Carlos Sampaio Garrido

Commemorative plaque on the former Portuguese embassy in Hungary, where Sampaio Garrido worked as ambassador

Carlos de Almeida Fonseca Sampaio Garrido (born April 5, 1883 in Portugal ; † April 1960 ) was a Portuguese diplomat and savior of the Jews who saved the lives of around 1,000 Jews in Hungary and who is a righteous man . He was Portugal's ambassador to Hungary from 1939 to 1944.

Life

In October 1939, Carlos Sampaio Garrido was appointed Portuguese ambassador to Hungary. Portugal was one of the five neutral countries, even though it was ruled semi-fascistically by dictator Salazar . The embassy buildings were located around 60 km from Budapest , in Galgayörk . After the persecution of the Jews in Hungary began, Garrido began to accommodate Jews in the embassy rooms. However, he had not informed the government of Portugal about this measure. He himself strictly rejected the persecution of the Jews. A total of around twelve people could be secretly hidden in the embassy, ​​including some family members of Zsa Zsa Gabor , such as her older sister, the actress Magda Gabor , who became Garrido's secretary and allegedly had a relationship with him.

On April 28, 1944, around 5 a.m., a delegation from the Hungarian Gestapo arrived to search the house. The ambassador tried physically and with the help of his staff to prevent the Gestapo members from entering the building, but he did not succeed. All of the Jews there, including the ambassador, were arrested and shipped to Budapest. The ambassador was also subjected to extensive interrogations there. But he withstood the threats and screams from the Gestapo and did not change his position. On the contrary, he demanded the immediate release of all Jews from the embassy, ​​since they were on Portuguese territory, and demanded a personal apology to him and, through the authorities, to the Portuguese state. He also referred to his status as ambassador and thus representative of the President of the Portuguese Republic and the extraterritorial status of the embassy building. Despite the immense self-defense of the diplomat, he did not succeed in enforcing the liberation of the Jews. The Hungarian government and the German occupation government declared him a persona non grata and advised him to leave the country within two days, which he then did.

First he went back to Portugal. He took his secretary, Zsa Zsa Gabor's sister , with him and thus saved her life. Portugal's dictator Salazar transferred him to the Portuguese embassy in Switzerland . From there, too, he tried to save many Jews in Hungary. He had taken lists from Hungary with the names of Jews who had asked for asylum or protection from Portugal. Salazar finally issued a decree according to which all Jews who “have anything to do with Portugal”, that is, had family, economic or cultural connections there, can get passports. In fact, this would only have affected a few dozen Jews, in truth Garrido and the ambassador appointed as Garrido's successor , Alberto Carlos de Liz Teixeira Branquinho (* 1902), granted around 1000 Hungarian Jews a Portuguese passport, which allowed them to leave the country safely Onward travel overseas via Portugal made possible. Teixeira Branquinho continued this practice on behalf of Garrido.

So far nothing is known about the further fate of the diplomat, who died in 1960, after the war. Garrido was married and had five children. On February 2, 2010, he was only the second Portuguese to be named “Righteous Among the Nations” in Yad Vashem . Much of the diplomat's life and work will have to be brought to light in the future. His case is comparable to that of the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes , who, as consul of Bordeaux, saved the lives of around 30,000 people in the same way.

Web links

• Carlos Sampaio Garrido on the Yad Vashem website .