War films, by their nature, often feature extended moments of brutal violence. They depcit people in impossible situations ignoring direct orders and acting on their conscience. Schindler’s List, Hacksaw Ridge, Paths of Glory, and various other films feature characters grappling with immense moral quandaries. The Legacy of Aristides is yet another example of a war film featuring a huge moral dilemma.
The documentary The Legacy of Aristides details the tribulations of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul to France during the early years of World War I. The Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, assumed a position of neutrality to avoid entanglements with Hitler. However, Sousa Mendes soon found himself in a huge moral dilemma as the country began denying Jews visas to find refuge in the country.
Acting against orders, Sousa Mendes signed over 10,000 visas for fleeing Jews, saving countless lives in the process. The film details his exploits and also interviews relatives of those he saved while also including commentary from Sousa Mendes’s own descendants. His story, often overlooked in history, is another example of a man defying orders at great personal cost.
Sousa Mendes was vilified by his own government, forced into early retirement, and later found himself living in squalor. However, all of that is a moot point given the staggering amount of lives he saved through his actions. This film would be a great piece for academic libraries in sections on the mid-twentieth century, and for those professors teaching the world wars and/or The Holocaust.