Joan Arnay Halperin and Monique Rubens Krohn, the daughters of two families rescued by the Portuguese diplomat, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, will tell the story of his unique and heroic accomplishment. As the Portuguese consul stationed in Bordeaux, France, Sousa Mendes found himself confronted in June of 1940 with the reality of many thousands of refugees outside the Portuguese consulate attempting to escape Nazi-occupied Europe.

In the end, he defied his government that was officially neutral, but pro-Nazi at the time and issued some 30,000 visas, including about 10,000 to Jews, over the period of a few days. Sousa Mendes’s act of heroism cost him and his family dearly. He was stripped of his diplomatic position and forbidden from earning a living. His children were blacklisted and prevented from attending university or finding meaningful work. They even lost their ancestral home.

After his death, Sousa Mendes was named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Today, the Sousa Mendes Foundation works to ensure that this hero receives the recognition he deserves.