LISBON - HARBOUR OF HOPE

„No other country did as much to help the refugees as Portugal", say Fritz and Kaethe Adelsberger, for whom Portugal means salvation. Two Jews, among hundreds of thousands to have fled across the whole of Europe escaping the Nazis. And they are still living in Lisbon today. The capital city of this small, impoverished nation was a transit station for many prominent Jewish refugees, such as Heinrich Mann, Franz Werfel, Lion Feuchtwanger and Alfred Polgar. Strictly governed by Prime Minister Antonio Salazar, Portugal was neutral during the Second World War and guaranteed a thirty-day stopover for the hunted exiles, who had to make their way through the country on route to America. But as the war intensified and less ships were able to sail, more and more people were „stranded" in Lisbon.