Remembering the Holocaust
Stories of Courage & Hope
For Holocaust Memorial Day 2025, Russell Bowles invites us to find out more about a Salvadoran Diplomat Who Saved 40,000 Jews
José Arturo Castellanos Contreras
During the Second World War there were many individuals who risked their careers, safety and even their very lives to save Jews from the antisemitism of the Nazis. Not all of them became as well-known as Oskar Schindler or Nicholas Winton. One such individual was a diplomat from the Central American country of El Salvador. His full name was José Arturo Castellanos Contreras and he defied his government and the Nazi War machine to show that individuals can make a difference and save thousands of people from death.
The global centre for Holocaust research and study in Jerusalem, known as Yad Vashem bestows the title of ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ to Gentiles who risked their lives to save Jews and this is his story.
Contreras was born in El Salvador in 1893 to a Catholic family and as a young man began what was to become a brilliant career in the army. He was eventually chosen to represent El Salvador in England as a diplomat and in 1938 at a significant point in the growth of the Nazi party he was sent to Germany. There he saw first hand the brutality of Hitler’s ideology and witnessed the persecution of the Jewish people. Horrified, Contreras asked his superiors if he could issue Salvadoran visas so that Jews could escape. His request though was denied. He didn’t give up however and in 1939 sent a letter to the Salvadoran Minister of Foreign Affairs explaining what was happening in Germany to the Jews. Unfortunately this letter was also ignored. Contreras could see where Nazi antisemitism was heading and in desperation decided to risk the wrath of his government and issue travel documents anyway, preventing Jews from being sent to the death camps.
In 1942 at the height of Nazi brutality Contreras was transferred to Switzerland being appointed El Salvador’s Consul in Geneva. There he appointed a friend, George Mandel-Mantello, a Romanian Jewish refugee to a secretarial position and authorized him to secretly deliver Salvadoran passports and certificates of citizenship to Jews. Yad Vashem has confirmed that this action saved the Jews that received them because El Salvador was considered a neutral country in WW2. More than 13,000 Salvadoran travel documents were issued without any charge and were sent to Jews in France, Germany, Hungary, Holland, Czechoslovakia and Romania. Just one document was enough to save a whole family. Through this humanitarian action between 1942 and 1945 Contreras saved in the region of 40,000 Jews. Interestingly, Yad Vashem has confirmed that after the Salvadoran elections of 1944 the new president, Salvador Castaneda Castro supported Contreras in his rescue mission. Thousands of Salvadoran certificates of nationality issued to Jews are on display in the Holocaust Mission in Washington DC.
When WW2 was over Contreras was sent to London where he lived with his Swiss wife and children until his retirement in 1972 when he moved back to El Salvador. He lived there quietly until his death in 1977 without receiving any record of his humanitarian work.
In 2010 when it was announced that Contreras would be awarded the title ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ from Yad Vashem, the Salvadoran Minister of Foreign Relations, Hugo Martinez said that Contreras had stood out in his time for aiding a people whose very existence was threatened. The Israeli Ambassador to El Salvador said Contreras was the fourth person from Latin America to receive Yad Vashem’s tribute.
More stories like this one can be found in our booklet “The Forgotten Righteous”
