Irene Pimentel Potsdam February 2012 Jewish refugees and anti-Nazis among the Portuguese during the...

Irene PimentelIrene PimentelPotsdamPotsdam

February 2012February 2012

Jewish refugees and anti-Nazis Jewish refugees and anti-Nazis among the Portugueseamong the Portuguese

during the Second World War during the Second World War

..As soon as Hitler rose to power, in As soon as Hitler rose to power, in 1933, persecutions against Jews, 1933, persecutions against Jews,

political opponents, and all those who political opponents, and all those who the national-socialist government the national-socialist government

considered to be outside the “Arian” considered to be outside the “Arian” Volksgemeinschaft (People’s Volksgemeinschaft (People’s

Community) began.Community) began. As the oppression and anti-Semitic As the oppression and anti-Semitic

laws toughened, the number of refugees laws toughened, the number of refugees seeking sanctuary in other European seeking sanctuary in other European

countries grew.countries grew.

The European Countries closed their doors to The European Countries closed their doors to the refugees.the refugees.

Portugal also began to restrict its border policy Portugal also began to restrict its border policy namely to “emigrants” who could not return to namely to “emigrants” who could not return to

their country of origin, as was the case of their country of origin, as was the case of German Jews.German Jews.

Joining these, following the “annexation” of Joining these, following the “annexation” of Austria, the invasion of the Sudetes and of Austria, the invasion of the Sudetes and of

Poland , were the Austrians, Czechoslovakian Poland , were the Austrians, Czechoslovakian and Polish.and Polish.

Following the invasion of several European Following the invasion of several European countries, particularly France by the countries, particularly France by the

Wehrmacht, those fleeing Hitler who had found Wehrmacht, those fleeing Hitler who had found refuge in other countries had to continue refuge in other countries had to continue

fleeing, ever more westwards.fleeing, ever more westwards.

Portugal, a neutral country during the

Second World War, became one of the

few European places of refuge for the

large number of refugees, fleeing from

war and the persecution of the

national-socialist regime.

Difficulties

• the entry of refugees was hindered by the

Police

•their presence tolerated as a temporary stay

• permanent exile was prohibited.

They waited in Portugal for a visa and a

means of transport that would take them to

Africa, South America or to the USA where

there were entry quotas according to

nationality.

THE PORTUGUESE DICTATORSHIP:

• nationalistic

• sympathised with the anti-communism and anti-

liberalism of the German regime

BUT:

• it differentiated itself in key aspects from the

totalitarian, expansionist, and racist German regime

•the anti-Semitism was absent in its ideology and in

Portuguese society

• the Portuguese neutrality allowed for the rescue through

Portugal of those persecuted by national-socialism.

Factors that allowed Portugal Factors that allowed Portugal to rescue many of those to rescue many of those persecuted by German national-persecuted by German national-socialismsocialism

1. Portugal under the Oliveira Salazar’s

dictatorship

• Civil dictatorship institutionalised by the 1933

Constitution

• Suppression of freedom of expression and association

•Reorganization of censorship

•Creation of the “Police of Vigilance and Defence of the

State”, in charged of emigration and border control

• an authoritarian an authoritarian dictatorshipdictatorship

• a head of government who a head of government who controlled a National controlled a National Assembly composed of a Assembly composed of a single party, elected in non-single party, elected in non-competitive electionscompetitive elections

• the ideals of the far right the ideals of the far right with traditional with traditional conservatism and conservatism and corporatist, anti-liberal and corporatist, anti-liberal and anti-communist Catholicismanti-communist Catholicism

1935 – 1936: a paramilitary militia 1935 – 1936: a paramilitary militia ( “The Portuguese Legion”) and state ( “The Portuguese Legion”) and state organizations of women and youth were organizations of women and youth were createdcreated

Not a biological Not a biological racismracism

Biological racism – namely Biological racism – namely anti-Semitism – was not part of anti-Semitism – was not part of the Salazar ideology the Salazar ideology

Salazar’s ideology applied the Salazar’s ideology applied the term “race” in the context of a term “race” in the context of a national historic and cultural national historic and cultural communitycommunity

Even when political rights Even when political rights were removed, the Portuguese were removed, the Portuguese were not driven out of the were not driven out of the “nation” and retained their “nation” and retained their nationalitynationality

The Portuguese Jewish community, The Portuguese Jewish community, with about 3000 members, was with about 3000 members, was integrated in society, many of them integrated in society, many of them practicing liberal professions such as practicing liberal professions such as medicine and law - medicine and law - NO ONE WAS NO ONE WAS CLASSIFIED AS “JEWISH”CLASSIFIED AS “JEWISH”..

The The PortuguesePortuguese::

Did not discriminate the Did not discriminate the Jews for being JewishJews for being Jewish

Did not understand why a Did not understand why a German Jew was no German Jew was no longer German because longer German because he/she was Jewishhe/she was Jewish

2. Portugal in the Second World

War, a neutral country:

•at first it was “equidistant” between the two

fighting camps

•from the second-half of 1942 onwards it

became “collaborative” with the Anglo-

American side

Portugal’s neutrality was facilitated by the

Allies as well as the Axis.

3. Difficulties faced by refugees from 1936

•1936 - the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs restricts

entry to stateless individuals and Poles with a 30 day visa.

•1938 – it stipulated that “Jewish emigrants” would henceforth

require “tourist” visas, valid for 30 days, to enter Portugal

It was the word “emigrant”, who were not allowed

to return to their country of origin (Germany) and

not the word “Jewish” that scared the Portuguese

authorities.

• Until October 1941, Germany incentivized the exit-expulsion of Jews by stealing their possessions and property and prohibiting their return.

• Following the Austrian Anschluss (annexation), the creation of anti-Semitic laws in Italy and the crystal-night pogrom in Germany, the “flood” into neighboring countries of these “emigrants” who could not return to their country of origin, led to the conference of Evian, in July 1938, which “settled” the issue by limiting the entry and stay of refugees.

• Germany began, in 1938, to place the letter “J” on all Jewish passports.

Why?Why?

Although it was not anti-Semitism that motivated

the Portuguese government, but the danger of mass

emigration to the country, the outcome of the

border policy became objectively anti-Semitic.

The director of The director of the political the political police sent a police sent a confidential confidential letter to Salazar letter to Salazar askingasking::

for a toughening of visa for a toughening of visa policy, in particularly for policy, in particularly for Jews, «generally morally Jews, «generally morally and politically and politically undesirable». undesirable».

For the refusal of those who:For the refusal of those who: do not possess financial means do not possess financial means

for their stay in Portugalfor their stay in Portugal cannot return to their country of cannot return to their country of

originorigin plan to travel to America but plan to travel to America but

show no guarantee of being able show no guarantee of being able to do so to do so

without an entry visa for the without an entry visa for the country of final destinationcountry of final destination

- 1939 - Salazar sent out a memo to its diplomatic

missions stating that henceforth only career diplomats,

and no longer honorary consuls, could grant visas.

- On January 1940 - the PVDE prohibited the Amsterdam

consulate from granting visas to “all” Jewish Germans,

even those who had destination visas

- On December 1940 - transit visas were only granted

with prior authorization from the PVDE

This tougher measure was introduced as a

result of the action of the consul in

Bordeaux, Aristides Sousa Mendes, who

granted thousands of visas against

Salazar’s orders.

July 1933 July 1933 - a law prohibited foreigners to - a law prohibited foreigners to work for others in sectors where there was work for others in sectors where there was unemployment of Portuguese nationals, but unemployment of Portuguese nationals, but they were allowed to be self-employedthey were allowed to be self-employed

April 1939 April 1939 - foreigners would not be - foreigners would not be allowed to practice medicine, except in allowed to practice medicine, except in exceptional circumstancesexceptional circumstances

October 1940October 1940 - this was extended to the - this was extended to the theatre theatre

March 1942 March 1942 - to engineering and - to engineering and architecturearchitecture..

The majority of refugees:

•would only be granted a Portuguese transit visa once they had

the visa for their country of final destination and a ticket to

continue their journey

• would only remain in Portugal for the time of their arrival and

departure.

Many stayed in the country for longer. One of the main

difficulties was surviving in a country where they were

prohibited from working.

“Refugee centres”:

•hotels, boarding houses and rented rooms many of them supported

by American aid organizations

• refugees could not work or travel more than 3 kilometres away

from the place of “fixed residence” without authorisation from the

Police, although they had free transit within these places.

4. Refugees among the Portuguese

1940 – 1941 - According to an estimate made by the

Israeli Community of Lisbon, about 40 000 refugees had

entered Portugal.

.

5. The arrival of new customs to the Portuguese

capital

•The presence of refugees in public spaces (cafés,

esplanades) introduced new habits

• Some Portuguese women were attracted to the

“independent look of these women” and despite the

scandal, there began to emerge among them a

fascination for the new habits (the short hair-cut

refugee-style, cork-wedged shoes and short dresses)

Portugal became “the most western beach of Europe

where now a variety of languages are spoken and where

women of all types of beauty can be found” (Diário de

Notícias, September 1940)

New swimwear regulations were

approved: swimsuits had to

include a petticoat, for women,

and a shirt that covered the

upper body for men.

6. A farewell to Europe

At their hour of departure, Lisbon symbolised the

farewell of the Europe which, despite everything, they

did not want to abandon.

In October 1940, Heinrich Mann:

“Looking upon Lisbon I saw the port. It would be the

image of Europe that remains. I thought it incredibly

beautiful. A beloved one lost could not be more

beautiful. All that was given to me, I lived it in Europe,

joy and sadness (…) But the how painful that farewell

was”.

Hans Natonek, 1941:

“Before me, in front of me, almost disappearing, were

some of the most beautiful scenes of the European past,

baroque and gothic (…) in the golden light of the setting

sun I saw the towers of Prague, the gentle Austrian

landscape, Luxemburg, Paris – a whole life lived in

Europe (…) It was as if this last look made Europe

disappear”

The End

-- During those days in June, Captain Agostinho Lourenço, of the

PVDE, went immediately to the frontier, where he was forced to

distribute the mass of refugees that were gathering there.

- He therefore decided to put in action the idea suggested by

Comassis, to transfer many of them to resort areas where there

were hotels and boarding houses.

- This suggestion came from Augusto d’Esaguy, head of the

COMASSIS whose goal was to reduce the tension felt by the

Portuguese authorities due to the chaotic border situation, and

as such get the government to ease the rules for granting

transit visas.

- This idea also alleviated the situation in Lisbon, where there

were thousands of refugees, at a time when the Exhibition of

the Portuguese World and the Double Centenary was taking

place.

In “Refugee centres” , refugees could not work or travel

more than 3 kilometres away from their place of “fixed

residence” without authorisation from the PVDE, although

they had free transit within these places where they lived in

hotels, boarding houses and rented rooms many of them

supported by American aid organisations.- One of the main difficulties

for refugees in these places

was to find a way to make a

living as well as obtaining visas

for countries of exile as these

could only be requested in

Lisbon or Oporto, where

refugees would sometimes go

without police authorisation

risking prison.

extensions of very little

duration.

- Although initially authorisations for residence were

almost always renewed, from the end of 1940 the PVDE

began to grant only.

- For those who in 1940, and following years, spent a brief

time in the capital, Lisbon appeared to them as a peaceful

and illuminated “paradise”, with bustling shops where

there was no war or black outs and where they did not

feel persecuted.

- But, for those more observant, the cosmopolitan image of

the capital could not hide the sight of barefooted

children, beggars, char ladies, shoe polishers and

degraded neighbourhoods in a country where

appearances were everything and men were dominant.

The German intellectual Eva Lewinski felt on arriving to

Lisbon in October 1940, the same relief as most refugees.

However, she also felt unease and indignation in face of the

misery:

“Suddenly, walking free in the street without papers or fear of

the police, sitting in cafes, speaking in whichever language we

liked, seeing the street lights throughout the night, seeing the

shops filled with foodstuffs, newspapers in all languages,

books, books, books (…) but right next to the rich part of town

there was Alfama, where the misery and dirt were

indescribable (…) It should never be forgotten».

crianças.htm

- “Lisbon is sold out”, was how the Czech journalist Eugen

Tillinger described the Portuguese capital in October 1940

before being placed in “fixed residence” at Figueira da Foz.

- According to him, you almost never heard Portuguese being

spoken in Rossio square. “The cafes and restaurants are

overflowing” – wrote the Czech journalist – “there arrived in

the country considerable sums of foreign currency which are

circulated among the immigrants. But the Portuguese are

aware of this and are very kind to foreigners”

As Tillinger himself pointed out, the owners of boarding

houses and hotels, those who rented out rooms, shop and café

employees as well as exporters who, breaking the blockade,

would send products to countries occupied by the Axis, all

these were who profited most from the presence of the

refugees.

4.1 The arrival of new customs to the Portuguese capital

- The forced idleness brought out a mass of refugees into

public spaces where their presence introduced new habits

- Café esplanades, and the more liberated attitude of the

refugees which sat in them, were phenomena that marked the

Portuguese during the war period.

- some Portuguese women began to be attracted to the

“independent look of these women” and despite the scandal,

there began to emerge among them a fascination for the new

habits.

- The foreign women influenced fashion, with the introduction

of the turban, the short hair-cut refugee-style, cork-wedged

shoes and short dresses.

- Following their example, many young Portuguese women also

started to sit in cafés, going alone to the cinema and leaving

the house without stockings, gloves or a hat.

- Also, the beaches started to fill with refugees from the

summer of 1940 onwards. On the 11th September the

portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias had an article

rejoicing in the fact that Portugal had become “the most

western beach of Europe where now a variety of

languages are spoken and where women of all types of

beauty can be found”On 13th October 1941 however, another

article in O Seculo announced new

swimwear regulations, recently

approved by the Ministry of the

Interior.

- The presence of the refugees was, in

this way, also the cause of the

introduction of new laws regulating

habits, namely regarding the use of

swimsuits, which had to include a

petticoat, for women, and a shirt that

covered the upper body for men.

6. A farewell to Europe

At their hour of departure, Lisbon symbolised the

farewell of the Europe which, despite everything, they

did not want to abandon.

In October 1940, Heinrich Mann:






was”.

Hans Natonek, 1941:







disappear”

- From 1942 onwards, it became easier for the few refugees

that still made it to Portugal, who were now mostly

individuals who could still enter the country, sometimes

clandestinely.

- In this same period, both refugee aid organisations and the

allied governments would intercede on behalf of refugees to

obtain permits from the MNE for dislocation to and

permanent stay in Portugal.

- Also in 1942, following an agreement between these

organisations and the police, incarcerated refugees, being

“social and political” prisoners, or clandestine or without

papers, were released and placed in “fixed residence”.

- After 1943, when the Portuguese neutrality became

collaborative with the allies who had started to win the war,

the Portuguese government became more susceptible to

Anglo-American pressure to save those persecuted by Nazism.

- On 4th February 1943, the German embassy in Lisbon

informed Salazar and the minister of Foreign Affairs, “out of

courtesy”, that they were intending to detain and expel all

foreign Jews in occupied countries.

- Jews with a Portuguese passport were from then on

considered national citizens and so the government treated

them differently to other refugees. 140 Sephardic Jews of

Portuguese ancestry resident in France and about 30 Jews in

Greece with a Portuguese passport, some of which were

already in the concentration camp of Bergen Belsen, were

repatriated.

- It should be noted, however, that while the MNE, which stated

its reasons were humanitarian ones,

-although in reality it was pressure from the Vatican and the

American government, allowed the repatriation, the PVDE on

the other hand, stating fake claims of nationality, wanted to

postpone the repatriation proposing only wealthy refugees who

could prove their Portuguese nationality should be allowed into

Portugal

- However, the “repatriation” campaign of Portuguese Jews

involved a small number of those persecuted and who, for their

survival in Portugal, relied on the support of ally countries and

international aid organisations.

- Adding to this, Portugal did not allow a permanent stay even in

these cases.

.

- It seems that Jewish aid organisations

exaggerated the number of refugees

that passed through Portugal; for

example the American Jewish Joint

Committee stated that between 1940

and the beginning of 1944 about 100

000 refugees came through Portugal.- If this number is inflated, then the one supplied to António Leite de

Faria, a diplomat in London, by MI6 certainly is according to whom

150 000 Jews found refuge in or passed through Portugal.

- In short, although it is difficult to obtain accurate estimates, due

also to the existence of clandestine refugees, it is thought that

during the Second World War between 50 000 and 100 000 refugees

came to Portugal, with the highest number during the summer of

1940.

Portugal and the “saving” of those persecuted by Hitler- Knowing exactly how many refugees passed through Portugal during the Second World War is difficult due to the lack of sources.

- In Portugal all was done to ensure the refugees did not

integrate or settle, even though the government, who didn’t

directly assist the refugees, allowed aid organisations to do

so.

- Salazar managed in a pragmatic and nationalistic manner

the inevitable and unwanted invasion, not wanting refugees

to take up places in the workplace nor to infect, with their

cultural and political opinions, the dictated life imposed on

the Portuguese.

- After the first regime crisis passed, after the war, Salazar

could breathe a sigh of relief as he had managed, with no

great pain, to make Portugal into a temporary refuge where

foreigners did not mingle dangerously with the Portuguese or

introduce new political ideas.

- The following episode may explain Salazar’s attitude:

- Among the refugees remaining in France, after 24th June

1940 – when the consulate in Bayonne was closed following

the granting of thousands of visas by the consul Aristides

de Sousa Mendes and Spanish authorities stopped

accepting Portuguese documents – there were 1000 Poles.

- By passing on a request from the diplomatic

representative in Poland, so that his compatriots would be

authorised to continue their journey and enter Portugal,

Armindo Monteiro, ambassador in Great Britain, in London,

interceded on their behalf using the argument that these

were “people pure of race”.

- Salazar refused their visas, stating that these refugees,

non-Jewish, were “precisely” the most “undesirable”:

«Refugees of a political and intellectual nature (…) are

the least desirable due to the activities that they will

want to carry out. Besides this, their sheer number

would require pre-emptive security and an immediate

departure to other countries, as there is no housing

capacity. Visas granted in Bordeaux were done so

against the specific instructions of the MNE by a consul

that I have already removed from office»

- The argument reveals that the Portuguese dictator was

especially concerned not only with the arrival, and

settlement, in mass, of foreigners with no possibility of

returning to their countries, but also the presence of other

cultural values and political ideas that could influence the

Portuguese people.

A farewell to Europe

- With the refugees, Europe “came” to Portugal and through

them the Portuguese could no longer ignore that they

belonged to the European continent.

- At their hour of departure, Lisbon symbolised the farewell,

perhaps forever, of that same Europe who, despite

everything, they did not want to abandon.

-In October 1940, Heinrich Mann said goodbye to Europe

with a last image of Lisbon.






was”.

For Hans Natonek, when the ship left the Tagus bar, in the

early months of 1941, the westernmost city of Europe

summarized, in the setting sun, a whole life lived on that

continent.







disappear”

- 1) Reasons stemming from the structure of the regime itself,

that reflect the character of the New State/Estado Novo and in

particular the absence of anti-Semitism.

- 2) Circumstantial reasons arising from Portugal’s foreign

policy during the Second World War.

- 3) Difficulties that force us to look at how the Portuguese

authorities behaved: the PVDE, Salazar and the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs.

Refugees among the Portuguese - In June 1940, a large amount of refugees reached the Portuguese border at Vilar Formoso, most of which had visas granted by the consulate in Bordeaux, Aristides Sousa Mendes.- According to an estimate made by the Israeli Community of Lisbon (CIL) and Joint, by August 1940 about 12 000 refugees had entered Portugal, which grew to 14 000 by November.- The same Joint highlighted that between June 1940 and May 1941, about 40 000 people had entered Portugal, a figure close to the one given by Comassis who stated 42 000 refugees had been supported this organisation.- During those days in June, Captain Agostinho Lourenço, of the PVDE, went immediately to Vilar Formoso from Lisbon, where he was forced to distribute the mass of refugees that were gathering there.- He therefore decided to put in action the idea suggested by Comassis, to transfer many of them to resort areas where there were hotels and boarding houses.

-, in its dealings with society, the

Estado Novo did not dominate over

all of society and allowed Family,

Army and Church to have their own

place.

- This happened even when, whilst

becoming more fascist in 1935 and

1936, a paramilitary militia was

created – the Portuguese Legion – and

state organisations of woman and

youths .

- For Great-Britain it was important to maintain the

neutrality of the Iberian Peninsula and ensure the safety

of the Atlantic and Mediterranean routes through the

cooperation of Salazar in preventing Germany allying

with Spain, who had just come out of a civil war where

the “nationalists” had won with the support of Germany

and Italy.

- On the other hand, the “equidistant” neutrality was also

economically advantageous to Germany who imported,

throughout the whole war, Portuguese and colonial

products it required.

- In June 1940, the arrival of Germans at the Pyrenees,

the declaration of “non-belligerence” by the Spanish and

the reinforcement of the Falangist’s German front in the

neighbouring country, put the neutrality in peril.

Hitler sought to occupy Gibraltar and the Iberian Peninsula

through Operation Félix, planned for 12th November 1940.

- In the end, Germany cancelled the operation and moved its

troops to the Balkans and Soviet Union, which was invaded in

June 1941.

xxxxxxxxxxx

- Two fields where the neutrality remained “equidistant” until

almost the end of the war were those of espionage and

propaganda on the one hand, and commercial ties on the

other.

- Portugal maintained its commercial ties with Germany, until

the second semester of 1944, through the exports and re-

exports of products that were vital to the Russian campaign,

especially tungsten, a fundamental component of the German

armoury.

But, as the course of the war changed in favour of the Allies,

when the salazarist wish for “a peace without winners or

losers” became improbable, a fear that a victory for the

Allies would mean the end of the New State/Estado Novo

became instilled in the heart of the regime.

- Portuguese neutrality went from “equidistant” to

“collaborative” with western Allies.

- In August 1943, after extensive talks, Salazar gave in to the

Anglo-American demands for the strategic use of a military

base on the Azores and in January 1944 declared an

embargo on the sale of tungsten to Germany, at the request

of England.

- In exchange, Salazar was able to maintain the regime and

Empire after the war.

4. Refugees among the

Portuguese

- In June 1940, a large

amount of refugees reached

the Portuguese border,

most of which had visas

granted by Aristides Sousa

Mendes.

.

- According to an estimate

made by the Israeli Community

of Lisbon (CIL) and Joint, by

August 1940 about 12 000

refugees had entered Portugal

- The same Joint highlighted

that between June 1940 and

May 1941, about 40 000 people

had entered Portugal.

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