RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — One of Brazil’s two Righteous Among the Nations — non-Jews recognized by the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem for saving Jews from the Nazis — is featured on a new postage stamp in the South American country.
The stamp with the face of Aracy Moebius de Carvalho Guimaraes Rosa, who obtained visas that paved the way for several Jews to take refuge in Brazil, was released on Wednesday. She also is known by the nickname “Angel of Hamburg.”
Aracy de Carvalho served as head of the passport section of the Brazilian consulate in Hamburg, Germany. The Brazilian president at the time, Getulio Vargas, restricted the entry of Jews into the country.
“One of the tactics adopted to camouflage her actions was to omit the letter J, in red, on passports, a mark imposed by the German government as a way of identifying the Jew,” historian Maria Luiza Tucci Carneiro told the UOL news website.
Born in Brazil to a German mother, Aracy de Carvalho moved to Germany in 1936. She took the job at the Brazilian consulate and married assistant consul Joao Guimaraes Rosa, who later would become a famed Brazilian writer with his masterpiece “Grande Sertao: Veredas.”
The couple remained in Germany until 1942, when Brazil broke relations with Germany and joined the Allies. Aracy de Carvalho was recognized by Yad Vashem in 1982. She died in 2011.
Brazil’s other righteous gentile is the diplomat Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas, who worked in France during World War II.
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