Luis Martins de Souza Dantas, Brazilian Ambassador to France, 1940-43

Luis Martins de Souza Dantas was the Brazilian Ambassador to France between 1922 and 1943.  Ambassador Dantas issued visas to hundreds of Jews in occupied France after the Nazi takeover in 1940.  Dantas issued nearly 500 visas against the strict order of the pro-fascist Brazilian government headed by Getulio Vargas, and at great risk to his diplomatic career.  Further, Dantas ordered Portuguese consuls in Cadiz, Casablanca, Paris, Marseilles and Lyon to issue visas to Jews.  The Brazilian government reprimanded him for issuing these visas without authorization, stating that he had issued visas beyond his authority and had back-dated visas.  Several of the Jews arrived in Brazil and were detained by the Brazilian government, but were later released.

In March 1943, Nazi representatives broke into Dantas' embassy in Vichy and arrested him.  Dantas and the entire staff of the Brazilian consulate were arrested and deported to Bad Godesberg, Germany.  There they were kept under house arrest.  Dantas and his staff were freed in 1944, with the direct intervention of Portuguese Prime Minister Oliveira Salazar.

After being freed from arrest, Dantas resigned from the diplomatic service.  Luis Martins de Souza Dantas died in Paris in 1954.

Dantas was designated Righteous Among the Nations in 2003.