Selected records from the Historic Diplomatic Archives of the Diplomatic Instituto of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministerio Negocios Estrangeiros Holocausto records

Copyright Holder: Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros, Serviço de Arquivo Histórico-Diplomático Consists of correspondence, identity documents, instructions, reports, certifications, name lists, and telegrams relating to the Portuguese policies related to Jews in Portugal, France, Hungary and other countries in the era of World War II. Includes material concerning the investigation and dismissal of Aristides de Sousa Mendes from government service and Portuguese policy regarding the admission of Jewish refugees into Portugal. Includes also visa requests from Jews and others hoping to flee Nazi-occupied countries, either passing through or settling in Portugal; as well as records relating of Portugal’s relations with the Holy See, which were fraught with tension during the time Portugal became a republic until the early 1930’s; diplomatic relations with Romania and commercial treaties; information about the plan to send German Jews to Portuguese colonies in Africa and some of these settlements during the 1930’s. Other records include individual requests for transit visas made directly to Antonio Salazar, who took on the role of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the 1930’s; the decree made by Salazar in March, 1939, forbidding Portuguese diplomats from delivering visas to Russians, Czechs, Austrians, Germans, Poles and Jews in general and forbidding the deliverance of transit visas to anyone who did not have a purchased steamship ticket leaving from Portugal; as well as documents pertaining to the internal disciplinary trial of Aristides de Sousa Mendes; documents concerning Jews trying to obtain Portuguese citizenship and protection from the Portuguese legations in Paris, Salonika, Istanbul, and elsewhere; questions concerning questionable claims to Portuguese nationality from Jews born in Russia or elsewhere. Diplomats who helped save Jews include: Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux, José Agusto de Magalhães in Marseille, Sempaio de Texeira in Budapest.