Review: The World Entire

The World Entire: A True Story of an Extraordinary World War II Rescue

by Elizabeth Brown, illustrated by Melissa Castrillon

Chronicle Books, 2025

Category: Picture Books

Reviewer: Rachel J. Fremmer

 

Buy at Bookshop.org

 
“The greatest individual act of rescue in all of World War II” may have been accomplished by someone you never heard of. This person may have saved more people than Schindler or Wallenberg. If I told you he had saved people by issuing visas, perhaps Sugihara would come to mind. (Wallenberg and Sugihara are, in fact, the first two diplomats listed in the dedication to “diplomats who defied official policy to save countless lives.”) But Aristides de Sousa Mendes? Probably not. And yet…

Finally giving him the attention he deserves is Elizabeth Brown’s picture book, The World Entire: A True Story of an Extraordinary World War II Rescue with stunning illustrations by Melissa Castrillon. The book starts with Aristedes’s career as a Portuguese diplomat who issued visas in Bordeaux, France, for people traveling to Portugal – usually on business or holiday. Not people fleeing war. Aristedes is portrayed as a fairly average man – a husband, a father, a civil servant – except for the fact that every Thursday he hosted the town’s children for a meal. This generosity foreshadows his extraordinary generosity to come.

As refugees poured into Bordeaux, the Portuguese government directed Aristedes not to issue them visas. Aristedes wrestled with whether to obey what he knew were immoral orders… orders that would result in thousands of deaths. And he decided to do what he knew was right, at great cost to himself and his family. He lost his job and his home, and his children were banned from university or work in Portugal.

Illustrations vary from spot illustrations to double-page spreads, maps of Nazi-occupied Europe, landscapes, and close-ups of Aristides’s signature on visas. This variety gives the book a sense of movement. Endpapers show ink spilling into a literal sea, referring to the ink Aristedes used to sign the visas.

Back matter includes a detailed author’s note which provides context and specifics, including the Talmudic quote which is the source of the book’s title, a timeline, citations, and a bibliography, making this an excellent choice for schools teaching nonfiction units.

The back matter tells us that, “[o]ver a period of 23 days, Aristides de Sousa Mendes rescued many thousands of people, including the painter Salvador Dali; the writers Margret Rey and H.A. Rey; the entire Belgian cabinet; professors of medicine, biology, and physics…; and thousands of others whose lives are less known but no less precious.” Aristides’s life is also not widely known. This book takes one beautiful step towards changing that.

Jews here are portrayed primarily as refugees, as is appropriate for the purpose of the book. The concern of Jews for their fellow Jews is shown when Aristedes offers a rabbi and his family visas, but the rabbi refuses because he cannot leave his people. 

 

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Reviewer Rachel J. Fremmer is a lawyer-turned-elementary-school librarian. She writes an annual round-up of the best Jewish children’s books for Tablet, the online magazine. She is a native-and-forever New Yorker and lives there with her family. She is continually inspired by the city even though apartment living means she is running out of room for her picture book collection. She was selected by PJ Library for their inaugural Picture Book Summer Camp for Emerging Writers. When she is not reading or writing, she is baking or doing crossword puzzles.