Over the two and a half years that it has taken to research and write this book I have been very fortunate to receive the help and support of a number of people to whom I am extremely grateful. David Lewis has helped support my position at University College London for a number of years and has been hugely supportive of all my research and books. For this book I was very fortunate to be able to spend time in archives in Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, London, New York, and Washington, DC. I would like to thank the British Academy and University College London for helping to finance these research trips. Even in the age of digital online archives it is vitally important to spend time in the overseas archives, many of which provide unexpected treasures.
In Rio de Janeiro, a special mention must go to Duncan and Elizabeth Barker who were fantastic hosts and did so much to make my initial trip to Brazil such a success for this book and for future projects. In Brazil, a number of people very kindly helped me navigate my way through the archives. I am especially grateful to Jaime Antunes da Silva, director general of the National Archives based in Rio de Janeiro, for giving me so much of his time and explaining exactly in which archives I needed to look for material. To Sátiro Nunes for helping me specifically with the photographs from World War II and the wider documentation in the National Archives. The whole staff at the National Archives in Rio was wonderfully helpful.
Tenente Coronel José Luiz Cruz Andrade, director of the Military Archives, helped me enormously with documents about the Força Expedicionária Brasileira (FEB) in Italy. Likewise, Leo Christiano, who kindly sent me newspaper documentation of the FEB in Italy during 1944–1945. Ruth Aqunio and George Iso helped me get started in Rio, as did Elmer C. Corrêa Barbosa. I would also like to thank the staff at O Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil (CPDOC) é a Escola de Ciências Sociais da Fundação Getúlio Vargas for their help both in Brazil and with subsequent enquiries. The staff at Copacabana Palace Hotel were extremely helpful in providing material from the hotel’s archive.
In Lisbon, I would like to thank all the staff at Torre do Tombo (the Portuguese National Archive) for their assistance in handling my frequent requests for documents. At the Portuguese Foreign Ministry Archives, I am grateful to the staff for their guidance as to which files to look for and for their guidance around their first-class archive. I would also like to thank the staff at both the Lisbon and Cascais Municipality Archives—these two local archives contain important information and records for the period.
In London, the staff at the Public Records Office (National Archives) in Kew were, as ever, extremely helpful and enthusiastic in helping direct me to the huge volume of documentary material that Brazil and its role in World War II had created. Also thank you to Professor Michael Berkowitz at University College London for his amazing enthusiasm and to Professor Joachim Shloer at Southampton University for sending me much-needed material.
In the United States, the staff at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) were very good in helping me locate material on the Jewish refugees in both Portugal and Brazil during World War II. Judith Cohen, director of the photographic collection at USHMM, helped identify some wonderful images. At the US National Archives in Maryland, I am extremely grateful to the staff who assisted me in locating the files (both civilian and military) that I needed in order to write this book. The lack of a good centralized computer system in the archive made the help provided by the team there absolutely invaluable. In New York at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Archive, a special note of thanks to the foundation director, Richard Armstrong, and to the archive manager, Francine Snyder, for their assistance in preparing all the documents in advance of my arrival.
At Basic Books, it has been a great pleasure working with my editor, Alex Littlefield, who has enormously helped this book develop into its final form, and also a special note of thanks to Lara Heimert, publisher at Basic Books. My thanks also to Isabelle Bleecker and the international rights team at Perseus Books Group. It has been a pleasure dealing with such a professional publisher. Additional thanks must also be given to Francisco Espadinha at Editorial Presença for his continued support on this project and other future ones.
There are a number of people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for their help and support during my research: both Rob and Jane Wilson, as well as Simon Frederick. Matt Freeman and Helena Shaw have done a marvelous job developing and maintaining my website over the years. To José Mateus for his boundless enthusiasm for all things to do with history and banking. Antonio Costa (Mayor of Lisbon) and Catarina Vaz-Pinto for their strong support over the years. Pureza Fino is a wonderful publicist, and it has been a great pleasure to work with her on this project as well as on the Lisbon book.
Finally, and most important of all, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my family for their continued love and support: to my mother, my wife, Emma, and most of all my children, Benjamin and Hélèna. The book is dedicated to my wife and children, with an apology for my long absences at my writing desk.