Carlos de Almeida Afonseca Sampaio Garrido (5 April 1883 – April 1960) was a Portuguese diplomat credited with saving the lives of approximately 1,000 Jews in Nazi-occupied

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

while serving as Portugal's ambassador in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

between July and December 1944.

Life and work

He served as Minister Plenipotentiary and acting Ambassador of Portugal in Budapest from 1939-44. Along with Teixeira Branquinho, (Portuguese Chargé d'Affaires in Budapest in 1944) Garrido rented houses and apartments to shelter and protect refugees from deportation and murder. They obtained permission from the Portuguese government to issue safe conduct passes to all persons who had relatives in Portugal, Brazil, or the Portuguese colonies or had a connection to Portugal. Garrido and Branquinho also established an office of the Portuguese Red Cross at the Portuguese legation to care for Jewish refugees. This was largely done in cooperation with the Portuguese Foreign Office and under Prime Minister

António de Oliveira Salazar António de Oliveira Salazar (, , ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese dictator who served as President of the Council of Ministers from 1932 to 1968. Having come to power under the ("National Dictatorship"), he reframed the re ...

’s direct supervision with the provision that these refugees would not try to get Portuguese citizenship.Pimentel, pp. 343-50 On 23 April 1944 and following the German occupation of Hungary, the Portuguese ruler Salazar decided to order his ambassador to return to Lisbon and leave the

chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...

, Teixeira Branquinho in his place. This recall was done in response to a request from Britain and the United States who wanted neutral countries to downgrade their diplomatic presence in Hungary. Five days later, on 28 April 1944, at 5 a.m., the Hungarian political police raided the Ambassador's home arresting his guests. The Ambassador physically resisted the police and was also arrested but managed to have his guests released by invoking the extraterritorial legal rights of diplomatic legations. Five of the guests were members from the famous Gabor family.

Magda Gabor Magdolna "Magda" Gabor (June 11, 1915 – June 6, 1997) was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite, and the elder sister of Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor. Early life The eldest daughter of a jeweler, Jolie (1896–1997), and a soldier, Vilmos Gá ...

, Hungarian-born actress and socialite, and the elder sister of

Zsa Zsa Zsa Zsa (also Zsazsa, ) is a given name originated as the baby pet name of Zsa Zsa Gabor (1917–2016), Hungarian-American actress and socialite. Notable people, characters, and animals with the name include: People * Zsa Zsa Gabor (1917–201 ...

and

Eva Gabor Eva Gabor ( ; February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-American actress, businesswoman, singer, and socialite. She voiced Duchess and Miss Bianca in the animated Disney Classics, ''The Aristocats'' (1970), ''The Rescuers'' (1977), ...

, was reported to have been the secretary, fiancée and lover of Sampaio Garrido. Jolie Gabor, mother of the Gabor sisters, never forgot Magda's influential connections with rescuing her: "For Magda's Portuguese Ambassador I thank God. It was this man who saved my life."Adams, Cindy. ''Jolie Gabor'', Mason/Charter Publ. (1975) pgs. 135-49, 173 Gabor's maternal grandmother and uncle Sebastian (Annette Lantos's father) chose to remain in Budapest feeling they "had a good place to hide". However, both were killed during an Allied bombing raid. In 1945 he was appointed extraordinary envoy and minister plenipotentiary to

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropoli ...

. In 2006 the

International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) is a non-governmental organization which researches Holocaust rescuers and advocates for their recognition. The organization developed educational programs for school to promote peace and civil s ...

honored both Sampayo Garrido and his

Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho. In 2010 he became the second Portuguese to be recognised as a

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

;

Aristides de Sousa Mendes Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches () GCC, OL (July 19, 1885 – April 3, 1954) was a Portuguese consul during World War II. As the Portuguese consul-general in the French city of Bordeaux, he defied the orders of Antóni ...

having been recognised in 1966.

Distinctions

National orders

Grand Officer of the Order of Christ (5 October 1934) * PRT Order of Christ - Commander BAR

Commander of the Order of Christ (23 October 1932) * PRT Order of Saint James of the Sword - Officer BAR

Officer of the

Order of Saint James of the Sword The Military Order of Saint James of the Sword ( pt, Ordem Militar de Sant'Iago da Espada) is a Portuguese order of chivalry. Its full name is the Ancient, Most Noble and Enlightened Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, of the Scientifi ...

(27 October 1934) * PRT Order of Liberty - Grand Officer BAR

Grand Officer of the

Order of Liberty The Order of Liberty, or the Order of Freedom ( pt, Ordem da Liberdade), is a Portuguese honorific civil order that distinguishes relevant services to the cause of democracy and freedom, in the defense of the values of civilization and human di ...

(4 January 1996)

References

Notes

Sources

*Milgram, Avraham. Portugal, Salazar, and the Jews, translated by Naftali Greenwood. Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, 2011. *Pimentel, Irene Flunser, Judeus em Portugal Durante a II Guerra Mundial, Lisbon: A Esfera do Livros, 2006; * *

External links

Carlos Sampaio Garrido
at

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Garrido, Carlos Sampaio Catholic Righteous Among the Nations 1883 births 1960 deaths Ambassadors of Portugal to Hungary Place of birth missing Portuguese Righteous Among the Nations Portuguese Roman Catholics Grand Officers of the Order of Christ (Portugal) Commanders of the Order of Christ (Portugal) Officers of the Order of Saint James of the Sword Grand Officers of the Order of Liberty