José Hermano Saraiva GCIH • GCIP (3 October 1919 – 20 July 2012) was a Portuguese professor, historian and jurist.

[2] He was Minister of Education of Portugal between 1968 and 1970 and ambassador to Brazil between 1972 and 1974, during the Estado Novo dictatorship.

He enjoyed wide popularity and success as a television communicator whose television programs devoted to the History of Portugal, namely O Tempo e a Alma (1971), Gente de Paz (1978) and Horizontes da Memória (1996-2003) on RTP state-run television channels, reached a large audience among the Portuguese population and the Portuguese expat communities outside Portugal.

[3][4][5] Hermano Saraiva was born in Leiria, the third of the six sons of José Leonardo Venâncio Saraiva (born 1 April 1881, erudite and well known professor, Mayor of Leiria and Head Master of Liceu Passos Manuel in Lisbon) and wife Maria da Ressurreição Baptista Saraiva.

One of his maternal uncles was the last living Portuguese veteran of the First World War.