Aracy de Carvalho

I just watched a Show on Amazon called “Passport to Freedom.”

It was made in 2021 and is Brazilian, but in English and about Aracy de Carvalho – known as “the Angel of Hamburg.”

(Aracy de Carvalho)

De Carvalho (played by Sophie Charlotte - a German-Brazilian Actress born in West Germany to a German Mother and a Brazilian Father) was born in Brazil to a German Father and a Brazilian Mother so could speak German as well as French, English and her native Portuguese and moved with her Son to Nazi Germany in 1935 when she divorced her Husband. She worked at the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg in the Passport and Visa Section.

De Carvalho went against Brazilian Dictator Getúlio Vargas’ regulations not to give Immigration Visas to those that had the “J” (for “Jude” or “Jew” in their German International Passports – after the 1935 Nuremburg Race Laws anyone who was ¾ Jewish was no longer considered German Citizens, but German Subjects and after 1941 they officially became Stateless when Germany revoked their German Subject Status no matter where they were living at the time. After 1935 German Jews had to have a “J” stamped in both their Kennkarte Internal Identity Card as well as their International Passport.)

De Carvalho worked with both German Anti-Nazi and Jewish Resistance Groups inside Nazi Germany as well as the Assistant-Consul of the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg João Guimarães Rosa (whom she later married in 1940) to help Jews flee Nazi Germany.

(João Guimarães Rosa)

She risked the lives of herself and her Son to help people when most of the World – including her own Country – refused to help. Had she been discovered she would have been killed by the Nazis since she didn’t have Diplomatic Immunity like her Husband, Rosa, did.

She worked especially hard after Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) in November 1938 when the Germans destroyed Jewish Synagogues, businesses and homes and sent 30,000 to Concentration Camps – where they could only be released if they had a Visa to leave Nazi Germany within 2 weeks.

She remained in Nazi Germany until Brazil broke-off Diplomatic Relations with them in 1942 and joined the Allies. She and her Husband were kept as Prisoners of the Nazis for 4 months until they were exchanged for German Diplomats being held by the Allies. She followed her Husband when he was later posted to the Brazilian Embassies in Bogota, Colombia and Paris, France.

From 1937-1942 she saved several Hundred Jews as well as other Groups threatened by the Nazis.

In 1982 she became 1 of 2 Brazilians recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Yad Yashem Holocaust Center.

Her Husband, João Guimarães Rosa, died in 1967 – the year he was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature.

She died at the age of 102 in São Paulo, Brazil on February 28, 2011.