ABSTRACT

Europe’s neutrals played varying roles in helping save Jews and others during the Shoah. The image of Portugal as a caring country willing to accept Jewish refugees is somewhat clouded by the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Sousa Mendes was the consul general at Portugal’s consulate in Bordeaux, France, when Germany invaded that country in the spring of 1940. Medieval Spain was home to one of Europe’s most vibrant Jewish communities. This all began to change in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as a growing wave of anti-Semitic violence forced many Jews to convert to Christianity or leave Spain to survive. The Spanish Civil War devastated Spain and affected Spanish policy throughout World War II. Francisco Franco declared neutrality when the war broke out in 1939 but remained loyal to the Nazi-Fascist cause and permitted the Germans to use Spain as an important center for intelligence operations.