When she signed up for the Sousa Mendes Foundation’s ‘Journey on the Road to Freedom’ Joan Arnay Halperin arranged to meet the daughter and grandchildren of the Portuguese man who had befriended her parents during the time they were stranded in Figueira da Foz (June 1940 - January 1942).
In preparation, she created a rudimentary photo album as a gift. Several journey participants remarked, “How did you get all these photos? We have nothing like this,” when they saw the photos of her parents’ life in pre-Holocaust Europe and their time in Portugal.
Joan’s response was to create My Sister’s Eyes .
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Photo Credit: Joao Pedro Marnoto for The New York Times
This photo was taken in June of 2013 when “Journey on the Road to Freedom” participants stopped in Cabanas di Viriato to pay homage to Aristides de Sousa Mendes the man who saved their lives or the lives of their parents. Photo Credit: Joao Pedro Marnoto for The New York Times