[fishjumping]

Mendes was a Portugese diplomat working in Bordeaux, in France at the beginning of the Nazi invasion of that country in May 1940. There was a large influx of refugees at this time hoping to traverse Spain, reach Portugal, and then cross the Atlantic. Unofurtunately, the Portugese government had banned the passage of refugees through its territory, and Mendes was instructed not to give any more visas, particularly to Jews. 10, 000 refugees stranded in Bordeaux found themselves homeless, sitting around the main square. Mendes often walked around the city at night, and in one such instance met a Rabbi who was stranded, inviting him to the Portugese consulate. Mendes at first refused to grant entry visas to any Jews except the rabbi and his family without his governments consent, but after much pleading, Mendes had a change of heart. Mendes and Rabbi Kruger spent a whole day stamping thousands of passports with Portugese visas.

Eventually, Mendes even opened his home to refugees, who were described as "sitting on the floor and leaning against the walls outside...". Later, when a subordinate in Bayonne refused to grant visas to Jews on orders from the government, Mendes personally granted visas to even more Jews. When Spanish customs at Biarritz tried to block the refugees, Mendez was again ready and pleaded with Spanish officials, and all of the refugees were let through. Mendes saved thousands of people.

When Mendes returned to Lisbon, he was fired and eventually lost all his money, burdened with feeding a family of 13 children.
Mendes in interviews said he was motivated by his religious beliefs to intervene on behalf of the refugees, but truly an act such as this required extraordinary courage and a tremendous, unbreakable will. Reading this account only increased my sense of awareness of how easy it is to be a bystander, how typical, and seemingly reasonable and normal. The suffering this man endured because he saved people's lives was truly a terrible price to pay. On his own suffering Mendes said, "I could not have acted otherwise, and I therefore accept all that has befallen me with love." Wowsers...

Walter Suskind's story was a truly amazing one as well, and I loved the quote "What motivated my person was his love of life..."...if we all loved life that much! Arnold Douwes' story was also remarkable, because of the emphasis HelloWorld placed on the "personally" part. Not only was Douwes the manager behind the elaborate scheme to hide people, but he also made sure that everything went without a hitch, by escorting the refugees himself, an act that seems more and more amazing the more I thing about it!