[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 73 (Wednesday, April 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2298-S2299]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 186--HONORING THE HUMANITARIAN WORK OF DR. ARISTIDES 
DE SOUSA MENDES DO AMARAL E ABRANCHES TO SAVE THE LIVES OF FRENCH JEWS 
                 AND OTHER PERSONS DURING THE HOLOCAUST

  Mr. ROMNEY (for himself and Mr. Murphy) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 186

       Whereas Nazi Germany invaded France on May 10, 1940, and 
     after brief but intense hostilities, secured the surrender of 
     France on June 22, 1940;
       Whereas, as a consequence of the Nazi conquest, the lives 
     of French Jews and Jewish and non-Jewish persons of other 
     nationalities seeking refuge in France were put in grave and 
     imminent danger;
       Whereas many thousands of those persons fled to Bordeaux, 
     France, and elsewhere in southwest France, seeking to 
     traverse Spain and escape to Portugal;
       Whereas, in 1939, the Government of Portugal under Antonio 
     de Oliveira Salazar issued Circular 14, which sharply 
     restricted the availability of visas to displaced persons;
       Whereas the Consul General of Portugal in Bordeaux was Dr. 
     Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches;
       Whereas, in June 1940, confronting a humanitarian crisis 
     and in defiance of Circular 14, Sousa Mendes, assisted 
     principally by his diplomatic colleagues Jose de Seabra, 
     Manuel de Vieira Braga, and Emile Gissot, issued without 
     charge tens of thousands of visas, including thousands to 
     fleeing Jews;
       Whereas Sousa Mendes reportedly stated, ``I declare that I 
     shall give, free of charge, a visa to whosoever shall request 
     it. My desire is to be with God against Man rather than with 
     Man and against God.'';
       Whereas those visas, as well as Sousa Mendes' personal 
     intervention at the border between France and Spain, enabled 
     the refugees to reach safety in Portugal;
       Whereas, in July 1940, the Government of Portugal under 
     Oliveira Salazar responded by recalling Sousa Mendes, 
     dismissing Sousa Mendes later from active diplomatic service, 
     and subjecting him to economic retribution and subsequent 
     ostracism;
       Whereas, in 1941, Sousa Mendes explained, ``In truth, I 
     disobeyed, but my disobedience does not dishonor me. I chose 
     to defy an order that to me represented the persecution of 
     true castaways who sought with all their strength to be saved 
     from Hitler's wrath. Above the order, for me, was God's law, 
     and that's the one I have always sought to adhere to without 
     hesitation. The true lesson of Christianity is to love one's 
     neighbor.'';
       Whereas, in 1954, Sousa Mendes died penniless in Lisbon, 
     Portugal, under the cloud of the discipline imposed for his 
     defiance;
       Whereas, in 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Sousa Mendes as a 
     Righteous Among the Nations for his selfless efforts to save 
     Jewish

[[Page S2299]]

     lives at personal risk to himself, making Sousa Mendes the 
     first of a number of diplomatic rescuers to be so honored;
       Whereas, in 1988, the United States Senate passed Senate 
     Resolution 270, 100th Congress, agreed to June 23, 1988, to 
     commemorate Sousa Mendes' humanitarian efforts;
       Whereas, in 1986, President of Portugal Mario Soares 
     posthumously rehabilitated Sousa Mendes, decorating Sousa 
     Mendes as an Officer of the Order of Liberty;
       Whereas, in 1988, the Parliament of Portugal posthumously 
     granted Sousa Mendes the status of Ambassador;
       Whereas, in 1995, President of Portugal Mario Soares 
     posthumously bestowed on Sousa Mendes the Grand Cross of the 
     Order of Christ;
       Whereas, in 2017, President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de 
     Sousa posthumously bestowed on Sousa Mendes Portugal's 
     highest honor, the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty;
       Whereas, in 2020, the Parliament of Portugal unanimously 
     voted to memorialize Sousa Mendes in the National Pantheon in 
     Lisbon; and
       Whereas, in 2020, on the 80th anniversary of his heroism, 
     the United States Commission for the Preservation of 
     America's Heritage Abroad initiated commemorations in honor 
     of Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux, France, and Portugal: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) honors and salutes the humanitarian and principled work 
     of Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches, 
     Consul of Portugal in Bordeaux, France, for acting with great 
     courage and at personal risk to issue transit visas to French 
     Jews and other persons, sparing them from Nazi occupation and 
     the Holocaust, thus saving many thousands of innocent lives; 
     and
       (2) directs the Secretary of the Senate to transmit copies 
     of this resolution to--
       (A) the President; and
       (B) the President of the Assembly of the Republic of 
     Portugal.

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