We invite you to share your diaries, letters, photographs, memories, objects* or stories with the Maritime Museum, so that you can contribute to the construction of a digital database, where they will be catalogued, photographed or digitized pro bono. This will allow the creation of an online free-access archive for anyone who wants to know more about this topic.
2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. With the exhibition "Saving Lives from the Sea", the Maritime Museum intends to show the Portuguese intervention in the conflict, mainly in the maritime sphere, giving special attention to the rescues carried out by Portuguese ships, military or civilian, or that arrived in our shores, but also to other aspects such as the importance of Lisbon and other national ports in the departure of refugees from Europe and in the exchange of diplomats and military personnel.... In essence, all "castaways of a conflict" who, in some way, had help from the Portuguese.
During the conflict, about 6000 people were rescued by Portuguese ships – navy, merchant and fishing – or found refuge in the Portuguese territories, in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
Despite the country’s neutrality, more than a dozen Portuguese ships were sunk throughout the conflict, especially by submarines from both the Axis and the Allied forces. In some cases, the number of human losses was quite high, and had a great impact on the Portuguese population as well. Less well known was the presence of Portuguese seafarers on merchant ships belonging to the belligerents, namely, Allied. Several died, others were shipwrecked, and a small number were even imprisoned and sent to German concentration camps.
Lisbon, neutral in a Europe at war, was also an important exit door for thousands of refugees seeking to escape Nazism. Many foreign and Portuguese ships left behind the fort of São Julião da Barra towards the United States, Jamaica, Cuba, Brazil and other destinations transporting Jews and others.
This same port was also stage for the exchange of Axis and Allied diplomats, soldiers and citizens throughout the entire period of the conflict.
Join us and learn more about Portugal’s involvement and intervention in World War II. Celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with the theme “Saving Lives at Sea.”
*If you have potentially dangerous artifacts, including ammunition and weapons, whether deactivated or not, please inform us in advance.