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Portugal and the Holocaust
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Portugal and the Holocaust
Portugal was officially neutral during World War II and the period of the Holocaust in German-occupied Europe. The country had been ruled by an authoritarian political regime led by António de Oliveira Salazar but was considered more sympathetic to the Allies than was neighbouring Francoist Spain.
German expansion led to the passage of substantial numbers of refugees, including some Jews, through Portugal in 1939 and 1940. Fearful of the economic and political consequences, the Salazar regime tightened the rules governing the issuance of transit visas by its consuls in November 1939. The issuing of visas in contravention of regulations was widespread at Portuguese consulates all over Europe, including by Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, who issued thousands of visas to refugees at his own initiative amid the Fall of France in May and June 1940. Large numbers of refugees, including some 60,000 to 80,000 Jews, continued to pass through Portugal on route for the United States and Latin America throughout the war although their numbers fell significantly from 1941. Lisbon was permitted to accommodate a number of foreign Jewish relief organisations.
The Salazar regime was generally aware of the extermination of Jews in German-occupied Europe from 1942 and undertook some limited measures to repatriate Jews with Portuguese citizenship from Vichy France and Axis-occupied Greece. An initiative to intercede on behalf of the Sephardic Jews in the German-occupied Netherlands at the initiative of Moisés Bensabat Amzalak was nonetheless unsuccessful. Portugal continued to trade with Nazi Germany throughout the conflict and may received payment for its exports in the form of gold looted in the Holocaust. In the final years of the war, the regime provided tacit support for a number of small-scale rescue operations including the issuance of 1,000 protective passports to Hungarian Jews by the diplomat Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho in late 1944.
Portugal's Jewish community remained tiny and did not exceed 1,000 before the war's outbreak. Portugal remained a poor and largely agrarian country throughout the period and, unlike many other Western European countries, did not experience any substantial immigration from German or Eastern European Jews during the Interwar Period. It was not invited to participate in the Évian Conference in 1938.
Portugal was ruled from 1933 by an authoritarian political regime known as the Estado Novo under the former university professor António de Oliveira Salazar. It remained neutral throughout World War II but was considered more sympathetic to the Allies than was Francoist Spain. Conservative and strongly influenced by Catholicism, the Estado Novo was unusual among contemporary dictatorships for not explicitly incorporating racial antisemitism into its own ideology. Salazar himself considered Nazi racial thinking to be inconsistent with Catholicism and Portuguese nationalism which he believed was not explicitly grounded in biological race. Due to government censorship of newspapers, the Portuguese public was ill-informed about the extent and nature of Nazi antisemitic policies.
The escalation of antisemitic persecutions in Eastern Europe, coupled with the rapid rise of Nazism in Germany, prompted the initial limited migration of Ashkenazi Jews to Portugal. These refugees swiftly assimilated into both Portuguese society and the local Jewish Community. By the 1930s, Portuguese Jewish citizens established the "Portuguese Commission for Assistance to Jewish Refugees in Portugal" (Comissão Portuguesa de Assistência aos Judeus Refugiados, COMASSIS) under the leadership of Augusto Isaac de Esaguy and having Adolfo Benarús as Honorary Chairman. COMASSIS provided refugees with medical and psychological care, and voiced their needs with the Portuguese government regarding residence and work permits. COMASSIS warranted renewals of doctors' and lawyers' work permits, and job contracts for professors at Portugal's universities. Additionally, COMASSIS also ran a community kitchen. D'Esaguy assumed the presidency of COMASSIS in 1938 and retained the role through to 1945.
France and Britain declared war on Germany following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. With Europe at war, countries of all kinds, neutral and non neutral, felt they should close their borders to prevent fifth columnists and agitators infiltrating refugee groups. Given the absence of alternatives, the number of refugees trying to travel through Portugal increased substantially. Between September and December 1939, approximately 9,000 refugees entered Portugal. The Portuguese regime felt the need for tighter control. By 1939, the police had already dismantled several criminal networks responsible for passport forgery and several consuls were expelled from service for falsifying passports.
In September 1939 Augusto Isaac d’Esaguy helped more than 600 German Jews, that got trapped in Spain on their way to Cuba and Mexico, to pass through Portugal.
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Portugal and the Holocaust
Portugal was officially neutral during World War II and the period of the Holocaust in German-occupied Europe. The country had been ruled by an authoritarian political regime led by António de Oliveira Salazar but was considered more sympathetic to the Allies than was neighbouring Francoist Spain.
German expansion led to the passage of substantial numbers of refugees, including some Jews, through Portugal in 1939 and 1940. Fearful of the economic and political consequences, the Salazar regime tightened the rules governing the issuance of transit visas by its consuls in November 1939. The issuing of visas in contravention of regulations was widespread at Portuguese consulates all over Europe, including by Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, who issued thousands of visas to refugees at his own initiative amid the Fall of France in May and June 1940. Large numbers of refugees, including some 60,000 to 80,000 Jews, continued to pass through Portugal on route for the United States and Latin America throughout the war although their numbers fell significantly from 1941. Lisbon was permitted to accommodate a number of foreign Jewish relief organisations.
The Salazar regime was generally aware of the extermination of Jews in German-occupied Europe from 1942 and undertook some limited measures to repatriate Jews with Portuguese citizenship from Vichy France and Axis-occupied Greece. An initiative to intercede on behalf of the Sephardic Jews in the German-occupied Netherlands at the initiative of Moisés Bensabat Amzalak was nonetheless unsuccessful. Portugal continued to trade with Nazi Germany throughout the conflict and may received payment for its exports in the form of gold looted in the Holocaust. In the final years of the war, the regime provided tacit support for a number of small-scale rescue operations including the issuance of 1,000 protective passports to Hungarian Jews by the diplomat Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho in late 1944.
Portugal's Jewish community remained tiny and did not exceed 1,000 before the war's outbreak. Portugal remained a poor and largely agrarian country throughout the period and, unlike many other Western European countries, did not experience any substantial immigration from German or Eastern European Jews during the Interwar Period. It was not invited to participate in the Évian Conference in 1938.
Portugal was ruled from 1933 by an authoritarian political regime known as the Estado Novo under the former university professor António de Oliveira Salazar. It remained neutral throughout World War II but was considered more sympathetic to the Allies than was Francoist Spain. Conservative and strongly influenced by Catholicism, the Estado Novo was unusual among contemporary dictatorships for not explicitly incorporating racial antisemitism into its own ideology. Salazar himself considered Nazi racial thinking to be inconsistent with Catholicism and Portuguese nationalism which he believed was not explicitly grounded in biological race. Due to government censorship of newspapers, the Portuguese public was ill-informed about the extent and nature of Nazi antisemitic policies.
The escalation of antisemitic persecutions in Eastern Europe, coupled with the rapid rise of Nazism in Germany, prompted the initial limited migration of Ashkenazi Jews to Portugal. These refugees swiftly assimilated into both Portuguese society and the local Jewish Community. By the 1930s, Portuguese Jewish citizens established the "Portuguese Commission for Assistance to Jewish Refugees in Portugal" (Comissão Portuguesa de Assistência aos Judeus Refugiados, COMASSIS) under the leadership of Augusto Isaac de Esaguy and having Adolfo Benarús as Honorary Chairman. COMASSIS provided refugees with medical and psychological care, and voiced their needs with the Portuguese government regarding residence and work permits. COMASSIS warranted renewals of doctors' and lawyers' work permits, and job contracts for professors at Portugal's universities. Additionally, COMASSIS also ran a community kitchen. D'Esaguy assumed the presidency of COMASSIS in 1938 and retained the role through to 1945.
France and Britain declared war on Germany following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. With Europe at war, countries of all kinds, neutral and non neutral, felt they should close their borders to prevent fifth columnists and agitators infiltrating refugee groups. Given the absence of alternatives, the number of refugees trying to travel through Portugal increased substantially. Between September and December 1939, approximately 9,000 refugees entered Portugal. The Portuguese regime felt the need for tighter control. By 1939, the police had already dismantled several criminal networks responsible for passport forgery and several consuls were expelled from service for falsifying passports.
In September 1939 Augusto Isaac d’Esaguy helped more than 600 German Jews, that got trapped in Spain on their way to Cuba and Mexico, to pass through Portugal.