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In recent years, our understanding of Portugal’s part in the Holocaust has increased immeasurably, thanks to the work of a number of determined historians. Portugal became an important, if not quite attractive, point of passage for Jews fleeing the European continent after the fall of France in 1940, a year in which thousands of refugees passed through its border. Some, having nowhere to go, remained for a time, forced to live in the country’s empty seaside resorts. After this initial wave the flow slowed considerably, although there were a number of times when the Portuguese authorities were confronted by the Nazis’ genocidal enterprise. Their response was always cautious and never condemnatory, and was determined by external and internal circumstances, such as the course of the war, the desire to keep Portugal out of the conflict, and the need to preserve the delicate balance which preserved the existing regime, the New State. The regime’s creator and leader, António de Oliveira Salazar, was responsible for this approach, and this article provides an attempt to chart, in part through his legislative and administrative measures, in part through his correspondence, his attitude to the unfolding tragedy.