Volume 4 No 1 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

2012] REVERSING SOCIAL MEMORY IN PORTUGAL 261
finding of “moral incapacity” and consequent “separation from service” of
Barros Basto instead fall squarely within the universally accepted rights of
all humans, including the right to religious freedom.
Moreover, the decision of the Army impedes anyone from understanding
how the military judges reached the degree of certainty they supposedly
achieved in relation to the facts they considered proven. It is a decision
without any basis, one that, because it does not critically examine the means
of proof of evidence that was considered or disregarded, culminates in the
censure of Barros Basto for not pursuing the person who denounced him.
The compelling arguments of Isabel Lopes, the granddaughter of Barros
Basto, met with success: the decision of the Army Discipline Board
would be neatly corrected by the Portuguese Parliament. This decision is
absolute, carrying truth.
On February 2012, there was a meeting of the deputies of the Parliamentary
Commission for Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and
Guarantees. At that meeting, the commission approved—unanimously—the
report written by legislator and law professor Carlos Abreu Amorim.
The report explains, point by point, that the condemnation of Barros
Basto is justified, evaluated, and motivated by religious intolerance and
antisemitc prejudice: “Barros Basto was separated from the Army due to a
general atmosphere of animosity against him motivated by the fact of being
Jewish, not covering it up, and instead exhibiting an energetic proselytism,
converting Portuguese Jewish Marranos and their descendants.”
On behalf of truth, this affirmation is vindication enough. But the Parliamentary
Commission for Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and
Guarantees said something even more important:
The application for reinstatement of Barros Basto is not limited to rehabilitation
and reintegration into the Portuguese army of a soldier wronged
seventy-five years ago. It is much more than that. The remedying of this
case translates into repairing the moral dignity of our own country, a
nation deeply respectful of the integrity of fundamental rights, the cornerstone
of the materiality of our rule of law. With the posthumous rehabilitation
of Barros Basto, all Portuguese will be acquitted of an injustice
done to a man that turned out to tarnish an entire collective. The posthumous
restitution of honor to Barros Basto and his moral rehabilitation
will make the most perfect justice, the undoing of an injustice. As such,
all of us, Portuguese men and women, will be freer and more dignified.
With the highest commendation, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
conveyed their deep appreciation for the Parliament’s rehabilitation of Captain
Barros Basto. That decision was so right and so important for the Jews
around the world!