quarta-feira, junho 28, 2023

Vamos passando pela Casa do Passal

Enquanto prosseguem as obras de reabilitação do interior e de transformação da Casa do Passal, este Monumento Nacional continua a receber visitas e a recordar o legado de Aristides de Sousa Mendes. 



Um grupo do projeto Erasmus+, constituído por professores do Agrupamento de Escolas de Tábua, da Turquia e de Itália, fizeram um roteiro cultural pela região, onde incluíram a residência do Cônsul Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

Contactar com as terras da Beira e aflorar os seus recursos foram os objetivos da visita que contemplou a Casa do Passal, em Cabanas de Viriato, face ao exemplo de Aristides de Sousa Mendes e o gesto humanitário perpetrado no ato do Cônsul português em Bordéus.

Após a explanação sobre a ação de Aristides de Sousa Mendes, os visitantes ficaram ainda mais curiosos e, pela certa com vontade de regressar, para visitarem o futuro Museu dedicado ao Cônsul, cujas obras de recuperação decorrem a bom ritmo.

28 junho 2023 https://www.cm-carregal.pt/pages/821?news_id=2633

sábado, junho 17, 2023

Hans and Sophie Scholl and the White Rose German resistance circle

The last surviving member of the the White Rose resistance circle that campaigned against the Hitler regime passed in 2023

The Sousa Mendes Foundation presented the important story of the White Rose movement who sought to mobilize the German people to resist the Nazi regime in  1943. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXHKCVB47Ug

TheWhite Rose circle sought to be the Conscience of the German people. 

Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie were Hitler Youth leaders from Ulm who were transformed into resistance leaders who wrote and distributed leaflets and were executed for it. 

Traute Lafrenz, the last of this  White Rose German resistance circle, died in March 2023, aged 103



Bordeaux 1940 - This was the week that made all the difference in WWII

This was the week that was... in Bordeaux June 1940!

Page from Curious George 
The events of June 1940t made all the difference for thousands of refugee families fleeing from the Nazi invasion, for the resistance of France, and for the mobilization of the allied forces of freedom which eventually prevailed in World War II. 

On this Day of Conscience, we remember the courage of Aristides de Sousa Mendes,  83 years ago, who decided to follow his conscience and try to "save all those people whose affliction was indescribable"with the help of 

Rabbi Chaim Kruger, the consular staff and his family.

NEVER FORGET the suffering of the victims. 

Always remember the rescue actions and the 

moral imperative of the rescuers 

who followed their conscience in the face of 

great danger and unknown risks. 

Rabbi Chaim Kruger and 
Aristides de Sousa Mendes 1940



Engraving of refgugees in Bordeaux 1940


This was also the week that Paris was over-run and the Government of France retreated to Bordeaux.   On 16-June, General Charles de Gaulle left Bordeaux for London, from where he made a broadcast on BBC radio calling on the French to resist the Nazi invasion, on 18-June-1940.

"La France n'est pas seule!"  

Charles de Gaulle https://www.lemonde.fr/en/videos/video/2023/01/19/how-le-monde-recreated-de-gaulle-s-lost-1940-call-for-france-to-resist_6012188_108.html

Pope Francis said in 2020 Freedom of conscience must be respected always and everywhere   https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-06/pope-francis-day-of-freedom-of-conscience.html 


quarta-feira, maio 31, 2023

Preserving the legacy of Aristides de Sousa Mendes to honor family members lost

Matuzewitz family, Llodz, Poland
The  bitter and sweet memories both stay with us, with the dramas of the past stored quietly under better memories we collect as we move forward.

A month ago my friend Olivia Mattis shared a photo of 8 members of her family in Llodz, Poland, 5 of whom were murdered by Hitler.





We are so glad that other members of Olivia's family found Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux , 83 years ago today, and that Aristides's moral courage has inspired Olivia to do such great work to make his Act of Conscience known and to build the Sousa Mendes Foundation -US, for the last 13 years!
Obrigada Olivia Mattis!

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, diplomats and descendents of Sousa Mendes and of the families he saved at UN ceremony 2019

"The MATUZEWITZ family obtained visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux on May 31 and June 3, 1940 after a chance encounter on the streets of Bordeaux between Joseph MATUZEWITZ and Rabbi Chaim KRUGER, Sousa Mendes's right-hand man."

terça-feira, maio 30, 2023

Casa do Passal vale bem uma passagem mesmo antes da inauguração do Museu Sousa Mendes





Cabanas de Viriato vale bem uma visita, seja para a grande  animação do Carnaval tradicional, seja para os bons restaurantes. 
 


Mas a grande atração continua a ser a Casa do Passal, que está a ser reabilitada para o futuro museu memorial Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Justo entre as Nações.  

As obras internas continuam sob o comando da Câmara Municipal de Carrega do Sal. 

A garagem está a ser transformada em auditório, a exposição permanente está a ser preparada. 

Vamos acompanhando os trabalhos do museu a inaugurar em Julho 2024! 



domingo, maio 28, 2023

ASM visa dated 28-May - Moed family visited Casa do Passal in 2013

The MOED family received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux on May 28, 1940.

They crossed into Portugal, where they lived in Porto. They sailed on the Nea Hellas from Lisbon to New York in September 1940.

Leon MOED received a visa from Aristides de Sousa Mendes on May 28, 1940.

He went on to become and architect in the US.

In 2013, his grandson Eric Moed created an award-winning installation in Casa do Passal, Work Towards Fairness, opened in the presence of a visitors organized by the Sousa Mendes Foundation-US in the Journey on the Road to Freedom, including other ASM Visa families, Sousa Mendes family members, local officials and the public. Casa do Passal was then in ruins, and restoration began the following year.

Moed 1940 http://sousamendesfoundation.org/family/moed

Making of video https://youtu.be/5Ngcm7AVHnI