THE CABANAS DE VIRIATO
HOUSE OF ARISTIDES DE SOUSA MENDES

It was in front of this house that two American cars and a Ford van laden with furniture and stocks of food unloaded no less than nineteen Jewish passangers on a night in June 1940.

In 1995, members of the Sousa Mendes Society visited this landmark, lost to the family, abandoned and ruined. We shared the hope of the descendants of the consul that the government might restore the mansion as a sort of moral museum. Instead the president of our society, Bernard Bell, has been informed by Lucille Chernack, who visited the site with an elderhostel group, that current plans are to raze the structure and construct a hotel.

In view of the honors heaped posthumously upon this righteous gentile, including the naming of the main street and salutations, we register, with this photograph, (not available for reprint) a protest against the desecration of a sacred memory.

Note: from Reunir "The Journal of the Aristides de Sousa Mendes Society"  Vol 111 January 1998.
by permissiom from Mr B. Bell.

E-mail: Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum