Yesterday (22/6) the Embassy of Israel to the Holy See together with the Embassy of El Salvador to the Holy See hosted an event in memory and honor of Colonel José Arturo Castellanos who was recognized with the title “Righteous Among Nations” by the World Holocaust Remembrance Center of Yad Vashem.
Colonel Castellanos saved thousands of European Jews who were persecuted by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Second World War by providing them with legal documentation and certificates that asserted their El Salvadorian citizenship.
Through a mechanism of falsification, Colonel Castellanos, who served between 1942-1945 as Consul of El Salvador in Geneva, signed thousands of identity certifications for entire families.
After the greetings of the ambassadors, a documentary film about Colonel Castellanos and his actions during the war was projected. The main speaker of the event was Ms. Gili Diamant, representative from the department of Righteous Among Nations in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center, who spoke about this distinguished title and recounted the story of Jose Arturo Castellanos.
Afterwards, a testimony by Prof. Isaac Meir, one of the people whose life was saved thanks to the actions of the Colonel, was transmitted.
Among those present were many ambassadors, Ms. Ruth Castellanos- daughter of Colonel Castellanos and many other distinguished guests.
Here below the full speech of Ambassador Oren David:
Dear Ambassador of El Salvador Manuel Roberto Lopez, Ms. Ruth Castellanos, Father Puglisi, excellences, ladies and gentlemen,
welcome and shalom,
This special joint event organized by the Embassies of Israel and of El Salvador to The Holy See is in commemoration of Colonel Castellanos, who with his courageous acts contributed to save many innocent lives, human beings whose only “fault” was to be Jewish.
We are here to remember that in the darkest moment of history there were people who have not lost their soul and who, by risking their own lives, chose to serve humanity.
Recognitions are important and are not just a gratification for those who receive them.
Colonel Castellanos was rightly conferred with the “Righteous among the Nations Award” by Yad Vashem which is the official memorial to the victims of the Shoah during which six millions Jews, a third of the entire Jewish people, were exterminated by the Nazis only for being Jewish.
Colonel Castellanos lived at a time when too many remained indifferent to the sufferings of innocent human beings. He was one of the few heroes who stood up against absolute evil in order to save the life of thousands of Jews.
And as Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor, said about the Righteous: “We must know these good people who helped Jews during the Holocaust. We must learn from them, and in gratitude and hope, we must remember them.”
Colonel Castellanos is an example that shows us that it is possible to stay human in any circumstance as well as that every one of us has a choice. It is indeed our duty to honor his memory and the memory of the men and women like him.
We have to learn from our past: we have to reject indifference, we have to cultivate empathy and we have to recognize ourselves in one another, it is not enough to keep the lesson of the Shoah in our memories, but we have to live accordingly.
More than 70 years after the Shoah Anti-Semitism, the oldest, ugliest and deadliest hate in history of humankind not only is not over, but is still widespread and on the rise.
In the 21st century Jewish children, women and men are still a target of increasing hate crimes, sometimes mortal, only and for only being Jewish.
In this respect I find of significance to quote the words of Pope Francis that a Christian cannot be anti-Semitic due to the Jewish roots of Christianity as well as Pope John Paul II words who said that Judaism is an inbuilt part of Christianity.
Like the Righteous, we must do everything we can. All of us have a responsibility, this is the lesson that Colonel Castellanos taught us.
I would like to conclude with Psalm92: 12-13: “The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the LORD, They will flourish in the courts of our God.…”