TRIP PARTICIPANTS

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  • Mariana Abrantes

    TOUR CO-LEADER

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    The dramatic events of 1940 came alive for me the first time I took this Journey, coming to feel and to understand the persecution and the fear which forced so many people to flee, but also the courage of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and the hope of the refugees looking for a safe haven in Portugal and beyond. Knowing when to take a stand, be it Charles de Gaulle's "Appel à la Résistance" or Aristides de Sousa Mendes's decision to "Save them All," two shining events in an otherwise dark period of history lead us to reflect on how we react to everyday dramas around us. I'm still wondering: Just how did the fragile-looking stairs of the consulate in Bayonne resist the avalanche of visa seekers? And did the refugees feel they had found a "little bit of home" when they saw the gracious French-style mansion of Casa do Passal in the midst of the Dão vineyards?

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  • Barbara Berger Opotowsky

    BERGER FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    I had always thought my Father left France before the takeover by the Vichy government. Discovering he left in 1940 after the imposition of the Vichy regime, with the critical assistance of Sousa Mendes, I would like to try and experience his escape.

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  • Deborah de Winter

    DE WINTER FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    I am the granddaughter of visa recipients. I participated in the 2016 Journey. I look forward to seeing more of Portugal, meeting more people connected to the Sousa Mendes story, and traveling with friends who I met on the Journey last year.

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  • Manuel Dias

    TOUR CO-LEADER

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    Manuel Dias Vaz est un humaniste citoyen du Monde, un Européen franco-portugais, un homme de convictions passionné par ses multiples engagements. Il participe à faire vivre et partager les valeurs universelles d'humanisme, de tolérance, de respect, de solidarité, et de fraternité. Manuel est docteur en sociologie de l'université de Bordeaux. Il préside le Rahmi (Réseau aquitain pour l'histoire et la mémoire de l'immigration), la section bordelaise de la Ligue des droits de l'homme. Il est vice-président et fondateur du Comité national français en hommage à Aristides de Sousa Mendes, et membre fondateur du Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration. Manuel a consacré trente ans de sa vie à faire connaître l'histoire lumineuse d'Aristides de Sousa Mendes, des Justes parmi les Nations, et des Résistants durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

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  • Mark Ginsburg

    ETTINGER FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    My late mother was a Sousa Mendes visa recipient (Ida Ettinger, #2464). I am writing her biography. She told me many details of the journey from Paris to Portugal. I would like to experience it for myself, particularly with survivors and/or their descendants.

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  • Lissy Jarvik

    FEINGOLD FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    Without Aristides de Sousa Mendes I would not be here. It's as simple as that. Without Aristides de Sousa Mendes I would have suffered tortures so grievous and so prolonged that death would have been a welcome relief. Without Aristides de Sousa Mendes I would have missed out on three quarters of a century -- three quarters of a century which allowed me to breathe; to live, to love -- to mature, to marry, to have children, to study, to teach and to help a few people individually as well as to contribute a little bit to our knowledge base on aging and mental health. And I would have missed out on becoming part of a country which was the home of a truly free people, a country which offered opportunity to the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, the needy -- to people like me.

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  • Jerry, Ella and Leah Jarvik

    FEINGOLD FAMILY

    PARTICIPANTS

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    My mother, Lissy Jarvik, along with my grandparents, Leo and Regina Feingold and my aunt, Sonja Rath, all received visas from de Sousa Mendes. My mother has gone on journeys of remembrance similar to this several times, most recently with my brother and his wife last year, but never with her grandchildren. Given her age, this will likely be her last trip of this sort, and her granddaughters did not want to miss the opportunity of exploring their family’s past with their grandmother. We all are greatly looking forward to the journey and meeting others with whom our families share this amazing past.

    -Jerry
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  • Alexandra Grinkrug

    GRINKRUG FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    Through internet, 3 or 4 times around, I finally delved further into the life of Aristides de Sousa Mendes. My curiosity finally awakened: indeed 1940 was the year we arrived in N.Y. Having left Paris, saying goodbye to my dear "Nana," we stayed in Salies de Béarn, where I innocently played with the dog and watering hose, spraying the onlookers. What fun I had! Then I remember in Spain, all of our luggage falling off from the rack on top of our car, coming thunderously down, Ayyyy! Then Luso, Boussaco, my father white tuxedoed accompanied by my well perfumed mother leaving me in the care of Maria de Los Angelos, my Portuguese nanny, to go to the neighboring Casino. Then I remember being on the boat (Nea Hellas) and was told the unbelieved tale by Uncle Misha that the boat was being pulled by a whale!? But, what had all this to do with the consul in Bordeaux? I lazily got in touch with the Foundation & asked if my family name meant something? I was instructed to send documentation, which I had galore including a rare Nansen passport. Olivia, dear Olivia, pushed me to and fro for further details, clearer scans, etc. eureka the "evidence" was there among the 30000 saved! I have spent many hours since then finding photos of friends and family who were unsuspected of being indebted to Sousa Mendes. I am so thrilled to have unraveled such a magnificent & long lost tale. My only regret is that my parents never heard of their benefactor. As well as most of that generation who were so conscious of the peril. So I am proud to join in this "pilgrimage" to the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, and gather some links to my well being & so far beautiful Life, to be accompanied by my little cousin Helena Klots, participating in this excitement! Thank you.

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  • Helena Klots

    GRINKRUG FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    I am fascinated with the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes. There are two main reasons for this. My great uncle Onesime (Nika) Grinkrug, my favorite aunt Alex Grinkrug (who is on this trip), my other uncle Misha Grinkrug -- they all were saved from Nazi extermination by Sousa Mendes. They left France for the United States at the last moment (or, it seems, even slightly after the last moment). And we never knew the real story of their miraculous escape until recently. This is why both Alex and I are on this trip. But there is one more reason that makes this trip so significant for me. I was raised in the Soviet Union, and I had the first-hand experience of how difficult, and sometimes dangerous, it was to be Jewish. It took eight years of struggle, experience of intimidation and interrogations for my husband, me and our four children to escape the Soviet Union. Eventually we were released from the Soviet Union and could go to Israel. It happened just at the very beginning of Perestroika. After six years in Israel my husband's career brought us to California, where we live now. So the narrative of the escape, surely not even remotely as dramatic as of my great uncle Nika and of my aunt Alex, is still very close to my heart. It is definitely still a part of my life. And this is why I am fascinated and amazed by people like Sousa Mendes.

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  • Paulette Freed

    KLEINHAUS FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    I'm interested in following the path my parents took to their freedom as well as sharing this experience with others who have a similar story.

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  • Olivia Mattis

    MATUZEWITZ FAMILY

    TOUR CO-LEADER

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    I am a musicologist by training and profession and grew up in Scarsdale, NY. My father and eleven other members of my family received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes as they fled from Belgium in May and June of 1940. In 2010 I co-founded the Sousa Mendes Foundation, which I ran for five years on top of my full-time job in academic administration. Now I am devoting my daytime hours to the Foundation, and feel very fulfilled.

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  • Marianne Rosenberg and Burt Ovrut

    ROSENBERG FAMILY

    PARTICIPANTS

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    This trip is to honor the memory of Sousa Mendes who saved 17 members of my family, including my grandfather Paul Rosenberg, the legendary Paris-based art dealer. My father, Alexandre Rosenberg, was also a visa holder but never got to use it as the French authorities refused to let young men over 17 leave France; he ultimately escaped nevertheless and joined the Free French Forces under De Gaulle. Over the years I had heard and read much about Sousa Mendes' extraordinary courage. Finally, through this journey, I will be able to connect to his name and to his family, and retrace the steps that my distraught but grateful family took towards safety and freedom. It promises to be both a historically interesting and an emotionally charged trip. I would not miss it for anything. I will be joined by Professor Burt Ovrut, part of whose family also lived in Paris prior to the German invasion and fled through various means to the United States.

    -Marianne
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  • Gerald Mendes

    SOUSA MENDES FAMILY

    TOUR CO-LEADER

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    I'm very pleased and honored to join this 3rd edition of the "Journey on the Road to Freedom" that will bring us together in the footsteps of the refugees, of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and his family. Other family members will join us as well in different parts of this trip. I look forward to hearing your testimonies and personal stories, as each one of them enriches and documents the story of my grandfather, Aristides de Sousa Mendes. This Journey will also take us to beautiful areas of France, of Spain and finally Portugal, where the refugees were greeted with so much humanity in 1940, despite the shameful "Circular 14" of Salazar.

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  • Rebecca and Sandy Barber

    STEPPEL FAMILY

    PARTICIPANTS

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    My husband and I are making this journey in hopes that we will continue to unravel details of my mother's escape from Dusseldorf to Lisbon. I am in possession of a beautifully written diary (in German) that my mother kept from 1939 to 1941. She was only 19 years old. She never spoke of her wartime experiences. It has been translated, edited and self published. We now know that she and her immediate family received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes. We are excited to see all the places she so vividly described.

    -Rebecca
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  • Ella Andriesse

    VAN DEN BERGH FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    I participated in the 2016 trip, which was memorable. Porto and Estoril were not included in that trip. As they were important in the WWII journeys of my family, I am joining the 2017 trip to experience these important locations as well.

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  • Cookie Fischer

    VAN DEN BERGH FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    My mother Ada van den Bergh was a visa recipient. My cousin Ella Andriesse was a participant in the 2016 trip. In our conversation we discovered so many hidden secrets that my mother never revealed. I would like to experience her escape and feel the courage she showed. This is a once in a lifetime possibility to understand her determination to survive. My mother was a survivor. This I have inherited from her.