WASHINGTON (AFP) — El Salvador is seeking a prestigious Israeli award for its late consul Jose Arturo Castellanos for saving thousands of Jews from the Holocaust in World War II, a top Salvadoran official said Wednesday.
"We seek recognition for colonel Castellanos so he can receive the 'Righteous Among the Nations' title," from Israel, Foreign Ministry Historical Investigation Committee coordinator Ricardo Moran told reporters after presenting a documentary on his life.
Castellanos, who served in Geneva as consul for El Salvador from 1942 to 1945, and his first secretary, George Mandel Mantello, issued Salvadoran citizenship papers to thousands of Jews, mostly from Hungary, so they could avoid being sent to Nazi death camps.
The "certificates of life," as Moranos called them, allowed their bearers to be taken to detention camps where their lives were not at risk. When allied troops liberated the camps, they found thousands of people claiming to be Salvadoran citizens.
Castellanos died in 1977 in El Salvador. He was 86, penniless and largely forgotten, despite having saved the lives of some 30,000 Jews, according to Salvadoran estimates.
"This is an unknown hero," said Dana Siegel, director of the Latino and Latin American Institute of the American Jewish Committee in Washington.
"Colonel Castellanos was a real hero, unfortunately his history has not been told as much as we would have liked to," she added.
Moran said Israel's "Righteous Among the Nations" award is bestowed on people who meet specific conditions: "they must not be Jewish and not have made any profit from risking their lives and jobs to save the lives of Jews during World War II (1939-1945)."
Castellano's first secretary Mantello, he added, is a Jew and cannot receive the award.
Moran said he would soon travel to Israel to present the required documents supporting Castellanos' claims to the Yad Vashem institute in charge of vetting who merits receiving the prize.
To boost awareness about Castellanos, Moran presented a documentary directed by Brad Marlowe and his Salvadoran wife, Leonor Avila, with the testimonials of several Jews he saved and comments by his daughter Frieda Garcia and the first secretary's son.
The documentary is titled, "Glass House," after a facility owned by the Salvadoran Embassy in Budapest during World War II where the citizenship certificates from Geneva were handed out.
Castellanos' daughter told reporters that for many years she was unaware her father was a hero.
"When I asked him why he didn't tell me anything before, he answered: 'Anybody would have done the same in my position.'"
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