Does the name Aristides de Sousa Mendes mean anything to you? How about a huge, historic picture named “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso? I ask because they represent perhaps the best and worst of humanity and because I encountered both on a recent visit to Spain and Portugal.
Let’s start with the best. We went on a Lisbon tour with a remarkable historian and college teacher named Paulo Scheffer. He showed us around the city, giving us information I had never read or heard before. He’s writing a book about the history of Jews in Portugal. He’s a passionate, fascinating historian.broadstreet.zone(48036);
One of the people he mentioned was Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Scheffer said it’s too bad that a movie like “Schindler’s List” has not been made about Mendes. After hearing the story and reading more from other sources, I agree.
Mendes represented Portugal in Bordeaux, France, during World War II. Ignoring the orders
Skip to content
News and other stories about real people, places, and events in Forest Lake and nearby suburbs.