Passages
War refugee children boarding the SS Mouzinho for North America (20 August 1941). © ANTT - National Archive of Torre do Tombo, O Século Newspaper Fund.
After the approval of Pardal Monteiro’s designs and the start of construction of the Alcântara Marine Station, an unprecedented exodus of people fleeing the war in Europe began.
The racial laws of the Nazi and Fascist regimes in Germany and Italy led to the persecution of Jews in these countries and in those they occupied. Political opponents and ethnic minorities were also persecuted, as were many modernist and avant-garde artists. Those who had the means or were able to get help from solidarity networks and financial supporters tried to escape, many of them passing through Lisbon. Transit visas were needed for the countries they were passing through, as well as an entry visa for the destination country, plus train tickets or hire car fees (and gasoline), in addition to the ship tickets. These permits and transportation tickets were expensive and difficult to obtain. Many visas were forged. In some cases, inability to obtain transit visas forced the travellers to cross borders clandestinely, risking deportation.
Those who had the means or were able to get help from solidarity networks and financial supporters tried to escape, many of them passing through Lisbon.
The Alcântara Marine Station was inaugurated in 1943 with the arrival of liner Serpa Pinto carrying around 230 English refugees. However, after a large flow in the years 1940 and 1941, migratory traffic had decreased significantly.
With the end of the war in 1945, maritime traffic normalized again. Many people returned to Europe, while others settled permanently in the USA, Canada, or Latin American countries. In the post-war context, several travellers leaving to or coming from the other side of the Atlantic passed through Lisbon’s marine stations. From the 1950s and especially the 1960s onwards, airplanes became the preferred mode of transportation for transatlantic journeys and there was a marked decrease in sea travel.
In this room’s “archive” drawers, visitors will find some stories of people who passed through this quay during the war years and afterwards.
Being a refugee or a victim of persecution, for religious, political, ethnic or national reasons, is still a very present reality today for many people from various parts of the world.
The visas of Aristides de Sousa Mendes
In 1940, in a short period of time, the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954), in defiance of the orders from the Portuguese government, issued thousands of visas. At the beginning of July, a disciplinary process put an end to his efforts. In his own defence, Sousa Mendes argued that the Portuguese Constitution forbade the refusal of shelter based on political or religious discrimination. Salazar’s dictatorship ended up removing him from diplomatic service.
Sousa Mendes’ visas led to a migratory flow of several tens of thousands of people into Portugal during the summer of 1940, both Jews and non-Jews. Others, such as journalist Varian Fry (1907-1967), the US vice-consul in Marseille Hiram Bingham IV (1903-1988) and the American private organization Emergency Rescue Committee, provided documentation (sometimes false) and financial aid that allowed many to leave Europe.
The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS-HICEM) was authorized to relocate from Paris to Portugal after the German occupation, and the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, represented in Portugal by physician Augusto Isaac d’Esaguy (1899-1961), also operated in Lisbon, providing assistance to the fleeing Jewish population.
With travel documents from other consulates also, many refugees and other people in transit remained in Portugal, some of them in a long wait for all the necessary visas (and the renewal of the documents that allowed them to stay in Portugal) and for a ship ticket to the Americas. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS-HICEM) was authorized to relocate from Paris to Portugal after the German occupation, and the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, represented in Portugal by physician Augusto Isaac d’Esaguy (1899-1961), also operated in Lisbon, providing assistance to the fleeing Jewish population.
On several ships, and until 1944, children crossed the Atlantic unaccompanied, many of them sent by their parents in an effort to save their lives. In total, some 60,000 to 80,000 refugees passed through Portugal during the war.
Interviews with historians Irene Pimentel and Inês Fialho Brandão, and journalist Ferreira Fernandes, on the passage of refugees through Lisbon's quays during the Second World War. Interviews by Mariana Pinto dos Santos, image and editing by Tiago Figueiredo, 2024.