Aristides de Sousa Mendes: The Diplomat Who Defied Salazar

Portuguese consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes issued visas and passports to over 30,000 refugees fleeing France in 1940, including up to 10,000 Jews, in direct violation of Portugal's Circular 14 which forbade issuing visas to Jews. He personally told the border guards 'I would rather stand with God against man than with man against God.' He was dismissed from the diplomatic service and died in poverty, with his children scattered and his family fractured. He was only posthumously recognized decades after his death.