Pedro Teotónio Pereira

Pedro Teotónio Pereira (Lisbon, Mártires, November 7, 1902 – Lisbon, February 14, 1972) was a Portuguese Politician and Diplomat, son of João Teotónio Pereira, Jr. (Lisbon, 1869 – Lisbon, São Domingos de Benfica, 1948), Administrator of the Companhia de Seguros Fidelidade, and wife Virgínia Hermann von Boetischer (Lisbon, Santa Engrácia, 1871 – Lisbon, 1969), paternal grandson of João Teotónio Pereira (1832-1916) and wife Clara Sobral (1840-Freixo de Espada à Cinta, Fornos, 1910) and maternal grandson of Maximilian August Hermann von Boetischer, an Engineer, linked to the instalation of the telephones in Portugal, and wife Maria José da Silva. His older brother Luís Teotónio Pereira was also a Politician.

Career

He was a Minister and an Ambassador of Portugal during the Estado Novo and the government of António de Oliveira Salazar. [Costados, Gonçalo de Mesquita da Silveira de Vasconcelos e Sousa, Livraria Esquina, 1.ª Edição, Porto, 1997, N.º 118]

The Aristides de Sousa Mendes affair

Pedro Teotónio Pereira, then Portugal's Ambassador to Spain, was reported by Consul Machado, subordinate in Bayonne of the Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux Aristides de Sousa Mendes, of the taken over his responsabilities from him there in order to set up a second assembly line to process thousands more exit documents. Teotónio Pereira, whose maternal grandfather was German, who favored Germany and worried that accepting those unacceptable to Hitler would ruin Portugal's relationship with Franco, promptly set out for the French border. He arrived at Irun at the same time Sousa Mendes traveled to the border at Irun on June 23, 1940, and there he declared Sousa Mendes mentally incompetent and invalidated all further visas. [The Jewish Virtual Library article notes that a Spanish newspaper headline the next day announced the sudden insanity of "the Consul of Portugal in Bayonne," an ironic error that labeled Sousa Mendes' "accuser" as the one who had lost his faculties.] An Associated Press story the next day reported that some 10,000 persons attempting to cross over into Spain were excluded because authorities no longer granted recognition to their visas.Jewish Virtual Library]

Marriage and children

He married Isabel Maria van Zeller Pereira Palha (Lisbon, Santa Engrácia, October 26, 1903 –), daughter of Constantino Nicolau Pereira Palha and wife and cousin Maria do Patrocínio Pereira Palha van Zeller, of a family of large landowners, and had issue:
* Pedro van Zeller Palha Teotónio Pereira (Cascais, Estoril, November 26, 1927 –)
* Maria Madalena van Zeller Palha Teotónio Pereira (Cascais, Estoril, March 26, 1929 –)
* Clara van Zeller Palha Teotónio Pereira (Lisbon, Santa Engrácia, August 5, 1934 –)

References

External links

* [http://www.geneall.net/P/per_page.php?id=182441 Pedro Teotónio Pereira's genealogy in a Portuguese Genealogical site]