Places hidden from memory. The “2,000 Jewish Children Abducted” in 1493

All identities have their forgotten places of memory, especially when these are highly uncomfortable and go against the most basic principles of humanity. This is the case with Portugal's relationship with its Jewish memory, especially with moments of massacre, of systematic and massive death that, despite the potential anachronisms, make us think of genocide, among other barbarities.

Along with the so-called "massacre of 1506," which took place in Lisbon at Easter 1506, in which approximately 4,000 Lisbon residents, presumably crypto-Jews, may have died, the theft of approximately 2,000 Jewish children in 1493, forcibly taken from their parents and sent under inhumane conditions to São Tomé, where almost all of them died, is one of the dark events in our history that never made it into school textbooks—and why not! How could the glorious feat of the Discoveries be tarnished?

But yes, such barbarity did occur. This episode is documented in contemporary sources, such as Garcia de Resende, Isaac Abravanel, and Ibn Verga. This tremendous act of dehumanization of an entire population is the focus of the documentary "2,000 Kidnapped Jewish Children," produced by the Jewish Community of Porto and the Hispano-Jewish Foundation, bringing a dramatic and little-known episode in Portuguese history to the collective consciousness.

Already with nearly 50,000 views, the film is available for free on YouTube , subtitled in several languages, and recalls the deportation of approximately two thousand Jewish children in 1493, ordered by King John II. The children, around eight years old, were forcibly sent to the then uninhabited and inhospitable island of São Tomé, in the Gulf of Guinea, more than 7,500 kilometers away, after their parents—Sephardic Jews recently expelled from Spain—were unable to pay the required tribute to remain in Portugal. Many of them died during the journey, and many others were eaten by crocodiles. The island became known in the Jewish world as I Ha Timshaim, or "Island of Lizards."

Through various museums and film productions, the Jewish Community of Porto has brought to the Portuguese school population the knowledge that so many of us lack about Portuguese Jewish history, a fundamental element in the fight against anti-Semitism.

In these days, when radicalism that fuels anti-Semitism is rife, films like this should be required viewing in history classes. No Portuguese person should miss this horrific theft of thousands of children from their families, nor, even more so, the massacre of 1506, also the subject of a documentary produced by the same community.

It's not about looking at the past through the eyes of a court. The past cannot be changed or corrected. However, the present feeds on the past, as ignorance fuels violence, prejudice, and persecution.

So much of this distant past interests us today to better understand the world around us and how we are manipulated by waves of reaction that deprive us of a more complete view of reality. Yes, because the world is complex, and memories are full of wounds, and healing implies knowledge.

Inevitably, it is impossible to watch this film without drawing parallels with the present day, with the equally dramatic events of October 7, 2023. This connection is made, not in the film, but in the interpretation that anyone immediately ends up making.

Far from political choices and the threads that sew together government gestures, the most important thing about this film is the awareness it forces. Intense, without veils or subtext, it addresses brutality eye to eye. And this has no political or ideological overtones. Violent and gratuitous death, when it knocks on a door, wounds just as much.

The texts in this section reflect the authors' personal opinions. They do not represent VISÃO nor reflect its editorial position.