19 March 1938, Mexico

Austria was annexed by the German Reich, and the whole world stood by in silence. The whole world? Not quite! A distant land on the other side of the Atlantic took a stand. It was 1938, and of all places, it was Mexico who spoke up – where 70 years before the Habsburg emperor Maximilian had established an empire but was executed when it collapsed. Following Hitler’s Anschluss of Austria, Mexico submitted a note of protest to the League of Nations, the predecessor organisation of the UN, but it took no action. Mexico went on to provide asylum – along with other Latin American countries – to hundreds of Austrians who were forced to flee from the Nazi regime. A large square in Vienna was later named Mexikoplatz in honour of the support given by Mexico.