Ambassador Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr.

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Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr. (December 17, 1897 – November 13, 1961) was an American diplomat who served as ambassador to several countries between the 1930s and 1961. He served in the United States Army during World War I and after World War II, reaching the rank of major general.

On May 4, 1937, he was promoted to Ambassador to Poland and presented his credentials in Warsaw, Poland on June 2, 1937. In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, which was a major cause of World War II. After Biddle's house was hit with bomb fragments, his family and embassy staff fled to various temporary quarters. After the escape, he joined the Polish government in exile in France until June 1940, when he and his wife Margaret received transit visas from the Portuguese consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes, in Bordeaux, and crossed into Portugal. They stayed in Estoril, at the Hotel Palácio, between 19 July and 31 July 1940. On 1 August 1940, they boarded the S.S. Excalibur headed for New York City, arriving on 10 August.

Ambassador Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr.