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When the Nazis overran France in the spring of 1940, much of its Jewish population tried to escape the country. In order to cross the border south, they needed visas to Spain and Portugal, and tens of thousands of Jews, along with many other refugees, besieged the Portuguese consulate in Bordeaux in a desperate attempt to get the life-saving piece of paper. The Portuguese government forbade its consuls in France to issue visas without prior approval from the Foreign Ministry, but the consul in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, decided to disregard the order, throwing to the wind a thirty year diplomatic career. As Nazi tanks were closing in on Bordeaux, Sousa Mendes and his team worked around the clock for ten days and nights, barely stopping to sleep, just issuing visas and stamping pieces of paper. Sousa Mendes issued thousands of visas before collapsing from exhaustion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Portuguese government \u2013 which had little desire to accept any of these refugees \u2013 sent agents. To escort the disobedient consul back home, and fired him from the foreign office. Yet officials who Cared little for the plight of human beings nevertheless had deep respect for documents, and the visas Sousa Mendes issued against orders were respected by French, Spanish and Portuguese bureaucrats. A like, spiriting up to 30,000 people out of the Nazi death trap. Sousa Mendes, armed with little more. Than a rubber stamp, was responsible for the largest rescue operation by a single individual during the Holocaust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n