Customer Reviews

A Good Man in Evil Times: The Heroic Story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes -- The Man Who Saved the Lives of Countless Refugess in World War II

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is regratable that great men are rarely aknowledge as so in life. Aristides de Sousa Mendes was no exception, but his acts were expeptional. This book was long due. It's finally here, it's very well written, a just tribute to a men of honour, and I thank the author for it.

Aristides de Sousa Mendes saved ten thousand during the holocaust and paid a high cost for his ethical actions. This acounting should be more widely known--as should this hero's name. The individual stories make it even more compelling.

Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954) who served as Consul General of Portugal in San Francisco, CA from 1921 to 1924, risked everything -- his career, his family, his reputation, his savings, everything -- to save over 30,000 World War II refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied territories, 10,000 of whom Jewish, by providing Portuguese visas as Consul General of Portugal in Bordeaux, France. He, himself a Catholic, said "I would rather stand with God against man, than with man against God." Virtually unknown even among the Portuguese until fairly recently, he was selected in 2007 as the third Greatest Portuguese of all time. Three of his 14 children, Carlos (1922-1999), Sebastian (1923-2006), and John Paul Abranches (1932-2009) lived and died in the U.S.

José Alain Fralon, a journalist for Le Monde in Paris, describes Dr. Sousa Mendes' life especially from the 1930's in Belgium and France to his death in Lisbon in 1954. An excellent and quick read that encourages further reading on this war hero.

As the previous reviewer from Portugal noted, humanity sometimes fails to acknowledge people who do the right thing. Sousa Mendes was just such a man. He was a Portuguese Council in southern France at the time of the German invasion. Jews from the low countries and France fled south trying to get to the neutral countries of Spain and Portugal. These countries sealed their borders in most cases, so one had to have a visa to get across the border. Sousa Mendes violated his country's rule aginst these stateless persons, and literally issued thousands of visas so that these Jews and other opponents of the Nazis could escape. In the process, he destroyed his career and eventually died in poverty. He did do the proper thing where most others abided their country's rules.
This was an inspirational read. Fralon details the life of Sousa Mendes and Portugal's role in both World Wars. He also details a little of the fascist rule of Salzaar. Unfortunately there were no happy endings with Sousa Mendes. The Portuguese government even balked at honoring him, and was forced by outside pressure to recognize what he did in the nineties.