Portugal and the Holocaust: research and memory

In December 2019, Portugal became a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and, in line with the mission of this organization, made a greater commitment to promoting further education, remembrance, and research on the subject.

The year 2020 was an opportunity to celebrate several anniversaries related to the Holocaust: eighty years since the rescue of thousands of men, women, and children, many of them Jews, by the Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes; seventy-five years since the start of the Nuremberg Trials; the seventy-fifth anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter and the creation of the United Nations (UN); and the sixty-fifth anniversary of Portugal's admission to the UN.

In this context, Holocaust Remembrance was the subject of Council of Ministers Resolution No. 51/2020, of June 25, and its program includes a set of initiatives to strengthen knowledge, preserve memory, and raise awareness.

Using the Holocaust and its conceptual framework as a reference point, the aim is to promote scientific research, developing new knowledge in various areas from a multidisciplinary perspective, with contributions from history, philosophy, human rights, religious studies, political science, law, sociology, literature, the arts, in short, with developments in the social sciences and humanities, reinforcing its presence on the national scientific agenda.

Special support was provided for the following lines of research:

• The actions of Portuguese citizens who distinguished themselves in various areas, namely: in supporting victims of Nazi persecution and extermination policies; in the life stories of Portuguese victims of the Nazi concentration camp system during World War II; the role of Portuguese diplomacy, particularly the figure of Consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes; the actions of journalists, given their influence in shaping public opinion; and the cultural representation and interpretation that emerged in relation to all these events.
• Study of the various factors that contributed to both inhumane practices and individual and collective acts of self-sacrifice and solidarity (political, ideological, social, cultural, religious, economic, etc.) in the context of the Holocaust.
• Archival processing, digitization, and study of Portuguese documentary collections related to the aforementioned topics.
• Provision of educational resources, in physical or digital format, including the creation and production of artistic content that highlights the importance of knowledge and memory about the Holocaust in the field of education, particularly in citizenship education.
• Collaborative research promoting best practices in knowledge exchange, public engagement, and the impact of research on this topic.

Recipients of support

Higher education institutions and their institutes, state laboratories, and other public research institutions, scientific societies or non-profit scientific associations, public or private non-profit institutions, which may compete individually or in partnership.

Results

The FCT has published a brochure presenting the six projects selected for special support under the R&D program “Portugal and the Holocaust: Research and Memory, ” which is available in digital format.

A presentation session for the projects was held at the Palácio das Galveias Library on November 25, 2021, which can be viewed here.