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In 1941, Portugal's Jews had four options: to hide from the Third Reich, flee from the advancing army, go underground, or find an exemption -- something that made them too valuable to deport to a concentration camp.

Taking advantage of Portugal's neutral stance in World War II, the Jews there found an exemption by telling the Nazis that they were Portuguese, not Jewish, said Rabbi Dr. Mitchell Serels, a Holocaust and Sephardi culture expert who spoke at East Brunswick Jewish Center April 21. The Nazis granted their request, but only Jews who were fully Portuguese would be considered. The Jewish community placed everyone's name on the list, and in response, the Nazis sent a "racial scientist" to Portugal to ensure that these Jews were truly Portuguese.

"The racial scientist went to Portugal and began to measure foreheads, noses, cheekbones, the length of shoulders, heights, comparison of arms to legs," said Serels. "He began to trace their ancestry. A person who was not on both sides Portuguese, they were not exempt."

Three-hundred forty Jews fit the scientists' definition of Portuguese and were spared, but not for long. Those Jews, too, were deported to concentration camps in one of the last deportations of the Holocaust.

Serels was the keynote speaker of the joint Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, East Brunswick Jewish Center, and area synagogue's Yom Hashoah commemoration on April 21 entitled "Bridging the Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrachi Expereinces." The program highlighted the Sephardi experience during the Holocaust. It featured Cantor David Amar from the Freehold Jewish Center; Ray Morris from Congregation Etz Ahaim, Highland Park; and Dr. Peter Schild from the Highland Park Conservative Temple-Congregation Anshe Emeth and Rabbi Aaron Benson of the East Brunswick Jewish Center with opening remarks.

"As we remember and commemorate, we also rejoice in the achievements of the Jewish people," Schild said. "It is now unthinkable that a highly civilized country could experience two devastating decades with national wounds so deep that the people and culture became engulfed by anti-Semitism, brought to a heightened pitch by the hysterical, yet magnetic oratory of an otherwise mediocre man, Adolf Hitler... that we flourish maintaining our cultures, developing our communities, and sustaining our identity -- that's what tells us we have survived."

"It would be wrong to think that the Jewish story is a lachrymose history, with one tragedy following another," Benson added. "Although we are here together tonight to mark perhaps the single worst tragedy in the Jewish history, nevertheless, we also keep in mind that ours is a tradition that emphasizes life and joy, passing on from one generation to the next... although we do make time to remember the sad and terrible time in our history, we must always remember that our legacy is not one of death or destruction, but of perseverance."

Jews from North Africa, Greece, Salonika, Bulgaria, and other countries with small Jewish populations all faced a similar fate to their Eastern European brethren during the Holocaust, Serels explained. Although, in retrospect, fleeing or hiding may have been better options, Serels said that at that point in time, the Jews had no way of knowing what the right choice meant.

"If you didn't want to go into hiding, and you did not know how to get to the underground, you found an exemption, and that kept you alive," Serels said. "The fifth option was the deadliest -- not to choose."

Serels said that these countries were not immune from the Nazis' desire to wipe all of Europe clean from Jewry.

"They did not fit into the pattern of the Nazi ideal, but it didn't matter," Serels said.

Some countries went ahead and began to persecute Jews on their own. In Iraq, for example, a pogrom on Shavuot 1941 targeted Jews because "they were prone to German propaganda."

Serels elaborated on the Italian army's willingness to persecute Jews in their territories. The Italian army opened up work camps for Jews in Libya and attacked cities to target the Jews in them. Serels said that the Holocaust even had influence in Tunisia and Syria, Vichy-controlled areas, with camps set up by the Judenrat.

"The Italian officers didn't understand these Jews -- during their afternoon siesta they go and pray," Serels said. "They set up camps -- and people died in those camps. They were not death camps. They were work camps, built wherever they needed them."

Serels said that some countries went through tremendous effort to protect its Jews, like Albania.

"One of the Muslim leaders decided to be on help by declaring that these Jews were now Muslim," Serels said. "Why? It would explain their circumcision. When they were able to work together, a solution could have been realized."

Albania was one of the few countries that made an effort to save its Jews, but Serels said that there were so many other ways countries could have helped, but did not try them.

"There were things to do in the world if you wanted to help, but many didn't," Serels said.