He’s been called the Oskar Schindler of El Salvador, but Jose Castellanos Contreras saved at least 25,000 Jews, twenty times more than Schindler. It’s time for his story to become better known.
Born in 1893 in El Salvador, Jose Castellanos (he is sometimes known by the extra surname Contreras) entered the military, eventually rising to the rank of Colonel, and becoming the Second Chief of the General Staff of the Salvadoran army. In 1938 he was sent abroad, first to work in the El Salvadoran Consulate in Liverpool, England, then to open El Salvador’s new Consulate in Hamburg, Germany.
Col. Castellanos’ grandsons, Alvaro and Boris Castellanos, who have researched their grandfather’s story and made a documentary about him titled The Rescue, speculate that Col. Castellanos’ anti-fascist feelings led him to oppose El Salvador’s autocratic tyrant at the time, Gen. Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, and that is the reason he was posted abroad. They wanted to get him out of El Salvador. Whatever motive the Salvadoran government had in sending Col. Castellanos to Europe, the move would eventually save the lives of at least 25,000 Jews.
Grandsons Alvaro and Boris Castellanos
In Germany, Col. Castellanos was horrified by what he saw. A series of harsh anti-Jewish decrees prevented Jews from working in many professions, going to school, and banned them from public spaces throughout the country. Anti-Semitism was rife. On the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938, mobs roamed the streets of German cities and towns, beating and killing Jews and looting, burning and attacking Jewish homes and businesses. During the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht), as it became known, hundreds of Jews were killed and 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps.
Despite the desperate need of Jews to leave Germany, El Salvador, like most countries, refused to issue life-saving visas that would enable Jews to leave Germany. In 1939, Col. Castellanos wrote a letter to the Salvadoran Foreign Minister, describing the dire situation of Jews in Germany and begging him to issue visas to German Jews. Col. Castellanos’ pleas fell on deaf ears and word came that he was forbidden to help.
In 1942, Col. Castellanos was assigned to be El Salvador’s Consul General in Geneva, Switzerland. There he decided to disobey orders and start helping desperate Jews. Col. Castellanos’ first act of resistance was saving his friend, a Hungarian Jewish businessman named Gyorgy Mandl. Mandl changed his name to the more Spanish-sounding George Mandel-Mantello, and became El Salvador’s First Secretary of the Geneva Consulate, a fictitious post and title that Col. Castellanos made up. Col. Castellanos issued Salvadoran nationality papers for Mandel-Mantello and his family, saving them from potential deportation.
Soon, Col. Castellanos and “First Secretary” Mandel-Mantello were issuing Salvadoran passports and visas to other European Jews, identifying them as citizens of El Salvador. While similar visas to other Latin American countries were being bought and sold for huge fortunes on the black market, Col. Castellanos never charged for the life-saving Salvadoran documents he issued.
As the war progressed, Col. Castellanos and Mr. Mandel-Mantello realized they couldn’t issue visas fast enough to save the many desperate Jews whose lives were in danger. So they secretly distributed over 13,000 certificates of Salvadoran citizenship, each precious document protecting an entire family. Thousands of European Jews with no connection to El Salvador suddenly became citizens of the small Central American country, offering them protection from deportation and arrest. At first, these certificates were smuggled to Jews living in France; eventually they were sent to Jews in Mr. Mandel-Mantello’s native Hungary as well. In all, Jews from Poland, France, Hungary, Germany and Czechoslovakia found themselves citizens of El Salvador. Col. Castellanos used his diplomatic position to convince skeptical Swiss and other officials that the Salvadoran citizenship papers were in fact genuine.
Salvadoran citizenship allowed European Jews to receive the protection of the International Red Cross, which guaranteed the rights of citizens of neutral countries during the war. In 1944, Col. Castellanos asked Switzerland’s Consulate in Budapest to represent Salvadoran interests as well, and soon the Swiss Consul in Budapest was also working to maintain the rights of these new Salvadoran “citizens” and protect them from the mass arrests that targeted other Hungarian Jews.
In 1944, after two years of working secretly issuing thousands of visas, passports and certificates of citizenship, Col. Castellanos finally received permission from El Salvador to continue his life-saving work openly. He and Mr. Mandel-Mantello increased the number of papers they printed, eventually gaining an ally in Budapest: Carl Lutz, the Vice Consul at the Swiss Legation in Hungary’s capital.
With Lutz’s help, El Salvador issued thousands of official-looking, notarized documents guaranteeing citizenship and protection to Jews in Hungary, Poland, and other European countries, where they otherwise would have perished. As word of the Salvadoran visas being issued in Hungary grew, Carl Lutz moved his production facilities to an abandoned glass factory, where he had more space to churn out Salvadoran citizenship papers. In all, it’s estimated that somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 Jews were saved by what some call the “El Salvador Action” of World War II.
After the War, Col. Castellanos lived a quiet life, rarely talking about his wartime heroism. The writer Leon Uris tracked down a then-retired Jose Castellanos in 1972, and in 1976 he gave his only interview about his wartime activities in a brief radio interview. After being posted to London after World War II, Jose Castellanos returned home and retired; he died in San Salvador in 1977.
Frieda Garcia, Castellanos’ daughter, recalls that her father played down his heroism and rarely talked about the thousands of lives he saved: “Whenever I asked him, he would say that he didn’t do anything another person in his place wouldn’t have done,” she recalled.
Jose Castellanos’ daughter, Frieda, at Yad Vashem
In 1999, the Jerusalem City council honored Col. Castellanos, naming a thoroughfare in the Givat Masua neighborhood El Salvador Street, and thanking Col. Castellanos’ granddaughter who attended the ceremony for her grandfather’s heroism. In 2010, Col. Jose Arturo Castellanos Contreras was honored as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem in Israel and a tree was planted in his honor.
In 2012, when Col. Castellanos was honored by the Anti Defamation League, his daughter Frieda Castellanos de Garcia noted that it’s more important than ever now to remember her grandfather’s legacy. “These stories have to be told,” she warned. “Some leaders of the world are denying the history of the Holocaust. The only way that we can avoid another horror of the Holocaust is by letting people know that it really existed.”
(12) D.K.Milgrim-Heath, August 9, 2018 3:38 PM
Christians Risking Lives Saved Jewish People And All Their Lives Were Divinely Spared
Christians Risking Lives Saved Jewish People And All Their Lives Were Divinely Spared
By D.K.Milgrim-Heath©2018
Christians risking lives saved Jewish people and all their lives were divinely spared-
Because of God's message of truth towards ending dangerous sufferings they cared.
They loved God so much they knew they set examples for others in need-
A wake-up call of true beauty for humanity in definition to revere God and succeed.
All people of faith that chose in WWII saving many innocent souls being that way-
Are truly holy and pious showing humanity love is fully here to stay.
(11) Dvora, May 28, 2018 7:44 PM
Bless this awesome Salvodor Saint and his many descendants
I spent much time through out Mexico but never entered El Salvador though I was close to their border. Overall, my experience with the Mexicans I met was quite close. I utilized any position I held to help them. One Family in particular, being victimized by the drug cartel. Moved to America to avoid the murder of their entire Family. Did I know more than 20 million more would cross the border too? I know the Spanish speaking people to be parents, grand parents of supra large Families and very CLOSE. I love their ways and it is no surprise to me what Col. Constellanos did for Jews. I understand that M13 is a gang of criminals that came to America illegally too, but there is not one race, not one Nation with NO CRIMINALS. I am in awe that this hero appeared at a time when Jews desperately needed his help! So proud you made him Havashem in Israel. Incredible man, heroic man for all time. I am honored just to read of him.
(10) Joshua, January 26, 2018 2:52 PM
Tzadik!
What a wonderful example to all humanity, everywhere. G-d bless Col. Castellanos’ family. May his neshama have an aliah, and may G-d grant the family tremendous success, peace, and deep happiness in Olam Hazeh and Olam Haba like the tzadikim.
(9) David Ginsberg, January 26, 2018 4:19 AM
Incredible story which brought tears to my eyes
Thank God in all that evil there were a few good, brave and courageous people.
(8) Lynne, January 25, 2018 3:09 PM
Moshav Nir Galim
Moshav Nir Galim near Ashdod has a don't-miss museum about the Glass House.
Although I wrote my master's thesis on teaching the shoah to teenagers, and did extensive research at the time, it wasn't until I visited beit ha'edut in 2015, that I learned this remarkable story.
You will be inspired and strengthened by a visit here.
(7) Asher, January 25, 2018 5:37 AM
This is a great article!!! In this time, when El Salvador has been plagued by negative media bias.....with multiple articles on the MS gangs, this article is a breath of fresh air. El Salvador is a beautiful country with warm and friendly people, many of whom are friends of Israel . Through The Shavei Israel organization, many Salvadoran Anusim, are returning to their roots and Judaism. You can now see Sephardic Jews walking in the Salvadoran capital on Shabbat, going to an orthodox Sephardic shul. Being of Salvadoran descent, and Jewish, I welcome this type of article . Thank you, Aish I wish this article could be translated into Spanish and be posted in the Spanish Aish website .
(6) Jose Perez, January 24, 2018 11:40 PM
Thank you
Thank you for posting this amazing story. May his memory be a blessing to all!
(5) Lea Karpman, January 24, 2018 2:48 PM
This story hits close to home
I teach violin to a German girl whose mother is El Salvadoran. I'll tell her about this. She's reading The Diary of Ann Frank in school.
(4) Jerry Meents, January 23, 2018 9:12 PM
A
Fantastic. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
(3) Anne, January 23, 2018 7:29 PM
Thank you.
It is an amazing article, very important, thank you for your great work. God bless you.
(2) MESA, January 23, 2018 6:02 PM
1) Someone made one tiny typing mistake. The Kristallnacht pogroms were in 1938, not 1939.
2) Castellano said that he didn't do anything that anyone in his place wouldn't have done. I don't agree. There were people who were in far better positions than his who knew about the Holocaust and chose to do nothing. Castellano chose to do something. And he saved so many lives. That gets him full credit in my book.
(1) Anonymous, January 23, 2018 9:59 AM
Thank You for this Article
The author has performed an important service by publicizing this
amazing story!