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19401940–1945 · Lisbon and the Estoril coast

Lisbon, escape port of the Second World War

The 1940s Alcântara maritime terminal on Lisbon's waterfront, with the 25 de Abril Bridge behind
Photo: João Carvalho. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

After France fell in June 1940, neutral Portugal became the main way out of Europe for refugees, many of them Jews, helped by visas the consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes issued in Bordeaux against orders. Tens of thousands waited in Lisbon and the resorts of Estoril and Cascais for ships and flying boats to the Americas, watched by British and German agents.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Espaço Memória dos Exílios, EstorilSmall museum of the refugees who waited on the Estoril coast.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Hotel Palácio, EstorilGrand hotel where exiled royals, refugees and rival spies stayed.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: Gare Marítima de AlcântaraShip terminal opened in 1943, with Almada Negreiros murals of emigrants.Map ↗

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Also in Lisbon

More from the Second World War

Read more: reference. Summary written by History-Tours.com.