About the Family

The POLAK family from Czechoslovakia received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux on June 19, 1940.

Iva POLAK was stricken by polio as a young child and was unable to walk. She was carried by her father during their exodus from Nazi-occupied Europe.

The family crossed into Portugal, where they resided in Curia. In August of 1940, they sailed on the ship Serpa Pinto to Brazil, where they settled.

The numbering of this family's surviving visa, much lower than that of other known visas delivered on the same date, is evidence of a second visa registry book for the Portuguese Consulate in Bordeaux, beyond the book that survives. Moreover, the signature is clearly in another hand, not that of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, confirming the fact that others were part of the visa delivery assembly line process.