Holocaust survivor thanks savior at exhibit

A decade ago, John J. Prins began piecing together the history of his family's desperate escape from the Nazis invading France.

Prins was a baby when his parents fled Paris, hoping somehow to make it to America.

He would later discover that a crucial visa granting passage to neutral Portugal had been issued by a sympathetic diplomat, Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

By defying his superiors' orders, Mendes helped save not only Prins' life, but the lives of about 30,000 other Jews and refugees.

"I cried," Prins, 71, of Rockville Centre, said of the moment he learned of his family's savior. "I could almost not get the words out."

For his efforts, Mendes was punished by the Portuguese government. He lost his job and was disbarred.

Impoverished when he died in Lisbon in 1954, Mendes was exonerated 34 years later by the Portuguese government.

An exhibit marking Mendes' heroism closed yesterday at Mineola Memorial Library, a day before the 57th anniversary of his death.

Mineola Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira, a native of Portugal, spoke at the event aimed at educating children.

The World War II-era government in Portugal represented "the worst of humanity, the worst of Portuguese history," Pereira said. "Aristides de Sousa Mendes represents the best." He then pointed to Prins and said, "He is literally living proof of the greatness of this man."

Prins, a dispute resolution counselor, said his parents were Dutch nationals who lived in Paris because his father worked in the jewelry industry.

Prins was born on April 13, 1940. Three weeks later, his father decided to take the family to southern France, where he'd heard Mendes was issuing visas to Jews at his consulate in Bordeaux. The visas would allow them safe passage through Spain to Portugal, where they could take a ship to the United States.

But before they could leave, Germany invaded Belgium and the Netherlands. The Portuguese government immediately ordered its officials to stop allowing refugees -- especially Jews -- passage through the country.

Mendes ignored the order and with the help of his sons and Jewish leaders, worked for 10 days to issue 1,575 visas that would ultimately help 30,000 people, according to the Holocaust memorial group Yad Vashem.

Prins said he attended yesterday's event to show his respect and talk to the kids in attendance.

"I came here to simply say thank you that I'm alive," he said. "I do not believe I will ever forget."