Thread by @RudiGeerts

The #Righteous during World War Two

Don Gilberto Bosques, "The Mexican Schindler"
Consul of Mexico in Marseilles during the war

Consul Don Gilberto Bosques devoted himself tirelessly to issuing visas regardless of nationality or religious or political opinion to those targeted by the Nazis.
To grant food or legal aid, find accommodation, charter boats, provide visas and tickets to Spanish Republicans,

members of the International Brigades and political refugees of several nationalities, Gilberto Bosques had of this building the platform of his immense daily work.
It shared part of the floors with the consul of Japan which also housed ... Nazi spies.
Thousands of refugees -

current estimates would exceed the figure of 20,000 people - escaped scarcity and violence.
He was born on July 20, 1892. Before choosing a diplomatic career, he was a deputy, journalist and publisher. Bosques was a silhouette of exceptional longevity. Great post-war ambassador -

he represented his country in Portugal, Finland, Sweden as well as with Cuba and Fidel Castro - Gilberto Bosques died in 1995: he was 103 years old. In Austria, where a street in Vienna bears his name, as well as in Mexico, people go so far as to compare his action to that of

Oskar Schindler.
Begun in the summer of 1940, the adventure of Consul Bosques' team ended in November 1942. On the afternoon of the 12th of that month - the German occupiers had seized Marseilles the same day - soldiers burst into the offices of the Mexican delegation. The family

of Gilberto Bosques, his wife, and their 3 children as well as the 43 members of the staff of the Consulate are transferred to Amélie-les-Bains. After which, the relatives of Gilberto Bosques are assigned to residence near the Rhine and Bonn, in a hotel-prison in Bad Godesberg.

An exchange of prisoners will allow their release: after thirteen months of relegation, Gilberto Bosques returns to Mexico.
The arrival of Gilberto Bosques at the Buenavintura station in Mexico City on March 16, 1944 was a very moving moment, more than three thousand people

crowded, impatient, in the long corridor of the station. Slowly, sluggishly, the locomotive arrived. Two, three whistles and the black, majestic convoy rolled on the rails. Then a thousand voices shouted "Long live Professor Bosques!"