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OCTOBER 25, 2022. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. A city square in Jerusalem will be dedicated in memory of the Portuguese diplomat and Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes, some 80 years after his daring rescue of thousands of Jews, while stationed in Bordeaux, France in 1940. This memorial action is largely thanks to the efforts of the historian Dr. Mordecai Paldiel who serves on the Board of the Sousa Mendes Foundation and who was previously the Director of the Department for the Righteous at Yad Vashem.

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A ceremony marking the inauguration of the street sign is planned for Tuesday, November 8 at 5:00 PM. The street sign is in Hebrew, Arabic and English, and reads: “Aristides de Sousa Mendes Square, Consul General of Portugal in Bordeaux (France), saved thousands of Jews during the years 1939-40.” Speakers will include: Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion, Portugal Ambassador to Israel Jorge Cabral, former Israeli Ambassador to Portugal Colette Avital and Yad Vashem representative Dr. Joel Zisenwine.

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“Sousa Mendes is one of a group of diplomats honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for helping Jews avoid deportation by granting them visas to other countries,” Dr. Paldiel says. “However, he stands out from others as the only one who disobeyed direct and clear orders from his superiors not to grant such visas to Jewish refugees, and was consequently severely punished by immediate dismissal from his diplomatic post. He remains an example of what a difference one person can make in the pursuit of goodness.”

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On the following day, Wednesday, November 9, at 4 PM, a symposium will take place at the Vert Hotel in Jerusalem on the subject of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and the Families He Saved. Speakers will include Gerald Mendes, a grandson of Aristides de Sousa Mendes; Dr. Avraham Milgram, author of Portugal, Salazar and the Jews; and representatives of various families rescued by Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Refreshments will be served.

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The Sousa Mendes Foundation was established in 2010 to perpetuate the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and to educate the public about refugees and rescue during the Holocaust. The Sousa Mendes Foundation is engaged in a worldwide search for families who escaped the Holocaust through Portugal. The Foundation has a two-fold mission: raising funds for the creation of a Sousa Mendes Museum and Site of Conscience and sponsoring projects that teach the importance of moral courage in a civilized world.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION please contact info@sousamendesfoundation.org or (877) 797-9759.

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Photo credit: Avi Losice

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Aristides de Sousa Mendes Square, intersection of ISRAEL ZANGWILL and TORAH VA-AVODAH streets

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Fifteen hours of interviews related to a group of World War II-era diplomats who defied official policies to save hundreds of thousands of people from the Holocaust are to be integrated into the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive. The interviews, featured in filmmaker Michael W. King and Joyce D. Mandell’s award-winning documentary The Rescuers, describe the actions of 13 diplomats — including Aristides de Sousa Mendes and others — whose tireless efforts to save Jews and others earned them the status of Righteous Among the Nations, an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. This film was shown by the Sousa Mendes Foundation on June 13, 2021 as part of its Sunday series of programs on rescue and resistance.

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The videotaped testimonials, including that of Aristides de Sousa Mendes‘ grandson Sebastian Mendes, are being integrated into the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive as the inaugural collection of testimonies to be named the Joyce D. Mandell Rescuers Collection. These interviews will comprise the world’s largest collection of testimonials concerning the actions of the “Righteous Diplomats.” The collection will be made available to the public through the Visual History Archive. “We can all be uplifted by the fact that the stories of these rescuers are themselves being rescued for posterity. Now they can inform and inspire future generations just as they are doing for viewers today,” said Stephen Smith, Finci-Viterbi Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation.

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Among those featured in the Joyce D. Mandell Rescuers Collection are survivors and relatives who recount the stories about the following diplomats: Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes in France; German diplomat (and Nazi Party member) Georg F. Duckwitz in Copenhagen; Americans Varian Fry and Hiram Bingham in Marseille; Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara and Dutch businessman Jan Zwartendijk in Kaunas; Turkish Consul Selahattin Ulkumen in Rhodes; British Captain Frank Foley in Berlin; Polish diplomat Henryk Slawik in Budapest; Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who helped coordinate Budapest’s rescue efforts in 1944 along with Archbishop Angelo Rotta, who represented the Vatican; and Consul Carl Lutz of Switzerland. The collection also features a segment from His Royal Highness Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, who reveals a little-known story about his grandmother, Princess Alice, and Sir Martin Gilbert.

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In a related development, Michael W. King is expanding his research efforts with support from the Andrew J. and Joyce D. Mandell Family Foundation and the USC Shoah Foundation to identify additional survivors and relatives to continue to document the stories of an additional 32 diplomats with Righteous Among the Nations status, with the goal for these new stories to be ultimately added to the Joyce D. Mandell Rescuers Collection in the future. It is with this effort that the Sousa Mendes Foundation is assisting. “This is our last chance to document first-hand accounts related to diplomats who were at the center of the 20th century’s most unforgettable events,” King said.

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The list includes the Lados Group (Polish diplomats in Switzerland), Brazilian diplomats Aracy de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa (Germany) and Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas (France); Chinese diplomat Feng Shan Ho (Austria); Ecuadorian diplomat Manuel Antonio Muñoz Borrero (Sweden); El Salvadoran diplomat José Castellanos Contreras (Switzerland); French diplomat François de Vial (Italy); Italian diplomats Pacifico Marchesini (The Netherlands), Giorgio Perlasca (Hungary) and Angelo Rotta (Hungary); Peruvian diplomat Jose Maria Barreto (Switzerland); Polish diplomat Władysław Bartoszewski (Warsaw); Portuguese diplomat Carlos Sampaio (Hungary); Romanian diplomats Constantin Karadja (Germany) and Florian Manoliu (Hungary); Swedish diplomats Per Anger (Hungary), Lars Berg (Hungary), Carl Ivan Danielsson (Hungary), and Elow Kihlgren (Italy); Swiss diplomats Harald Feller (Hungary), Ernst Prodolliet (Austria), Ernst Vonrufs (Hungary), and Peter Zurcher (Hungary); Yugoslavian diplomat Franjo Punčuh (Warsaw), and others.

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The Rescuers research team is looking to speak with anyone who may have information about the “Righteous Among the Nations” diplomats who are to be included in the expanding Joyce D. Mandell Rescuers Collection. Those with pertinent information are encouraged to write to general@rescuersdoc.com.

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April 21, 2021. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Aristides de Sousa Mendes: o Exílio pela Vida (Escape to Life) is a touring exhibition opening at Portugal’s new National Resistance and Freedom Museum on the occasion of the celebrations of the Day of Liberty, a national holiday of Portugal commemorating the April 25 Carnation Revolution. The exhibition comes to Portugal as a partnership between Portugal’s Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage, the US-based Sousa Mendes Foundation, and the Comité français Sousa Mendes based in Bordeaux, France.

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The opening of the exhibition is by invitation only and will be held on April 25, 2021, the anniversary of the Revolution. The exhibition then opens to the general public on April 27, 2021 in commemoration of the date in 1974 when the political prisoners were liberated from the old jail in the Peniche Fortress. It can be visited from Wednesday to Friday from 2 pm to 6 pm, on Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 1 pm, until October 31, 2021. The address of the museum is Campo da República 609, 2520-607 Peniche, Portugal, and admission is free.

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The centerpiece of the exhibition is the newly completed Sousa Mendes Video Sculpture by artist Werner Klotz commissioned by the Sousa Mendes Foundation and made possible by over seventy individual donors and foundations. The large contemporary work interprets the mindset of Aristides de Sousa Mendes in the days leading up to his decision that would save thousands of lives from the Nazi terror.  It is based on an idea of Sebastian Mendes, grandson of Sousa Mendes, who was an artist. “My cousin Sebastian had a very warm personality and he dreamed of creating this sculpture in homage to his grandfather and to those saved.  I think Sebastian would be very proud of the result” recalls Gérald Mendes, another grandson of Sousa Mendes. The project team, that was instrumental in the realization of the video sculpture, includes Jennifer Hartog, Monique Rubens Krohn, Gérald Mendes and Leah Rozenfeld Sills.

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The exhibition at the Peniche museum in Portugal is the official unveiling of the chandelier-shaped sculpture, which will then tour to other sites worldwide. “We were very moved when the Chandelier was set up on Friday, and the space was transformed into a small cathedral,” said Teresa Pacheco Albino, Coordinator of the Museu Nacional de Resistência e Liberdade. “It is a beautiful piece that conveys a message of love.”

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In 1940, Sousa Mendes, facing the despair of refugees fleeing the advance of German troops, decided to act according to his conscience and values, disobeying the orders he had received from the Salazar government by signing thousands of visas for Portugal. This gesture led to his becoming an outcast in his own country — fired and blacklisted by the regime. The Sousa Mendes exhibition is in line with the mission of the Peniche site as a Museum of Memory, aimed at disseminating the values and principles of citizenship, human rights and freedom.

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Sousa Mendes was posthumously recognized in 1966 as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem. Recognition followed in the United States, and eventually in Portugal as well. In 1987 then-President of Portugal Mario Soares honored Sousa Mendes and apologized on behalf of the Portuguese government to the Sousa Mendes family. On April 3, 2017, the anniversary of the hero’s death, the current President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa attributed to Aristides de Sousa Mendes the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty. More recently, in June of 2020, the Portuguese Parliament voted unanimously to induct Sousa Mendes into the National Pantheon. 

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Founded in 2010, the Sousa Mendes Foundation is devoted to honoring the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and to educating the public about his action. It has a two-fold mission: raising funds for the restoration of the Casa do Passal and the creation within its walls of a museum and memorial site; and sponsoring US-based projects that perpetuate his legacy. 

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For more information on the Sousa Mendes video sculpture, click here.

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JUNE 24, 2020. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. A city square in Jerusalem has been named in memory of the Portuguese diplomat and Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of his daring rescue in 1940 of thousands of Jews, while stationed in Bordeaux, France. This memorial action is thanks to the efforts of the historian Dr. Mordecai Paldiel who serves on the Board of the Sousa Mendes Foundation and who was previously the Director of the Department for the Righteous at Yad Vashem.

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A public ceremony marking the unveiling of the street sign had been planned for June 2020 but is postponed to a future date to be determined.  The street sign is in Hebrew, Arabic and English, and reads: “Aristides de Sousa Mendes Square, Consul General of Portugal in Bordeaux (France), saved thousands of Jews during the years 1939-40.”

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Dr. Paldiel stated, “Sousa Mendes is one of a group of diplomats honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for helping Jews avoid deportation by granting them visas to other countries. However, he stands out from others as the only one who disobeyed direct and clear orders from his superiors not to grant such visas to Jewish refugees, and was consequently severely punished by immediate dismissal from his diplomatic post. He remains an example of what a difference one person can make in the pursuit of goodness, and therefore, an inspiration to present and future generations. I would like to thank the Jerusalem municipality, under the leadership of Mayor Moshe Lion, for bestowing upon Sousa Mendes a place of honor within this historic city.”

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Other anniversary events took place earlier this month. On June 9th, the Portuguese Parliament voted unanimously to induct Sousa Mendes into the National Pantheon. This action was significant, as Sousa Mendes died in 1954 after having been disgraced and punished by the Portuguese government of his time. On June 17th, Pope Francis invoked the memory of Sousa Mendes and his action to declare that date to be henceforth considered as the “Day of Conscience.”

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The Sousa Mendes Foundation was established in 2010 to perpetuate the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and to educate the public about refugees and rescue during the Holocaust. Named “Organization of the Year” in 2012 by The Portuguese Tribune, the Sousa Mendes Foundation is engaged in a worldwide search for families who escaped the Holocaust through Portugal.  The Foundation has a two-fold mission: raising funds for the creation of a Sousa Mendes Museum and Site of Conscience and sponsoring projects that teach the importance of moral courage in a civilized world.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION please contact info@sousamendesfoundation.org or (877) 797-9759.

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Photo credit: Avi Losice

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Aristides de Sousa Mendes Square, intersection of ISRAEL ZANGWILL and TORAH VA-AVODAH streets

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies

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The Sousa Mendes Foundation is delighted to announce that we have received a $25,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.  The grant is in support of an innovative art installation project designed to bring the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes to new audiences through art.

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The art project is a “video sculpture” conceived by the late Sebastian Mendes, grandson of Aristides de Sousa Mendes who served on the art faculty of Western Washington University.  It will be executed by Werner Klotz, a specialist in public art projects whose most recent work is a large installation in San Francisco’s Union Square.  The artwork, in the form of a chandelier, is intended to be suspended from a ceiling but is also displayable on a stand.  It includes twelve video screens with images of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and the refugees he saved.

For more on the video sculpture project, including how to support it, please click here.

PLACEHOLDER TEXT

The Sousa Mendes Foundation is seeking to identify and locate Holocaust refugees who were given life-saving visas by Aristides de Sousa Mendes in the Spring of 1940.

 
Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul stationed in Bordeaux, France, rescued thousands of people from the Holocaust.  He did so by giving refugees visas to Portugal, in contravention of a document called “Circular 14” issued by the Portuguese government to its consular corps that contained strict orders not to do so.  As a result, he was put on trial by the Salazar dictatorship and harshly punished.
 
Aristides de Sousa Mendes died in 1954 in poverty and official disgrace, and almost erased from history.  In 1966 he was posthumously declared a “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem, Israel‘s Holocaust authority.  In the late 1980’s the Portuguese government formally apologized to the Sousa Mendes family and elevated him posthumously to the rank of Ambassador.

The Sousa Mendes Foundation, established in 2010 to perpetuate the memory of Sousa Mendes and the families he saved, has already identified nearly 4000 Sousa Mendes visa recipient individually by name.  The refugees came from all parts of Europe, received Portuguese visas in the south of France (Bordeaux, Bayonne, Hendaye or Toulouse) in April, May or June of 1940, and subsequently traveled through Spain to Portugal, from where they scattered to the United States, Canada, Brazil, the U.K., and elsewhere between 1940 and 1942.

Famous Sousa Mendes visa recipients include Salvador Dali, Hans and Margret Rey (authors of Curious George), the Habsburg family, the Rothschild family, and the filmmaker King Vidor, among others.  But most visa recipients were ordinary families escaping the horrors of Nazi persecution.

For more information or to share any knowledge about visa recipients or their families, please contact info@sousamendesfoundation.org or visit the foundation’s website:  www.sousamendesfoundation.org

Rescue list

The following list includes just a few of the thousands of individuals from forty-nine countries who were saved as the result of the action of Aristides de Sousa Mendes:

Hamilton Fish Armstrong, founding editor, Foreign Affairs magazine
Daniel Branton, Professor of cell biology, Harvard University
Dr. Sylvain Bromberger, Professor Emeritus of philosophy and linguistics, MIT
Salvador Dalí and his wife Gala Dalí
Ilja Dijour, representative of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
Richard de Grab, photographer
Archduke Otto von Habsburg and the Habsburg family
Dr. Lissy Jarvik, Professor Emerita of Medicine, UCLA
Robert Lebel, art critic
Kizette de Lempicka, daughter of the artist Tamara de Lempicka
Leon Moed, architect
Hans and Margret Rey, authors of the Curious George series
Paul Rosenberg, art dealer
Baron Maurice de Rothschild and the Rothschild family
Boris Smolar, chief European correspondent, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Julian Tuwim, Polish poet and nephew of the pianist Arthur Rubinstein
King Vidor, Hollywood film director

PLACEHOLDER TEXT

Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, the Sousa Mendes Foundation, and Hunter College Jewish Studies Center present a screening of the documentary film, Nobody Wants Us (2019, dir. Laura Seltzer-Duny) at the Roosevelt House at 47-49 East 65th Street, between Madison and Park Avenues, New York City.  The event will be held on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2019.  The event will begin with a reception at 5:45 p.m., with the program to follow at 6:30 p.m.

Synopsis:  

In 1940, a ship called the S.S. Quanza left the port of Lisbon carrying several hundred Jewish refugees to freedom.  Most of them held life-saving visas issued by the Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes.  But events went terribly wrong, and the passengers became trapped on the ship because no country would take them in.  Nobody Wants Us tells the gripping true story of how Eleanor Roosevelt stepped in to save the passengers on board because of her moral conviction that they were not “undesirables” (as the US State Department labeled them) but rather, “future patriotic Americans.”  This is an episode in American history that everyone needs to know.  

“We are delighted to bring this important film, Nobody Wants Us, to Roosevelt House, and to share it with the rest of the Hunter community,” says Harold Holzer, the Jonathan F. Fanton Director of Roosevelt House.  “The film offers a fresh perspective not just on the issue of immigration, but the action taken by Eleanor Roosevelt to save the lives of immigrants in need of sanctuary,” he adds. 

Program:  

The film, which is 37 minutes in length, will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Leah Garrett, Director of the Hunter College Jewish Studies Center.  Other participants will include:

Blanche Wiesen Cook, the leading authority on Eleanor Roosevelt and author of her three-volume biography.

Annette Lachmann, who was a passenger on the Quanza in 1940.

Laura Seltzer-Duny, the filmmaker.

Significance of the story:  

According to Michael Dobbs of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “The Quanza incident is a timely reminder that individuals make a difference.  Without visas supplied by the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes, many of the Jewish passengers on board the Quanza might well have been stranded in Nazi-occupied Europe. Without the legal brilliance of a maritime lawyer named Jacob Morewitz, the ship would have been obliged to sail back to Europe. Without the intervention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the passengers would not have been permitted to land.   It took three people, from entirely different backgrounds, to save dozens of lives that might otherwise have been lost.”

Roosevelt House, an integral part of Hunter College since 1943, re-opened in 2010 as a public policy institute honoring the distinguished legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Its mission is three-fold: to educate students in public policy and human rights, to support faculty research, and to foster creative dialogue. The institute provides opportunities for students to analyze public policy  and experience meaningful civic engagement; for faculty to research, teach, and write about important issues of the day; and for scholarly and public audiences to participate in high-profile lectures, seminars and conferences.

The Sousa Mendes Foundation, established in 2010, is a non-profit organization dedicated to honoring the memory of the Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes and to teaching the importance of moral courage in a civilized world. Named “Organization of the Year” in 2012 by The Portuguese Tribune, the Foundation is engaged in a worldwide search for families who escaped the Holocaust through Portugal. Through concerts, lectures, films and other educational programming it promotes the important lesson, particularly to young people, that one person can make a difference.

Ticket information:  

The event is free of charge, but seating is limited, and is by advance reservation.  For more information and to reserve tickets, please click here.

In court filing, defendants admit that Aristides de Sousa Mendes was a hero

On January 26, 2018, several grandchildren of the late Consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches filed an anti-defamation complaint with the Civil Judicial Court of Lisbon against the authors and publishers of several articles and books attacking the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Consul of Portugal in Bordeaux in 1940 who was recognized as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem in 1966.

In a civil lawsuit, the publishing house TEXTO PRINCIPAL, and the individual authors DUARTE BRANQUINHO, CARLOS FERNANDES, MIGUEL MATTOS CHAVES and JOÃO JOSÉ BRANDÃO FERREIRA were cited for “offense to the memory of a dead person” and defamation against his living descendants, for having published misleading, defamatory, denigrating and antisemitic remarks, including the denial of historical facts, in various blogs, books and newspapers, alleging, among other things, that the late Consul had extorted money from the fleeing refugees in exchange for visas, that Jewish refugees were not in mortal danger in June of 1940 in Nazi-occupied France, and that the financial settlement paid by the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the descendants of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, as compensation for the persecution he suffered under Salazar’s regime, was illegally squandered.

In a court filing of early October 2018, the defendants responded to the lawsuit, conceding that Aristides de Sousa Mendes was indeed a hero and that no money was extorted in exchange for visas. Concerning the indemnity, the defendants now claim that they never alleged that the funds were misused but merely questioned the settlement itself.  Defendant CHAVES further claims that he resigned as editor of the newspaper DIABO in opposition to its Board of Directors who insisted on continuing with the defamation campaign.  Although this attempted retraction is an initial victory for the plaintiffs, the case will proceed to trial in the Portuguese courts.  The coming trial will most likely focus on whether or not the defendants alleged the above-mentioned false and defamatory statements and whether they had any serious reasons to believe that those false and defamatory statements were true.

The lawsuit contends that the defendants, who are all pro-Salazar (Portugal’s former dictator who determined that Sousa Mendes should be prosecuted and punished for his heroic action), were well aware of the internal disciplinary process carried out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE) in 1940, in which the extortion charge was deemed unfounded.  It further contends that they knew that the financial settlement paid to the descendants by the Portuguese government was duly accounted for in public documents and was applied in full towards the acquisition and rehabilitation of the late Consul’s house, the “Casa do Passal” located in Cabanas de Viriato, for the creation of a memorial museum dedicated to perpetuate the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and the families he rescued.  The lawsuit contends that the defendants, in order to favor and convince others of an ideological opinion (the defense of Salazar’s regime), willfully and maliciously distorted historical facts, omitted others, and created a false and dishonorable image of the plaintiffs and their grandfather.

The plaintiffs, who are all grandchildren of the Consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches, were shocked and hurt by the defamatory publications which are misleading and confusing for the public. These grandchildren are from different countries and have all been involved in the rehabilitation of their grandfather’s memory as well as in the protection of the truth.  They are seeking public retraction and damages.  The plaintiffs are Sheila Abranches, USA, Gerald de Sousa Mendes, France, Aristides Manuel de Alpoim de Sousa Mendes, Portugal, and Antonio Pedro de Moncada Sousa Mendes, Portugal.  They are represented by attorney Afonso Duarte of the Lisbon-based firm Rui Pinto Duarte & Associados.

The Sousa Mendes Foundation hails this anti-defamation lawsuit as a milestone in the process of rehabilitating the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and of preserving the legacy of his moral courage.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                  

KEY WEST, FL (December 1, 2018) – Community members are invited to a film screening of the award-winning docudrama Disobedience: The Sousa Mendes Story on Monday, December 17, at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation B’nai Zion, 750 United Street, Key West, FL as a part of its 2018-19 Film Series M3M in cooperation with the Sousa Mendes Foundation.

Attendance is free and light refreshments will be served.

The film tells the dramatic true story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul stationed in Bordeaux, France during World War II. When the Nazis invaded in 1940, Sousa Mendes granted Portuguese visas to thousands of refugees, against the strict orders of his government, in a feat described by historian Yehuda Bauer as “perhaps the largest rescue action by a single individual during the Holocaust.”  As a result of his act of conscience, Sousa Mendes was punished by his government for “disobedience,” stripped of his position, and blacklisted.  He died in 1954 in poverty and disgrace.

The film screening will be followed by a question and answer period facilitated by Florida resident Robert Jacobvitz, chairman of the Sousa Mendes Foundation International Advisory Council and a 32-year activist dedicated to sharing the Sousa Mendes story worldwide.

In 1966, Sousa Mendes was posthumously recognized as a “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust authority.  The Portuguese government eventually honored Sousa Mendes in the 1980s, as a result of pressure from the U.S. government.

Congregation B’nai Zion is the oldest established Jewish congregation in South Florida, founded in 1887. Its many activities are listed on its website: http://www.bnaizionkw.org/

The Sousa Mendes Foundation, founded in 2010, is dedicated to honoring the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and to teaching the importance of moral courage in a civilized world.  Named “Organization of the Year” in 2012 by The Portuguese Tribune, the Foundation is engaged in a worldwide search for families who escaped the Holocaust through Portugal. www.sousamendesfoundation.org

For more information about the Foundation, please contact: Robert Jacobvitz, (877) 797-9759 or robert@sousamendesfoundation.org.

Maxine Makover, founder and coordinator of the M3M Film Series, may be reached at (404) 274-3217 or Maxinemakover@gmail.com.