José Arturo Castellanos Contreras (23 December 1893 — 18 June 1977) was a
Salvadoran Army
The Salvadoran Army (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Ejército Salvadoreño'') is the land branch and largest of the Armed Forces of El Salvador.
History The Football War
The Football War (also called The Soccer War or 100-hours War) was a ter ...
colonel
Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
and
diplomat
A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...
who, while working as El Salvador's
Consul General
A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries.
A consu ...
for
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and in conjunction with
Jewish-Romanian businessman
György Mandl, helped save up to 40,000
Central Europe
Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...
an
Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
, most of them from Hungary, from
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
persecution by providing them with fake Salvadoran citizenship certificates.
Public life and achievements
Castellanos was born in the provincial city of
San Vicente to General Adelino Castellanos and Isabel Contreras de Castellanos.
Beginning in 1911, when he entered the Military Polytechnic School, Castellanos would spend over 25 active years in the Salvadoran military, eventually achieving the rank of Second Chief of the General Staff of the Army of the Republic.
Subsequently he would serve as Salvadoran
Consul General
A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries.
A consu ...
in the following locations:
Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
, England, 1937;
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, Germany, 1938; Geneva, Switzerland, 1942–45.
World War II
Work with György Mandl

It was during his time as consul in
neutral
Neutral or neutrality may refer to:
Mathematics and natural science Biology
* Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity
Chemistry and physics
* Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...
Switzerland that Castellanos was approached by a
Transylvanian-born Jewish businessman named
György Mandl who reiterated to him the grave situation in which he, his family, and countless of his coreligionists found themselves.
Castellanos, moved to help Mandl, gave him the ''
ad hoc
''Ad hoc'' is a List of Latin phrases, Latin phrase meaning literally for this. In English language, English, it typically signifies a solution designed for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a Generalization, generalized solution ...
'' post of
First Secretary to the Consul and had papers of Salvadoran nationality prepared for him and his family.
Following a close call with the
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
in which the faux position and papers saved the family (who now bore the
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...
name of
Mantello
Mantello () is a (municipality) in the Province of Sondrio in the Italy, Italian region of Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan and about west of Sondrio. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 704 and an area of .All demographics ...
) from being sent to
Auschwitz
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
, Mandl (with Castellanos's consent) proceeded to secretly issue at least 13,000 "certificates of Salvadoran citizenship" to Central European Jews (principally through the Swiss Consular Office of
Carl Lutz).
The documents granted the bearers the right to seek and receive the protection of the
International Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a aid agency, humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of Law of ...
and, eventually, of the Swiss Consul in
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
; these guarantees, in effect, saved thousands of "Salvadorans" of Bulgarian,
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
n, Hungarian, Polish, and Romanian extraction from Nazi depredations.
Rescue action
Castellanos had already granted several visas to people of Jewish origin who were persecuted by the Nazis. However, now it was part of a larger project: the handing over of false documents of Salvadoran nationality to people of Jewish origin. Castellanos then consulted Dr. Guerrero, who immediately agreed to that plan that saved the lives of thousands of Jews. According to the investigations, Dr. Guerrero would have contributed to writing the text of the document that was then given to them to save their lives.
Late recognition
After the war, Castellanos remained very discreet about his role in the rescue action, considering it to have been nothing out of the ordinary.
[ His daughter, Frieda Castellanos Garcia, only learned about it from the media in 1974, at the age of 22.]
The writer Leon Uris
Leon Marcus Uris (August 3, 1924 – June 21, 2003) was an American author of historical fiction who wrote many bestselling books, including '' Exodus'' (published in 1958) and ''Trinity'' (published in 1976).
Uris was a co-founder of the Write ...
tracked down the retired diplomat in 1972 and interviewed him. This attracted the attention of the Salvadoran media, and Castellanos gave another brief radio interview in 1976, but otherwise he remained anonymous and his contribution went unrecognised until well after his death in 1977.
Castellanos' efforts on behalf of the Jews of Central Europe have been recognized at various times by the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a civil rights group and Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the wi ...
, and the group Visas For Life. In 1995 President Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
, in a letter to the Anti-Defamation League, paid tribute to Colonel Castellanos and other members of the Salvadoran diplomatic corps
The diplomatic corps () is the collective body of foreign diplomats accredited to a particular country or body.
The diplomatic corps may, in certain contexts, refer to the collection of accredited heads of mission ( ambassadors, high commis ...
, for their efforts in saving thousands from Nazi extermination. In 1999 the Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
City Council honored Castellanos' granddaughter, Guadalupe Díaz de Razeghi, on the occasion of the inauguration of El Salvador Street in the neighborhood of Givat Masua.
After the Israeli Foreign Ministry
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (; ) is one of the most important ministries in the Israeli government. The ministry's role is to implement Israel's foreign policy, and promote economic, cultural, and scientific relations with other c ...
and the Jewish Community of El Salvador have both applied to Israel's Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority", José Arturo Castellanos Contreras was recognized with the title of "Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...
" by Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...
in 2010.
Colonel Castellanos' grandsons Alvaro Castellanos and Boris Castellanos composed and wrote ''THE RESCUE - A Live Film-Concerto'' (An Expanded Cinema Documentary work by Alvaro Castellanos and Boris Castellanos). It is a performative film experience that combines a 60-min documentary film with a live musical performance of its musical soundtrack - to recount the little-known story of Colonel Castellanos.
Personal life
Castellanos married Maria Schürmann, a native of Switzerland, with whom he had a daughter and two sons: Frieda, Paul Andree, and José Arturo Castellanos Jr.
After the war, Castellanos lived a quiet life and played down his role.[
]
See also
* El Salvador during World War II
*Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer
Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer (21 April 1896, Alkmaar – 30 August 1978, Amsterdam) was a Dutch resistance fighter who brought Jewish children and adults into safety before and during World War II. Together with other people involved in the pre-wa ...
* Per Anger
* María Edwards
* Varian Fry
* Giorgio Perlasca
*Eduardo Propper de Callejón
Eduardo Propper de Callejón (9 April 1895 – 11 January 1972) was a Spanish diplomat who is remembered mainly for having facilitated the escape of thousands of Jews from Occupied France during World War II between 1940 and 1944.
He was the fa ...
* Ángel Sanz Briz
* Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas
* Aristides de Sousa Mendes
*Chiune Sugihara
was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japan ...
*Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg (4 August 1912 – disappeared 17 January 1945)He is presumed to have died in 1947, although the circumstances of his death are not clear and this date has been disputed. Some reports claim he was alive years later. In ...
*Jan Zwartendijk
Jan Zwartendijk (29 July 1896 – 14 September 1976) was a Dutch businessman and diplomat. As director of the Philips factories in Lithuania and part-time acting consul of the Dutch government-in-exile, he supervised the writing of 2,345 visas f ...
* History of the Jews in the Dominican Republic
* History of the Jews in El Salvador
References
* Braham, Randolph L., ''The Nazis' last victims: the Holocaust in Hungary.'' Detroit; reat Britain Wayne State University Press
Wayne State University Press (or WSU Press) is a university press that is part of Wayne State University
Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 186 ...
, 1998.
* Kranzler, David, ''The man who stopped the trains to Auschwitz : George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland's finest hour''. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press
Syracuse University Press, founded in 1943, is a university press that is part of Syracuse University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Domestic distribution for the press is currently provided by the University of North ...
, 2000.
External links
El Salvador a Rescuing Country
Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
Glass House: the story of El Salvador's World War II rescue operations
Héroe del Holocausto
* https://www.castellanosmovie.com/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castellanos Contreras, Jose
1893 births
1977 deaths
People from San Vicente, El Salvador
Jewish Hungarian history
Salvadoran diplomats
Salvadoran human rights activists
Salvadoran military personnel
Salvadoran Righteous Among the Nations