Title: 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.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution honors Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches, who as consul of Portugal in Bordeaux, France, saved thousands of lives by issuing transit visas to French Jews and other persons, sparing them from Nazi occupation and the Holocaust.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 807 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 807

  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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 18, 2021

 Mr. Costa (for himself, Mr. Keating, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Cicilline, Mr. 
  Valadao, Mrs. Trahan, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Auchincloss, and Mr. Peters) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                           on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  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.

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 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 House of Representatives--
            (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 Clerk of the House of Representatives 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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