The Disobedient Consul

There are people who pass through the world like brilliant comets, and their existences will never be forgotten. Aristides de Sousa Mendes was one such person. A brilliant consul, a happy husband, a proud father, his life was destroyed when, to save 30,000 lives, he dared to defy Salazar's orders. Born into a family with ties to the aristocracy, Aristides studied Law in Coimbra and opted for a consular career. He lived in the most exotic places in Africa and the most cosmopolitan in Europe. As Consul in Bordeaux during the Second World War, he was sought after by thousands of refugees for whom a visa to Portugal was their only salvation. Without it, they would die at the hands of the Germans.
Unfortunately, Salazar, anticipating the crowds at the consulates, had prohibited the granting of visas to foreigners of undefined nationality and Jews. Under German bombardment, squeezed between Salazar's threats, the pleas of the refugees and his conscience, Aristides felt himself going mad. And then he made the great decision of his life: to issue visas to all who requested them. He would save 30,000 innocent people, but he would irremediably destroy his own life.
This is the story of a great Portuguese man. Of a hero with boundless courage. It is only possible to understand his feat if we put ourselves in his shoes: would we destroy our lives and those of our family in the name of charity and love for others? Until his last breath, Aristides never regretted it.