario). In view of the restrictive measures that the Portuguese
government adopted in granting visas, in order to contain the crowds that were fleeing to
Portugal, Sousa Mendes' performance was seen as an affront to Salazar's authority and,
therefore, he suffered the consequences of his actions, as the Salazar regime was unwilling to
agree to the infringement.

 Other Diplomats:
It will be in Budapest in 1944, the year of the invasion of Hungary by German
troops, that we will find other cases of Portuguese diplomats, who didn’t follow the
instructions received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the granting of
visas.

Sampaio Garrido, Minister Plenipotentiary in Budapest, sensitized by the dangers

Jews ran in Hungarian territory after the German invasion, welcomed individuals on
the run in the Portuguese Delegation, in addition to facilitating the country's departure
for some through "provisional passports".

Sampaio Garrido

This situation displeased Salazar, who, in April 1944, sends instructions to the
Portuguese diplomat to return to Lisbon, basing this decision on the decrease in
Portugal's presence in Hungary, caused by changes in the relationships between the
two countries.

 Conclusion:
 Having addressed such a complex theme which is still unknown as a whole, the
issue of World War II refugees in Portugal makes us aware of an overview of sudden
changes at all levels, in a country that almost overnight saw itself as the " door of
salvation" for thousands of refugees fleeing in despair from the growing Nazi advance.

From this amount of foreigners on the run, still to be accounted for, because the
numbers presented are almost always in a dispersed way, not forgetting the limits of
such an investigation, the Jews stand out, despite other different nationalities, for
being the bulk of the migrations of war in our country.

“During World War II, Portugal could be a transit country but never a definitive
destination for those fleeing Hitler.”
Bibliography:

http://redejudiariasportugal.com/images/livros/refugiadosdaiiguerra.pdf

https://www.dn.pt/opiniao/opiniao-dn/convidados/refugiados-em-portugal-4955411.html

http://2guerramundial-ti2.blogspot.com/p/operacao-felix.html