The Salvadoran general and diplomat José Arturo Castellanos (1893–1977) saved the lives of thousands of people during the Shoah. As Consul General of El Salvador in Geneva between 1942 and 1945, together with George Mandel-Mantello, he issued tens of thousands of certificates of Salvadoran citizenship and thus offered Jews protection from persecution by the Nazis. Not only did his risky help go beyond the usual issuing of mere visas, but sources as well as contemporary witnesses as well prove that he did not demand any financial compensation for the life-saving documents.
Decades later, his grandchildren, who fled the civil war in El Salvador as children and grew up in Canada, follow their grandfather’s extraordinary life story. They travel to Germany, El Salvador, Israel, Italy and the USA to search through archives and interview family members and survivors.
“El Rescate –The Rescue – The Rescue”
In a moving documentary made up of interviews, visual montages and accompanied by live orchestral music, filmmakers and musicians Alvaro and Boris Castellanos have created an impressive memorial to their grandfather José Arturo Castellanos, Righteous Among the Nations.
On the eve of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, they performed their live film-concert at the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut together with "The Rescue Latin Chamber Orchestra", immersing the audience in Castellanos’ life and the humanity of his mission.
A special guest and member of the orchestra that evening was Felix Klein, Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Anti-Semitism. In his welcoming address, he emphasized how important unusual, little-known and imaginatively told stories such as that of General Castellanos are for conveying and keeping alive the memory of the Holocaust today. He has been closely associated with the Castellanos brothers’ “The Rescue” project since the beginning and accompanied the performance in Berlin as a violinist on stage.
