The Portuguese Dreyfus

September 4, 2022 1:42 PM

Less known than Alfred Dreyfus, the story of Barros Basto also deals with desire to maintain Jewish faith and the sacrifices one must pay for it - another sad example of 19th century European antisemitism. He also took some pictures of the Portuguese soldiers fighting in WWI [text in Portuguese]
posted by chavenet (2 comments total)

tire o chapéu! to anyone who decides to discard the religion they were born into and go their own way. Tangentially related is Basto's contemporary Pierre van Paassen, born into a strict bible-reading protestant family in Gorkum NL in 1895, who became an advocate for Zionism. His book Days of our Years [1939] was a best-seller in the USA and regularly found in yard-sales.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:37 AM on September 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Wow - I’d never heard of him at all. Most of what I know about crypto-Judaism and Marranos is based around Spain. This is really fascinating.
posted by Mchelly at 6:07 AM on September 5, 2022 [1 favorite]