ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview of what Portugal’s neutrality entailed during World War II and also offers a survey of how memories of the conflict have evolved in the country since 1945. It pays particular attention to the fate of the estimated 50,000–100,000 refugees who, despite the restrictive policies of the Portuguese dictator Salazar, managed to enter the country before swiftly moving to safer shores away from Europe. The chapter clarifies the complex and evolving relationship and tensions between Salazar’s regime and Nazi Germany. It also demonstrates how, in the post-war period, Salazar used propaganda to defend the idea that his neutral stance had shielded the Portuguese and many refugees, and concludes with the acknowledgement that it is only thanks to extra-national sources and influences that Portuguese memories of the conflict started to evolve after the fall of the dictatorship in 1974.
