Doodle to commemorate Mexican “Schindler”

Today, Google commemorates the 125° anniversary of the birth of Mexican diplomat and politician Gilberto Bosques Saldívar (1892-1995), who helped thousands of refugees during World War II .

Thus, the giant from Mountain View shows a doodle of Saldívar writing a letter, dressed in a black suit – a pin of a white dove on his lapel – with a castle in the background with the flags of Mexico and France.

Gilberto Bosques was appointed Mexico's Consul General to Paris, in 1939, yet, he was forced to flee during the Nazi occupation . He reestablished the Mexican consulate in Marseille.

From then on, his mission became to protect his fellow citizens during WWII, but he soon found himself helping others, such as the Lebanese and Spanish, who sought to flee the Franco regime , to whom he granted the Mexican citizenship.

Not only did he granted thousands of visas to those communities, he also gave them shelter in two castles near Marseille, which were under Mexican jurisdiction at the time, from where he, later on, sent them by ship towards Mexico.

In 2015, when president of the Mexican Republic Enrique Peña Nieto revealed a plaque in his honor at the Regional Council Square in Marseille , France, he claimed that Bosques's efforts saved the lives of up to 40 thousand people.

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