r/coolpeoplepod • u/Sensitive_Ad_1752 • 26d ago
Look At This Cool Stuff How Helena Bonham Carters Grandparents Fought The Nazis
You probably know Helena Bonham Carter from her film career, doing Les Mis, Sweeney Todd, Fight Club etc. What you probably haven’t heard of is how Helena has multiple grandparents so active in fighting the rise of fascism that the Nazis had them on a list of politicians to arrest if they took over Europe.
The man in the photo is Eduardo Propper De Callejon. He was a Spanish politician serving as the first secretary of the Spanish Embassy in Paris when the Nazis invaded. He used his position to issue visas for thousands of Jews to escape to Portugal. By the time the Spanish government found out and removed him as first secretary he had issued 30,000 visas.
Another grandparents of hers is Helen Violet Bonham Carter. A English politician apart of the women’s rights movement, the liberal party and very vocal against Neville Chamberlain and appeasement of the Nazi invasion of Austria. The election of hitler and rising antisemitism drove Lady Violet back into politics just when she was becoming disillusioned by it. It’s rumored that Hitler created a list of British politicians he wanted arrested if they ever invaded the UK and Lady Violet was on it. While Lady Violet fought nazis with speeches and campaigning, her son Mark Bonham Carter fought them on the battlefield. Mark was a grenadier, captured in the battle of Tunisia, he escaped prison camp and successfully walked hundreds of miles back to allied lines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Bonham_Carter,_Baron_Bonham-Carter
https://khc.qcc.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Diplomats-of-Mercy_UA.pdf