George Mantello
Encyclopedia
George Mantello, born György Mandl or Mandel (1901 – 1992) was a Jewish
diplomat who, while working for the Salvadoran
consulate in Geneva, Switzerland, saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust
by providing fictive Salvadoran citizenship
papers and rescued tens of thousands and possibly hundreds of thousands by publicizing in mid-1944 the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the death camps.
Mantello was born in 1901 to Orthodox Jewish
parents in Bistriţa
, Transylvania
, a Hungarian speaking region of Romania. Originally a textiles manufacturer as an adult in Bucharest
, he met Salvadoran consul
Colonel José Arturo Castellanos
in the 1930s. After escaping to Switzerland from the Romanian Fascists he went to work for Castellanos at the Salvadoran consulate in Geneva.
In 1944 he mounted his most ambitious effort -- to halt Adolf Eichmann
's secret deportation of Jews from Budapest to Auschwitz. With the aid of a diplomat from Romania, Florian Manoliu, he obtained two documents provided by Mosher Krausz in Budapest. One was Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl's version of the Vrba-Wetzler Report
- also known as the Auschwitz Report
and as the Auschwitz Protocol, which described in detail the operations of Auschwitz. The other document was a report about deportations of Hungarian Jews. In contrast to many leaders who received these reports well before Mantello and failed to act on it, he publicized details of atrocities within a day after receiving the reports. This triggered a significant grass roots protest in Switzerland, including Sunday masses, street protests and the Swiss Press Campaign: over 400 glaring headlines in the Swiss press (against censorship rules) demanding an end to Europe's brutality toward Jews. Ultimately the large scale and vocal Swiss publicity led to threats issued against Hungary's Regent, Horthy, and to the stopping of the transports, which until then took 12,000 Jews daily to the death camps. The lull in deportations made it possible to organize significant rescue activities in Hungary, such as the Raoul Wallenberg
and Carl Lutz
missions.
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
diplomat who, while working for the Salvadoran
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
consulate in Geneva, Switzerland, saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
by providing fictive Salvadoran citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
papers and rescued tens of thousands and possibly hundreds of thousands by publicizing in mid-1944 the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the death camps.
Mantello was born in 1901 to Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
parents in Bistriţa
Bistrita
Bistrița is the capital city of Bistriţa-Năsăud County, Transylvania, Romania. It is situated on the Bistriţa River. The city has a population of approximately 80,000 inhabitants, and it administers six villages: Ghinda, Sărata, Sigmir, Slătiniţa, Unirea and Viişoara.-History:The earliest sign of...
, Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, a Hungarian speaking region of Romania. Originally a textiles manufacturer as an adult in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, he met Salvadoran consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
Colonel José Arturo Castellanos
José Castellanos Contreras
José Arturo Castellanos Contreras was a Salvadoran army colonel and diplomat who, while working as El Salvador's Consul General for Geneva during World War II, and in conjunction with a Jewish-Hungarian businessman named György Mandl, helped save up to 40,000 Jews and Central Europeans from Nazi...
in the 1930s. After escaping to Switzerland from the Romanian Fascists he went to work for Castellanos at the Salvadoran consulate in Geneva.
In 1944 he mounted his most ambitious effort -- to halt Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
's secret deportation of Jews from Budapest to Auschwitz. With the aid of a diplomat from Romania, Florian Manoliu, he obtained two documents provided by Mosher Krausz in Budapest. One was Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl's version of the Vrba-Wetzler Report
Vrba-Wetzler report
The Vrba-Wetzler report, also known as the Vrba-Wetzler statement, the Auschwitz Protocols, and the Auschwitz notebook, is a 32-page document about the German Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland during the Holocaust...
- also known as the Auschwitz Report
Auschwitz Report
Auschwitz Report is a non-fiction report on the Auschwitz extermination camp by Primo Levi and Leonardo de Benedetti.Whilst in a Soviet holding camp in Katowice in 1945, Levi and de Benedetti were asked by the Soviet authorities to document the living conditions in Auschwitz. De Benedetti was on...
and as the Auschwitz Protocol, which described in detail the operations of Auschwitz. The other document was a report about deportations of Hungarian Jews. In contrast to many leaders who received these reports well before Mantello and failed to act on it, he publicized details of atrocities within a day after receiving the reports. This triggered a significant grass roots protest in Switzerland, including Sunday masses, street protests and the Swiss Press Campaign: over 400 glaring headlines in the Swiss press (against censorship rules) demanding an end to Europe's brutality toward Jews. Ultimately the large scale and vocal Swiss publicity led to threats issued against Hungary's Regent, Horthy, and to the stopping of the transports, which until then took 12,000 Jews daily to the death camps. The lull in deportations made it possible to organize significant rescue activities in Hungary, such as the Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish businessman, diplomat and humanitarian. He is widely celebrated for his successful efforts to rescue thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary from the Holocaust, during the later stages of World War II...
and Carl Lutz
Carl Lutz
Carl Lutz was the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary from 1942 until the end of World War II. He helped save tens of thousands of Jews from deportation to Nazi Extermination camps during the Holocaust. He is credited with saving over 62,000 Jews...
missions.
Further reading
- David Kranzler. The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador and Switzerland's Finest Hour.
- Jenö Lévai, Zsidósors Európában, Budapest 1948 (Hungarian)
- Jenö Lévai, "Abscheu und Grauen vor dem Genocid in aller Welt", Toronto 1968 (German)
- Rafael Ángel Alfaro Pineda. "El Salvador and Schindler's list: A valid comparison," Raoul Wallenberg web site.
- Embassy of El Salvador in Israel, "El Salvador and the Holocaust: An almost unknown chapter in the history of El Salvador."
- Jon Kimche. "The war's unpaid debt Of honour: How El Salvador saved tens of thousands Of Jews," Jewish Observer and Middle East Review.
- Ernie Meyer. "The Unknown Hero: One sympathetic foreign diplomat saved thousands of Jews in Europe by providing them with foreign citizenship papers."
- Ernie Meyer. "The greatest rescue of the Holocaust."
- "Where is the Conscience of the World?" (editorial), Orthodox Tribune.
External links
- "El Salvador, a rescuing country" (profile of Mantello), International Raoul Wallenberg FoundationRaoul WallenbergRaoul Wallenberg was a Swedish businessman, diplomat and humanitarian. He is widely celebrated for his successful efforts to rescue thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary from the Holocaust, during the later stages of World War II...
- Profile at John Lamperti's personal site