Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Jewish Prison Guard Investigated for Nazi Salute in Lisbon

Portuguese prosecutors are investigating a Jewish prison guard and five of his colleagues for making a Nazi salute.

The six men participated in a demonstration last month against the government’s austerity measures in front of Portugal’s parliament in Lisbon, Diario de Noticias, a daily newspaper, reported earlier this week. The newspaper did not name the men, but reported that one of them was Jewish.

The decision to investigate the men came almost a month after the demonstration, in which a crowd of government employees, mostly male and many wearing masks, were seen singing the national anthem and waving their arms in what prosecutors said were Nazi salutes that violated Portuguese law against the display of fascist symbols.

The Jewish prison guard told the daily he was “indignant” over the decision.

A spokesperson for the group told the sapo.pt news site that the investigation was baseless as none of the guards had any connections to the extreme right, and that it was a way for the government to punish them for participating in the protest rally.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.