1999 Colocação de Plaque na Casa de Angelina em Beijós

 A familia Sousa Mendes veio a Beijós para celebrar Angelina de Sousa Mendes e colocar uma placa na antiga casa de família, a Casa do Ribeiro! 

A placa foi da iniciativa de Francisco Abílio Abrantes em colaboração com a familia do filho João Paulo Abranches, vizinhos na California. 

2024 Dia Mundial dos Refugiados e a inauguração do Museu Sousa Mendes

Os nossos agradecimentos à Dra Odete Paiva, Diretora do Museu Grão Vasco e à empresa SCABAL por esta oportunidade de falar da ação de salvamento de Aristides de Sousa Mendes que tocou tantas vidas, como a de Gala e Salvador Dali em 20 de Junho de 1940.

A autora Ana Cristina Luz falou do seu livro sobre as personalidades da cultura que receberam vistos de Aristides de Sousa Mendes, que ajuda a contrariar o esquecimento daqueles tempos tenebrosos.

Cookie van den Bergh Fischer falou de como veio a saber da história da chegada da sua mãe ao porto de Leixões a bordo do buque Milena, também graças ao visto de Aristides de Sousa Mendes. 

A professora e artista plástica Josefa Reis falou do Projeto Dever de Memória que envolve os alunos da Escola Aristides de Sousa Mendes em Cabanas de Viriato.

Eu falei dos contatos que a Sousa Mendes Foundation - US tem feito desde 2010 junto das famílias que encontraram refúgio em Portugal em 1940. Muitos descendentes estão agora a recuperar as memórias da família. Alguns vão assistir à inauguração do Museu Aristides de Sousa Mendes a 19 de Julho 2024, na Casa do Passal, em Cabanas de Viriato.

Neste Dia Mundial dos Refugiados, milhares de pessoas voltam a fugir da guerra, da perseguição, da pobreza e até das alterações climáticas. Impedir a deslocação dos refugiados é como tentar “parar o vento com os dedos”. Compete-nos conhecer a realidade dos refugiados de hoje e fazermos por ser parte da solução, pelo acolhimento, pela tolerância, pelo apoio nos momentos críticos e pela inclusão. 

Mariana Abrantes 

Our thanks to Odete Paiva, Director of the Grão Vasco Museum and the company SCABAL for this opportunity to talk about the rescue action of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, who touched so many lives, including those of Gala and Salvador Dali on June 20, 1940.

Author Ana Cristina Luz spoke of her book about the cultural personalities who received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Writing and speaking of the importance of good deeds in the darkest of times, helps to counteract the forgetting.

Cookie van den Bergh Fischer spoke about how she came to know the story of her mother's arrival at the port of Leixões aboard the fishing boat Milena with her cousins, also thanks to visas by Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

Teacher and artist Josefa Reis spoke about the Duty of Memory Project that involves students at the Aristides de Sousa Mendes School in Cabanas de Viriato.

I spoke about the contacts that the Sousa Mendes Foundation - US has made since 2010 with families who found refuge in Portugal in 1940. Many descendants are now restoring their family memories. Some will attend the inauguration of the Aristides de Sousa Mendes Museum on July 19, 2024, at Casa do Passal, in Cabanas de Viriato, Carregal do Sal.

On this June 20^th, World Refugee Day, thousands of people are once again fleeing war, persecution, poverty and even climate change. Preventing the movement of refugees is like trying to “stop the wind with your fingers”. It is up to us to understand the reality of the refugees of today and to become part of the solution, through our own  acceptance, tolerance, support in critical moments and inclusion.  

From Memory to Action! 

Vamos passando pela Casa do Passal

Enquanto prosseguem as obras de reabilitação do interior e de transformação da Casa do Passal, este Monumento Nacional continua a receber visitas e a recordar o legado de Aristides de Sousa Mendes. 

Um grupo do projeto Erasmus+, constituído por professores do Agrupamento de Escolas de Tábua, da Turquia e de Itália, fizeram um roteiro cultural pela região, onde incluíram a residência do Cônsul Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

Contactar com as terras da Beira e aflorar os seus recursos foram os objetivos da visita que contemplou a Casa do Passal, em Cabanas de Viriato, face ao exemplo de Aristides de Sousa Mendes e o gesto humanitário perpetrado no ato do Cônsul português em Bordéus.

Após a explanação sobre a ação de Aristides de Sousa Mendes, os visitantes ficaram ainda mais curiosos e, pela certa com vontade de regressar, para visitarem o futuro Museu dedicado ao Cônsul, cujas obras de recuperação decorrem a bom ritmo.

28 junho 2023 https://www.cm-carregal.pt/pages/821?news_id=2633

Hans and Sophie Scholl and the White Rose German resistance circle

The last surviving member of the the White Rose resistance circle that campaigned against the Hitler regime passed in 2023

The Sousa Mendes Foundation presented the important story of the White Rose movement who sought to mobilize the German people to resist the Nazi regime in  1943. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXHKCVB47Ug

TheWhite Rose circle sought to be the Conscience of the German people. 

Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie were Hitler Youth leaders from Ulm who were transformed into resistance leaders who wrote and distributed leaflets and were executed for it. 

Traute Lafrenz, the last of this  White Rose German resistance circle, died in March 2023, aged 103

Bordeaux 1940 - This was the week that made all the difference in WWII

This was the week that was... in Bordeaux June 1940!

Page from Curious George 

The events of June 1940t made all the difference for thousands of refugee families fleeing from the Nazi invasion, for the resistance of France, and for the mobilization of the allied forces of freedom which eventually prevailed in World War II. 

On this Day of Conscience, we remember the courage of Aristides de Sousa Mendes,  83 years ago, who decided to follow his conscience and try to "save all those people whose affliction was indescribable"with the help of 

Rabbi Chaim Kruger, the consular staff and his family.

NEVER FORGET the suffering of the victims. 

Always remember the rescue actions and the 

moral imperative of the rescuers 

who followed their conscience in the face of 

great danger and unknown risks. 

Rabbi Chaim Kruger and 
Aristides de Sousa Mendes 1940

Engraving of refgugees in Bordeaux 1940

This was also the week that Paris was over-run and the Government of France retreated to Bordeaux.   On 16-June, General Charles de Gaulle left Bordeaux for London, from where he made a broadcast on BBC radio calling on the French to resist the Nazi invasion, on 18-June-1940.

"La France n'est pas seule!"  

Charles de Gaulle https://www.lemonde.fr/en/videos/video/2023/01/19/how-le-monde-recreated-de-gaulle-s-lost-1940-call-for-france-to-resist_6012188_108.html

Pope Francis said in 2020:  Freedom of conscience must be respected always and everywhere   https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-06/pope-francis-day-of-freedom-of-conscience.html 

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