Aristides De Sousa Mendes - His Life & Legacy
Tuesday, June 17 | 7:00pm ET
On Zoom - Register Here
Join us on Zoom to learn the inspiring story of the Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes, declared Righteous Among the Nations in 1966, and the work of the Sousa Mendes Foundation.
Foundation President Dr. Olivia Mattis, whose family was saved by Sousa Mendes, will present an exciting and moving film-and-discussion program about this rescue operation described by the Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer as “perhaps the largest rescue action by a single individual during the Holocaust."
About the Sousa Mendes Foundation
Founded in 2010, the Sousa Mendes Foundation is dedicated to honoring the memory of Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes and to educating the world about his good work. Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches was one of the great heroes of the Second World War. As the Portuguese consul stationed in Bordeaux, France, he found himself confronted in May and June of 1940 with the reality of many thousands of refugees outside the Portuguese consulate attempting to escape the horrors of the Nazi war machine. These persons were in desperate need of visas to get out of France, and a Portuguese visa would allow them safe passage through Spain to Portugal, where they could find liberty to travel to other parts of the globe.
Portugal, officially neutral, yet unofficially pro-Hitler and under the dictatorial rule of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, issued a directive – the infamous “Circular 14″ – to all its diplomats to deny safe haven to refugees, including explicitly Jews, Russians, and stateless persons who could not freely return to their countries of origin. Aristides de Sousa Mendes’s act of heroism consisted in choosing to defy these inhumane orders and follow his conscience instead. “I would rather stand with God against Man than with Man against God,” he declared.
About Dr. Mattis
Dr. Olivia Mattis is an award-winning author with a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.A. from Yale University. Twelve members of her paternal family were rescued by Aristides de Sousa Mendes as they escaped from Belgium in 1940; meanwhile, her maternal grandparents founded and led the Jewish Resistance there, while her mother was a hidden child. Mattis lectures widely, and delivered Keynote addresses at the 2011 Yom Hashoah commemoration of the City of Philadelphia and the 2014 Yom Hashoah commemoration of the City of Rochester. She has organized high-profile international conferences, exhibitions and special events that have received media coverage from Good Morning America and The New York Times. She is Contributing Editor of the Jewish genealogy and family history journal, Avotaynu Online and author of "Sousa Mendes's List — The Search for Survivors."
To learn more about Dr. Olivia Mattis and The Sousa Mendes Foundation please visit Sousa Mendes Foundation