Shoah: El Salvador consul in Geneva saved thousands of Jews

Norman Lowenthal

This honorary appointment is made as an adjunct of the El Salvador embassy in Israel, which I happily visited last month. While there, I met the present and past ambassadors who gave me some most enlightening information which I would like to share with the South African Jewish community, who have, through your recent publication, recognised other countries’ contributions during Holocaust times.

An article appeared in the Jewish Observer and Middle East Review of October 1955, entitled: “The War’s Unpaid Debt of Honour – How El Salvador Saved Tens of Thousands of Jews”. The author, Jon Kimche, described the Salvadorian actions and ended by saying: “As far as I know, neither the World Jewish Organisations nor the Israel Government has ever expressed its appreciation to the Government of El Salvador, nor to its servants, who by their courage, initiative and humanity, helped to rescue many thousands of Jews who otherwise would have gone on the road to Auschwitz and oblivion. It is a debt of honour, which it is still not too late to repay.”

Fifty-five years after the article was published, the debt has been repaid.

During the Second World War a Salvadorian consul general in Geneva, Jose Arturo Castellanos, and his secretary George Mantello saved tens of thousands European Jews by awarding them Salvadorian citizenship.

This gentleman was honoured recently as Righteous Among Nations and Yad Vashem awarded medals to his children in San Salvador, a remarkable and well-deserved honour.

Added to this is the unique position of power that diplomats had, from which their stamp and their signature on a piece of paper could mean the difference between life and death for another person.

This tribute is indeed a wonderful recognition of these unknown events that took place during those terrifying war years, particularly by a country with a tiny Jewish community.

This year I learned that there are two words in Hebrew for survivors: sordim and nitsolim. Sordim are the survivors, the ones that went through the horrors and lived. Nitsolim are the ones who were spared from that generation and all generations to come.

Honorary Consul of El Salvador

Saxonwold, Johannesburg