Samuel Schwarz (1880–1953)

Samuel Schwarz, originally Szwarc, was born in Zgierz, Poland. His father Isucher Moshe Szwarc, an ardent Zionist, was famed for his book collecting. Samuel attended Jewish schools in his youth and at age 16, went to Paris for higher education. He enrolled at the École nationale des arts décoratifs and later transferred to the École nationale supérieure des mines, from which he graduated in 1904. For the next 10 years, he worked as a mining engineer throughout Europe and Africa. He became a notable polyglot, learning to speak Russian, Polish, German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, and Yiddish. In 1914, he married Agatha Barbasch, daughter of Russian banker and Zionist Samuel Barbasch. When World War I broke out, making his work in Western Europe impossible, Samuel and his wife moved to Lisbon, Portugal. Samuel began working at the tungsten and tin mines of Vilar Formoso and Belmonte, and quickly became involved in the Sephardic Jewish community. He became interested in the history of the secret Jews and Marranos of Portugal and Spain. In 1923, he began his second career as an archaeologist, ethnographer, and historian with the publication of his article "Inscrições hebraicas em Portugal" (Hebrew Inscriptions in Portugal) published in the magazine Arqueologia e História (Archaeology and History), under the name Samuel Schwarz. His 1925 book Os cristãos novos em Portugal no século XX (The New Christians in Portugal in the 20th Century) is considered a classic of Jewish diaspora history. Schwarz undertook archaeological excavations and restoration work of the Synagogue of Tomar, dating to the time before Jews were expelled from Portugal, and donated the building in 1939 to the Portuguese government on the condition it be turned into a museum. In return, Schwarz and his family were granted Portuguese citizenship, protecting them during the Holocaust. Schwarz went on to publish numerous more books and articles on the Jewish history throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. After his death in 1953, his vast library of mainly Judaism-related books — including 32 incunabula and 10,000 other rare books — was sold to the Portuguese government and currently is held at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa as the Biblioteca Samuel Schwarz (Samuel Schwarz Library). Samuel was the youngest brother of French-Polish painter and sculptor Marek Szwarc, and the uncle of writer Tereska Torrès.