Nearly seven decades after the rescue actions carried out in Budapest in 1944, Hungarian authorities paid tribute to two Portuguese diplomats by unveiling a commemorative plaque bearing their names, Ambassador Carlos Sampaio Garrido and Chargé d’Affaires Alberto Carlos de Liz-Teixeira Branquinho. The plaque was installed on the exterior wall of the former Grand Hotel Dunapalota-Ritz, the building where the Portuguese Legation in Budapest was then located.

The location is symbolically charged. In the spring and summer of 1944, after the German occupation of Hungary, this diplomatic address became a place of documentation, protection, and urgent negotiation. Garrido and Branquinho, acting within the constraints and authorizations of Portuguese policy, issued visas and protection papers connected to Portugal and provided shelter and support to those targeted for deportation. Contemporary documentation and later historical accounts credit their intervention with saving approximately 1,000 Hungarian Jews.

Today, the plaque can be found on the facade of the InterContinental Budapest on the Danube Promenade (1052 Budapest, Apáczai Csere János utca 12-14), marking the former Ritz site and preserving, in the urban fabric, the memory of the Portuguese Legation’s wartime role.