Credit: The Jewish Cultural Center - Judiaria de Lisboa
The international Stolpersteine project, considered the largest decentralized memorial in the world, has arrived in the Algarve with the installation of a memorial stone honoring Tomás Vieira in Paderne, Albufeira. The initiative marks the expansion of this European map of memory in Portugal, following Lisbon, and reinforces the commitment to preserving individual stories shaped by Nazi persecution.
The Jewish Cultural Center - Judiaria de Lisboa was responsible for bringing the first Stolpersteine and Stolperschwellen to the country — a project created by the German artist Gunter Demnig. Today, more than 90,000 stones are spread across over 30 countries, with Portugal joining this network since October of last year.
In the Algarve, the ceremony was attended by the Jewish Community of the Algarve, represented by Rabbi Samuel Cohen and its president, Ido Itshayek. The tribute in Paderne recalls the life of Tomás Vieira, a victim of political repression and the Nazi concentration camp system.
Tomás Vieira was born on March 7, 1890, in Paderne, Albufeira. According to his baptismal record, he was a foundling discovered by a farmer, José d’Oliveira, on the evening of March 8, 1890. He married Cândida de Jesus in a civil ceremony in 1920 and later emigrated to France, where he opened a café-grocery store, eventually being joined by his family.
A member of the Federation of Portuguese Emigrants in France, founded in 1937, Vieira was arrested for political reasons during the major raid of September 2–3, 1939. Initially imprisoned at La Santé prison in Paris, he was later transferred to the Vernet camp, used for the internment of foreigners.
Despite repeated interventions by the Portuguese Consul-General in Paris, José Luís Archer, with the Vichy administration, Vieira remained detained, being regarded by French authorities as a “dangerous communist.”
After nearly five years of internment, he was deported to the Dachau concentration camp on August 9, 1944, on the so-called “Ghost Train,” along with other Portuguese prisoners. The transport concealed its true purpose: extermination.
Registered as prisoner no. 94,329, Tomás Vieira died on November 16, 1944, at 5:45 PM, from bronchopneumonia, according to SS records.
