El
Salvador
By John Lamperti
Suddenly the transports stopped. Hungary ’s
strong man Miclós Horthy, who had raised few previous objections to Hitler’s
plans, ordered a halt to the deportations while more than 200,000 Jews in Budapest
The answer, surprisingly, has much to do
with the small, far-off nation of El Salvador
How could El Salvador Europe
except for selling there some of its exports, especially coffee. El Salvador
…Martínez, probably motivated both by a
nationalist desire to escape North American domination and by his own
authoritarian political philosophy, for some years maintained cordial relations
with the Axis powers. El Salvador recognized the Japanese puppet state
of Manchuko and was among the first countries to establish diplomatic relations
with the Franco regime in Spain Germany and Italy El
Salvador 's purchases from Germany
Despite all that, Martínez could read handwriting on the wall and
he saw that the influence of the nearby United States could not be denied --
with war under way in Europe his country's trade there was all but ended and
its coffee would have to be sold in North America. El
Salvador declared war on the Axis in December 1941,
shortly after Pearl Harbor . It took no part in actual fighting,
and President Martínez resisted the U.S. El Salvador El
Salvador briefly fought neighboring Honduras
The nation's magnificent role in the
European holocaust was not the result of an initiative by the government in San Salvador El Salvador
George Mantello was born in 1901 in
Transylvania, a land far removed from El Salvador
Mandl/Mantello was an unlikely choice for
a Salvadoran hero. As noted he did not speak Spanish, and never, before or
after the war, did he visit the small, distant country of which he became a
citizen and to which he brought great honor.[5] His connection with El Salvador came about through friendship with
that country's consul general in Geneva El Salvador 's
honorary consul for Hungary , Romania
and Czechoslovakia
In 1941 he decided to liquidate his
business holdings in Eastern Europe and relocate in Switzerland El Salvador
and most other Latin American countries found Mantello still in Romania Switzerland ,
El Salvador ’s diplomatic
headquarters for Europe, but due apparently to an identity mix-up he was
detained illegally in Zagreb Bucharest Switzerland Geneva
Mantello had been in Vienna
in 1938 when the Germans took over Austria ,
and in 1939 he observed the Nazi occupation of Prague Europe .
Facing a disaster of such magnitude, it might have been easy to give way to
despair and apathy, to simply live out the war in the comfortable sanctuary of Switzerland
The Swiss government, too, was hostile to
rescue projects. For a complex of reasons it offered little aid to Hitler's
victims and sometimes actively persecuted those, including Mantello, who
engaged in rescue efforts it deemed “illegal.” Particularly ugly was the policy of
“refoulement” under which thousands of Jews reaching the Swiss border in search
of sanctuary were turned away to await their fates at German hands.
Since collective work was frustrated,
Mantello found another avenue. For some time, Latin American passports and
citizenship papers had been avidly sought by Jews in Poland Switzerland El Salvador 's
leading jurist; this was former (and future) World Court Switzerland
The operation began in a small way, but
expanded rapidly as word spread. In 1943 Mantello opened at his own expense a
special office dedicated to this job, and it produced “several thousand” sets
of Salvadoran citizenship papers which were smuggled to their destinations in a
multitude of ways. It seems
surprising that German authorities honored these papers, which created
Salvadoran citizens out of European Jews who (like Mantello) had never seen
“their” country. But in
general they were honored; the papers were literally lifesavers. The likely
explanation is that numerous German citizens were living in Latin
America , and the German government was thinking of future
exchanges. Since few
genuine Latin Americans were available in occupied Europe
for exchanging, the newly minted “Latins” would have to serve--provided their
respective governments recognized their documents. The picture was complicated, and the
protection afforded by such Salvadoran citizenship varied by country and over
time. There were tragedies
as well as triumphs, when the protective papers were not respected by some
German or satellite officer or arrived too late; the latter, sadly, was the
case with George Mantello's own parents who were deported from their home in
Transylvania and murdered in 1944. Still,
thousands of Jews and other threatened people survived the Nazi nightmare
thanks to these Salvadoran documents, which Mantello and his collaborators
distributed as widely as they could. But
the worst, and the best, were yet to come.
Before the war, some 450,000 Jews lived
in Hungary Germany
forcibly returned to Hungary
territories in Czechoslovakia ,
Romania and Yugoslavia Budapest Hungary Denmark where
Jews remained citizens with full rights even under German occupation until
September 1943, in Hungary Europe ,
they still believed “It can't happen here.” That illusion was to change
abruptly.
Admiral Miklós (Nicholas) Horthy had
dominated Hungary
The German murder team was led by Adolf
Eichmann, and his SS gang found many Hungarians more than willing to
cooperate. The Jewish
population was unprepared and many wanted badly to accept the reassurances
passed on by the new “Jewish Council” established under German orders.
Nevertheless ghettos were established with amazing speed in the Hungarian
provinces, and the mass deportations began on May 15. In only two months all of Hungary
So far, the Jews of Budapest had been
largely spared, but Eichmann fully intended to kill them all. To his surprise and disgust, his plans
were interrupted by none other than Admiral Horthy, who reasserted control of
the Hungarian government, called loyal troops to the capital to defend against
a coup from the right (!), and then ordered the deportations to stop. The order became public on July 7.
Although Eichmann tried several times to defy this order both directly and by
stealth, Horthy was able to defeat most of his efforts. Toward the end of August Himmler
suspended deportations to Auschwitz until
further notice, and Eichmann was forced to leave the country. Some 250,000 surviving Jews in Budapest
A miracle! To many, it seemed nothing less. What
had happened? Why did
Horthy act? A survivor’s
account written many years later underscores the victims’ bewilderment: “On the 6th of July 1944 Miklós Horthy ended the
deportation of the Jews to Auschwitz for
reasons still unknown today. There
are many theories regarding this decision ... Without Hungarian support Eichmann was
not able to continue shipping “raw material” to the death factory of Auschwitz , and this decision that Horthy made angered
Eichmann greatly.”[6] However, to a great extent the reasons
for Horthy’s turnaround are known.
Late in June 1944 an unprecedented wave
of denunciations, outrage, anger, and threats of postwar retaliation broke out
in the West. It began in Switzerland , where leading Protestant clerics
denounced the Nazi mass murder in the country's major churches, the press broke
through long-established censorship of anything anti-German to publish dramatic
and angry articles about Auschwitz and the atrocities in Hungary United States
and Britain Canterbury and New York Budapest Sweden appealed to Horthy, and authorized Raul
Wallenburg's famous mission to Budapest
The campaign of denunciations and
Horthy's decision to halt the deportations have of course been recorded by most
historians of the Holocaust in Hungary
In the meantime reports on these
developments in Hungary Sweden , and
the president of the Red Cross all appealed to Horthy to stop the deportations
and to save, at least, the Jews of Budapest
(Emphasis added.)
It is surprising that Yahil (and others)
do not investigate why, after years of silence, that
outstanding international effort was made “for the first time” in June 1944.
In fact the Swiss campaign did not just
happen. At the core of this
remarkable outpouring of concern and outrage was the work of George
Mantello. Carl Lutz, the
Swiss consul in Budapest
As I have learned recently, you stand out
as the “spiritus rectus” behind the press campaign in Switzerland, which has
brought to the public at large information concerning … [the] distress of the
Jewish population of Budapest… The immediate effect has been the suspension of
the deportations… It can be said that thanks to your campaign, the imminent
catastrophe was greatly reduced.[9]
Post-war Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal
makes the same point in his foreword to an admiring biography of Lutz:
But Consul Lutz and the other neutral
diplomats in Budapest were largely powerless
against the deportation of 350,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz
between May 15 and July 8, 1944. This was stopped under international
pressure when Horthy, Hungary Switzerland
The success of Mantello's activism
depended, first of all, on having full and reliable information. A Swiss committee for the Hungarian
Jews (SHC), which he had helped organize the day after the German invasion,
quickly met with major Jewish and other concerned organizations in Switzerland Hungary
The information blockade was broken only
after two young Jews on April 7 made a remarkable escape from Auschwitz
itself. The two, known as
Rudolf Vrba and Josef Lanik (his original name was Alfred Wetzler), had worked
in the death camp for nearly two years as clerks, and their skills not only
kept them alive but also gave them the chance to know the operation of the
murder factory in detail. By
late April they had prepared a 26-page report, which came to be know as the
“Auschwitz Protocols.” Now the end result of the ghettos and deportations was
absolutely clear: it was mass murder, nothing less. Copies and summaries of this horrifying--and
reliable--document were sent to many people and agencies, Jewish and not, in
the “free world.” At least five organizations in Switzerland
Dr. Florian Manoliu was a commercial
attaché of Romania Switzerland
for Bucharest Budapest
he discovered the desperate situation and fear that gripped Hungary Palestine Switzerland
That very night the grief-stricken
brothers set to work on a campaign to force the world to listen. An emergency meeting of the SHC was
convened the next morning. In
the meantime, a team of Hungarian university students prepared translations and
multiple copies of the reports. Urgent contacts were sought with foreign
organizations, including the (U.S. Switzerland Auschwitz report printed, and almost as
quickly he published them again in a book that included his own sermons denouncing
the Nazi murder campaign. By
late June the Swiss press had begun defying years of censorship to report and
editorialize about the fate of the Jews. Once the dam was broken hundreds of
articles followed rapidly. Mass
demonstrations and memorial services were held in major Swiss cities. Local government bodies, but not the
national government, joined the campaign. The wave of protest swelled in July
and continued throughout the summer. There
was no question that the conscience of the Swiss people was deeply stirred, and
many of them acted in the best ways available to them.
And then what? The campaign had enormous
effects! It was discussed
in Budapest , in Switzerland ,
in Stockholm , in communications between Hitler
and his subordinates, in the Vatican ,
in Britain and in the United States Auschwitz ” became a synonym for evil.
The campaign created activists out of bystanders. “There is no doubt,” Kranzler writes,
“that the change in the stance and activities of the neutrals and the Allies
was a direct result of this incredible Swiss press and church campaign.”[11]
There were major repercussions for the
Swiss government as well. The
policy of “refoulement” was partially rescinded on July 12, and rescue instead
of neutrality became the top official goal. The International Red Cross,
essentially an agency of the Swiss government, was forced at last to intercede
for Jewish prisoners and for the threatened Jews of Budapest. An aide to Pastor Vogt summed it up in
a letter to Mantello:
As far as the atrocities in Hungary
The Swiss campaign could hardly have received much active support
from El Salvador during its first months, for General Martínez was in deep
trouble trying to hold on to power. Early in 1944 his dictatorial governing
style and quasi-legal maneuvers to gain another presidential term ran into
increasing resistance, and in April a military revolt broke out. Martínez succeeded in putting down
this rebellion, but it was quickly followed by a non-violent general strike
involving nearly all sectors of society. The strike proved effective. Martínez resigned on May 9 and left
the country for good two days later. He was replaced by General Andrés I.
Menéndez, serving for the second time in his life as an interim acting
president.[13] With Menéndez came a new cabinet
including as foreign minister the writer Julio Enrique Avila. Democracy returned to El Salvador
At just this critical time, diplomatic activity was
required! Some 10,000
Salvadoran citizenship papers were in the hands of threatened Hungarian
Jews—but just how valid were they? Swiss
government recognition of Mantello’s irregular documents was essential in order
for the Swiss officials in Budapest Avila
in San Salvador and Consul Castellanos in Geneva Switzerland Budapest
Unfortunately the ordeal of the surviving
Hungarian Jews was far from over. The
uneasy calm that began with the halt to deportations ended on October 15, when
a coup organized by German and Hungarian fascists deposed the “unreliable”
Horthy and installed pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic Ferenc Szalasi as premier. Eichmann returned to Budapest Budapest Sweden
Naturally, under the present chaotic conditions attacks do occur,
but it must be said that the San [sic] Salvador
... you can take satisfaction in the fact that ... it was your
management of the San [sic] Salvadoran interests which has enabled us to create
a humanitarian work that will bring you the thanks of thousands of rescued
people. It must be clearly
established that San [sic] Salvador
Despite incredible scenes of murder and
horrendous death marches, when liberation came to Budapest Hungary
“The fact remains,” says David Kranzler,
“that only the Swiss people made a major difference in the fate of Hungarian
Jewry. Galvanized by
Mantello and inspired by outstanding church leaders, they sought to use the
press and church to effect changes in the events in Hungary
* * * * * *
After the war, George Mantello should
have been honored in Switzerland Switzerland , and lived in Rome
for the rest of his life, making frequent visits to the new state of Israel
Kranzler's book ends with this summary
and tribute. “At a time when he [Mantello] was needed, he did not hesitate to
do everything in his power to assure the survival of the Jews of
Budapest. He was the
driving force behind the incredible transformation of the Swiss people, who
carried on their newly found tolerance for refugees long into the postwar era;
he was the catalyst behind the protective papers operation that saved countless
lives.” Kranzler concludes
that while the Nazi atrocities showed the worst of which humanity is capable,
“[Mantello], his colleagues, the Swiss people and Salvadoran officials were
proof of the lofty heights to which it could rise… For a short, blazing moment,
Mantello lit up the darkness of the Holocaust, reaching the apex of rescue--and
then fading into the recesses of history.”[16]
[1] See
for example Leni Yahil, The
Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945. New York/Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1990, pages 510-512. (Translation
from Hebrew edition of 1987.)
[2] Patricia Parkman, Nonviolent Insurrection in El Salvador U. of Arizona Press
[3] The Man Who Stopped the Trains to
Auschwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador ,
and Switzerland Syracuse , NY : Syracuse U.
[4] After the war the couple divorced and
Mantello remarried. He
became the father of two more children, a son and a daughter.
[5] Private communication from David
Kranzler, who adds that Mantello knew French, German, Romanian, Yiddish and
Hungarian--but not Spanish.
[6] Natalie Simone Wicks, “The Chosen
Ones: Michael’s Story,” page 20. Pamphlet,
distributed by Omlet Publications c/o ataplow@jhu.edu.
[7] Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European
Jews (3 vols.) New Haven :
Yale University
[8] Yahil, The Holocaust, pages 513-514.
[9] Letter quoted in Kranzler, The Man Who Stopped the Trains to
Auschwitz, page 168.
[10] Preface to Theo Tschuy, Dangerous Diplomacy: The Story of
Carl Lutz, Rescuer of 82,000 Hungarian Jews. Wm Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Grand Rapids , MI / Cambridge , UK
[11] Quoted in Kranzler, The Man Who Stopped the Trains to
Auschwitz, page 179.
[12] Ibid, page 172.
[13] For a full account see Parkman, Nonviolent Insurrection in El Salvador
[14] Kranzler, The Man Who Stopped the Trains to
Auschwitz, page 207-208.
[15] Ibid, page 176.
[16] Ibid, page
253-254.
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