José Arturo Castellanos (1893–1977)
By Francesc Morales
In 1993 hundreds of thousands of people discovered the story of Oskar Schindler (1908–74) through the eyes of the Steven Spielberg film Schindler’s List. That very same year he and his wife Emilie were named Righteous Among the Nations, an honorific title used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. In the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program we have an interview where another Righteous Among the Nations is mentioned. Specifically, the information is part of the collection History of the Jewish Community in El Salvador. The story involves two Salvadoran diplomats, and a Jewish businessman, who together saved thousand of lives during the world war in Europe. The Salvadoran population was ignorant of that adventure, including the Jewish community. We have had to wait to this century to know the whole picture and—thanks to the oral history—to have our particular Spielberg for our Schindler.
The HJCS collection has its origin in a donation made by Jessica Alpert few years ago. Between 2005 and 2006, Alpert interviewed dozens of Jews in El Salvador, Israel, and the United States as part of her participation in the Fulbright Program. Thanks to her research, we see how the Salvadoran Jewish population moved from the first documented German Jew in 1888 to a small business community in the twentieth century. However, a great shift started to occur by the decade of 1930s, when the migrant policy of the country became more strict. In 1936, members of the Jewish community in El Salvador attempted to help their relatives escape from Europe, but on July 30, 1939, fifty Jewish refugees bound for El Salvador were returned to Germany (Alpert). For many Latin American politicians, Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler, were examples to follow, but 1941 was a year in which many took a side in the global conflict: that very same year the Republic of El Salvador declared war against the Empire of Japan, and the German Reich. It is in the development of the war in Europe where we found a Salvadoran diplomat involved in one of the many epic—and less known—stories during that conflict.
Our main character here is the Salvadoran militar José Arturo Castellanos. Colonel Castellanos was sent to Europe in 1937 to buy weapons. It is during this trip that he met the Transylvanian businessman György Mandl, later George Mantello. Castellanos remained in Europe as consul because the President Maximiliano Hernández Martínez saw him as a political rival. It is during his time as consul in Geneva when Mantello suggested saving Jewish lives using Salvadoran documents. Of course, that was a clandestine operation, and before taking any decision, Castellanos consulted with José Gustavo Guerrero, another Salvadoran diplomat and president of the Permanent Court of International Justice since 1937. In summary, the total of national certificates made by the General Consulate of El Salvador in Geneva between 1942 and 1944 was more than thirteen thousand. However, the oral tradition of many of the families saved by his effort makes us think in a figure of fifty thousand people in total. Castellanos was moved by humanitarian reasons, and never took money for his acts (Cnel. Castellanos 4–26). This last part of the story is relevant in order to understand the recognition he received posthumously by the State of Israel.
Castellanos continued to be inconvenient for whoever was in charge of the Republic of El Salvador. In 1945 he came back to the Central American country, from where he was expelled to Mexico by President Salvador Castañeda Castro (Cnel. Castellanos 22–23). In general, after the war Castellanos lived a quiet life and played down his role (Carroll). Mantello, and Castellanos, were soon forgotten, but after some time the deeds of Mantello—and other Europeans, like Carl Lutz—started to be recognized (Cnel. Castellanos 2). The writer Leon Uris tracked down Castellanos in 1972, and the Salvadoran retired diplomat gave a brief radio interview in 1976, but otherwise he remained anonymous and his contribution went unrecognised (Carroll). Until Jean-Claude Kahn, a former president of the Jewish Community of El Salvador in 2006 said to Alpert: “Bueno, te puedo hablar un poquito de eso porque esas son de las cosas que tengo a corazón de terminar. Ahorita el Ministerio de Relación Exterior, el ministro, ha nombrado una comisión que está investigando eso.” Four years later, Castellanos was recognized Righteous Among the Nations, thanks, in part, for his selfless help towards Jewish population during the war. Many others saved Jewish lives making money from it, but that was not the case of Castellanos.
Kahn is our Spielberg uncovering the story of Colonel Castellanos, Righteous Among the Nations for risking his life saving Jews from Nazi extermination programs. Thanks to Alpert’s interviews we have this and many other stories of the Jewish tribulations through Europe to Central America. The recognition to Castellanos from Salvadoran, and Israeli governments finally arrived in 2010, as well as the publication of a book by the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores of El Salvador. Forty years after Castellanos’ death, his story arrived to the academic audience with a master in arts thesis presented in 2017 at the East Carolina University. Countries such as Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile are stereotypically known for becoming a Nazi refugee after the war. It is time to insert Latin America in a global conflict with more comprehensive eyes.
Tribute to Castellanos : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZfRyOSkA9g
References
Alpert, Jessica. “El Salvador Virtual Jewish History Tour.” Jewish Virtual Library, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/el-salvador-virtual-jewish-history-tour. Accessed 20 June 2018.
Carroll, Rory. “Call to Honour El Salvador’s Rescuer of Jews After War Role Rediscovered.” The Guardian, 18 June 2008, www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/19/secondworldwar.
Cnel. José Arturo Castellanos: Héroe del Holocausto. Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de El Salvador, 2010.
Kahn, Jean-Claude. Interview by Jessica Alpert. SPOHP, 10 Jan. 2006.
Lemus, Emily Joyce. “José Arturo Castellanos: An Unlikely Hero of the Second World War from El Salvador.” MA thesis, East Carolina U, 2017.
Schindler’s List. Directed by Steven Spielberg, performances by Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley, Universal Pictures, 1993.
LDAP FAMILIA 