Righteous Among the Nations - Wall of Honor
Righteous Among the Nations - Wall of HonorIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Jose Arturo Castellanos Contreras, a Salvadoran diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, is to be named a Righteous Gentile Among the Nations. Castellanos rescued an estimated 40,000 Jews from death by granting them certificates of Salvadoran citizenship.

Castellanos began his rescue efforts in 1941, when he was serving as the Salvadoran Consul General in Switzerland. There, he was approached by a Jewish businessman named Gyorgy Mandl, who told him of the imminent threat of death facing him and other European Jews.

Castellanos helped Mandl by issuing Salvadoran papers for him and his family and creating the fictitious post of First Secretary to give Mandl consular immunity.

Mandl and Castellanos then worked together to issue papers to tens of thousands of eastern European Jews. Not waiting to be approached for help, Castellanos had typists churn out certificates of Salvadoran citizenship, which were shipped into Budapest.

Jews holding the Salvadoran documents were protected by the Swiss, who served as neutral representatives in Budapest.

Castellanos died in San Salvador in 1977 at the age of 83 years. He will be the first Salvadoran to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, a title conferred on non-Jews who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.