About the Individual

Fritz BERNSTEIN, a German Jew, was imprisoned in the Cours du Médoc internment camp in Bordeaux, France in June 1940. The entire camp requested and received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

Unable to cross the French-Spanish border he travelled east to Marseille.

Eventually he crossed into Portugal and sailed on the vessel Excalibur from Lisbon to New York in March 1941. In the United States he changed his name to Frederick Bernett and became a US citizen.