Portugal at the ‘Third Front’

Abstract

This chapter aims to analyse the relationship between Portugal and Germany during the National Socialist regime with regard to science and scientific exchanges, focusing on the interaction of Portuguese institutions (in particular the National Board of Education/Institute for High Culture) with Nazi institutions. To understand these institutional relations, one must bear in mind that Portugal remained neutral during the Second World War. On 1 September 1939, António de Oliveira Salazar, the dictator who had been in power since the beginning of the 1930s, wrote a note to the Portuguese press stating that the country would be neutral. Later, he also declared that Portugal would not take advantage of the war to gain economic benefits, and always mentioned Portuguese loyalty to the ‘British Alliance’ in his speeches during this period.