Preserving the legacy of Aristides de Sousa Mendes to honor family members lost

Matuzewitz family, Llodz, Poland

The  bitter and sweet memories both stay with us, with the dramas of the past stored quietly under better memories we collect as we move forward.

A month ago my friend Olivia Mattis shared a photo of 8 members of her family in Llodz, Poland, 5 of whom were murdered by Hitler.

We are so glad that other members of Olivia's family found Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux , 83 years ago today, and that Aristides's moral courage has inspired Olivia to do such great work to make his Act of Conscience known and to build the Sousa Mendes Foundation -US, for the last 13 years!

Obrigada Olivia Mattis!

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, diplomats and descendents of Sousa Mendes and of the families he saved at UN ceremony 2019

"The MATUZEWITZ family obtained visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux on May 31 and June 3, 1940 after a chance encounter on the streets of Bordeaux between Joseph MATUZEWITZ and Rabbi Chaim KRUGER, Sousa Mendes's right-hand man."

Matuzevitz visa 31-May-1940

Casa do Passal vale bem uma passagem mesmo antes da inauguração do Museu Sousa Mendes

Cabanas de Viriato vale bem uma visita, seja para a grande  animação do Carnaval tradicional, seja para os bons restaurantes. 

 

Mas a grande atração continua a ser a Casa do Passal, que está a ser reabilitada para o futuro museu memorial Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Justo entre as Nações.  

As obras internas continuam sob o comando da Câmara Municipal de Carrega do Sal. 

A garagem está a ser transformada em auditório, a exposição permanente está a ser preparada. 

Vamos acompanhando os trabalhos do museu a inaugurar em Julho 2024! 

ASM visa dated 28-May - Moed family visited Casa do Passal in 2013

The MOED family received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux on May 28, 1940.

They crossed into Portugal, where they lived in Porto. They sailed on the Nea Hellas from Lisbon to New York in September 1940.

Leon MOED received a visa from Aristides de Sousa Mendes on May 28, 1940.

He went on to become and architect in the US.

In 2013, his grandson Eric Moed created an award-winning installation in Casa do Passal, Work Towards Fairness, opened in the presence of a visitors organized by the Sousa Mendes Foundation-US in the Journey on the Road to Freedom, including other ASM Visa families, Sousa Mendes family members, local officials and the public. Casa do Passal was then in ruins, and restoration began the following year.

Moed 1940 http://sousamendesfoundation.org/family/moed

Passal Moed 2013 https://archinect.com/news/article/78217344/work-towards-fairness-restoring-the-casa-do-passal-in-honor-of-its-humanitarian-owner 

Journey on the Road to Freedom 2013

I am alive thanks to Aristides de Sousa Mendes

Making of video https://youtu.be/5Ngcm7AVHnI

Famílias de refugiados recordam a data do Visto de Aristides como o dia da libertação

Para as famílias que procuravam urgentemente escapar à invasão Nazi em 1940, o dia em que Aristides de Sousa Mendes lhes concedeu o visto de entrada para Portugal foi o momento de viragem na sua história, o dia da sua libertação. 

Com a tão desejada assinatura podiam passar a olhar para a frente e para a sua nova vida com segurança e esperança em vez de continuar a olhar para traz com incerteza e pavor. 

Eis algumas das famílias que comemoram esta semana o seu Dia da Libertação esta semana de 21-Maio e que já voltaram a visitar Portugal  

A família KAUFMANN e Friedrich KOCH receberam vistos de Aristides de Sousa Mendes em Bordéus a 24 de maio de 1940. Estes vistos foram explicitamente negados por Salazar, o chefe de Estado português. atravessaram para Portugal, onde residiam em Caldas da Rainha. 

Max KAUFMANN e Friedrich KOCH voaram de Lisboa para Nova York no Dixie Clipper em outubro de 1940.Grete KAUFMANN e seus filhos Annelies e Hans embarcaram no navio Siboney de Lisboa para Nova York em dezembro de 1940.

http://sousamendesfoundation.org/family/kaufmann-koch 

A família ROZENFELD, de Lodz, na Polônia, recebeu vistos de Aristides de Sousa Mendes em Bordeaux, na França, em 24 de maio de 1940.

Eles cruzaram para Portugal, onde residiram em Lisboa. Em julho de 1940, eles navegaram para Nova York no navio Nea Hellas.

Em 1945, eles foram naturalizados como cidadãos americanos.

http://sousamendesfoundation.org/family/rozenfeld

Giving Forward: Um bom Legado pode ser Replicado

The extraordinary Legacy of Aristides de Sousa Mendes has been replicated by the life's work of many of the people he saved, like Jean-Claude van Italie. 

Even though we are far away in Angelina's village in central Portugal, we are pleased to read of the work of the Shantigar Foundation which is devoted to the practices of meditation, theater of sacred intent, and engagement with nature—and discovering where these practices meet.

Shantigar Foundation is continuing the work of its founder Jean-Claude van Italie,1936-2021, an ASM visa recipient who was  only 4-years old  when he and his family received life-saving visas to Portugal from Aristides de Sousa Mendes, and thus were able to leave France one step ahead of the invaders.

Jean-Claude recorded a testimonial about his family’s flight from France to Portugal and beyond which can be seen in http://sousamendesfoundation.org/family/brunell-levy-van-itallie.

"Jean-Claude van Itallie, born in Brussels, Belgium,   fled the Holocaust with his family. He was raised in Great Neck, New York and attended Harvard University. In the early 1960s, Jean-Claude’s work was seminal in the revolutionary new theater in Greenwich Village. He was one of LaMama’s first playwrights and served as playwright-of-the-ensemble for Joe Chaikin's Open Theater, with whom he wrote The Serpent.

In 1977, Jean-Claude invited his Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, to retreated at his farm in Western Massachusetts to write his renowned Shambala teachings. Trungpa renamed the farm, "Shantigar," which means "Peaceful Home." Jean-Claude subsequently turned Shantigar into a not-for-profit foundation."

SEE https://www.shantigar.org/copy-of-about 

The Waldheim Waltz

Estas histórias de 1940's foram re-descobertas apenas em 1986, uma boa, outra não 

Em Memória de Benjamin Ferencz procurador da acusação nos Julgamentos de Nuremberga

A luta pela liberdade e a justiça continuou depois do fim dos combates em WWII. 

Um desses "combatentes" foi o brilhante advogado Benjamin Ferencz, recusado pela Força Aérea por ser baixito, mas que fez história na acusação dos criminosos de guerra do regime Nazi nos Julgamentos de Nuremberga. 

A Sousa Mendes Foundation visitou o Benjamin Ferencz, então com 102 anos, um dos gigantes da justiça internacional do século XX, cheio de energia e determinação, 

Veja o video da entrevista extraordinária de Junho 2021, 

VER o Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axi5UmDrs5U