In 1936, she began working at Itamaraty, taking over the Passport Section of the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg. While on her journey at the Consulate, despite knowing that the Government of Getúlio Vargas had restricted the entry of Jews to Brazil, through Secret Circular 1,127, Aracy ignored this document and continued issuing visas to the Jews, allowing them to enter our country. Taking advantage of the fact that he personally dispatched with the consul general, Aracy placed the visa-related documents on her desk for signature, without identifying with the letter “J” the documents of the Jews applying for visas leaving the country. Thus she helped countless Jewish families to escape from Adolf Hitler’s concentration camps. This was a clear act of resistance by Aracy, as we know that the Holocaust represented the mass extermination of about six million Jews in the concentration camps. Among them are not the Jews that this woman, with great heart and courage, sent to Brazilian lands.
Aracy has strengthened her mission to save from the holocaust those she can remove from the Nazi environment, even risking her own life. She found the persecution against the Jews unfair. She witnessed atrocities and events of that period, with the sensation of being on a large battlefield, holding the only weapon she knew, and shooting daily from her great heart: the love of neighbor and the ideals of peace. She was the right angel in the right place. A beautiful and remarkable woman, in 1938, Aracy met João Guimarães Rosa, one of the greatest Brazilian writers, who had been transferred to Hamburg. Despite knowing Aracy’s transgressions in the Passport Section, Guimarães Rosa supported her in this practice, which he also considered fair but dangerous. This fact makes understandable the passion that arose between the two, making them accomplices in such a noble endeavor.
They united in Germany when Guimarães Rosa was Consul Assistant. The couple remained in that country until 1942, when Brazil broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, supporting the allies of World War II. The union of Aracy and Guimarães Rosa was made official at the Mexican Embassy in 1947 in Rio de Janeiro.
Our writer dedicated his work “Grande Sertão: Veredas”, published in 1956, to his companion, precisely for her principles and values. Aracy was buried at the Mausoleum of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, beside her husband, at the São João Batista Cemetery, in Rio de Janeiro. For her courage, determination and ideals aimed at defending the lives of the oppressed and vulnerable in environments marked by wars and violence, Aracy de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa deserves the recognition of her country and the nations that honored her. In addition to being considered by the Government of Israel to be “Righteous Among the Nations”, she has also received honors from the Washington and Jerusalem Holocaust Museum.
This postage stamp has the function of telling the story of Aracy, who was guided by the risks in his decisions in order to save lives, precisely because he ignored the ideologies of intolerance, injustice and cruelty that marked that time. However, like many individuals who made resistance and acted to change the situation of the period, Angel Aracy was there.
Maria de Lourdes Torres de Almeida Fonseca