On March 19, 1944, the German army marched into Hungary. Before long anti-Jewish laws were introduced, Jews were arrested, Jewish property was confiscated, ghettos were established and the mass deportation of Jews began. By the last week of June more than 400,000 Jews of the provinces had been deported, almost all of them to Auschwitz. Jews remained only in four towns in the provinces. The number of Jews in and around Budapest was around 350,000.
Hungarian Jewish leaders were desperate. There was no hope that the deportations would be halted, and it seemed within a month all of the remaining Jews would be deported.
In the last week of June, a wave of protests that lasted through July, erupted against Admiral Horthy and the deportation of the Jews. Those who protested included the Pope, President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and the King of Sweden, who subsequently sent Raoul Wallenberg to Budapest to help the Jews.
Horthy stopped the deportations on July 7th.
In his well researched and beautifully written book, “The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz,” David Kranzler reveals the identity of the prime mover of the sudden protest movement which brought about the rescue of the remnants of Hungarian Jewry. His name was George Mantello.
George Mantello (originally Mandl) was born in 1901 in Lekence, Transylvania. His paternal grandfather, Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Mandl had come to Transylvania from Alsace and served as Chief Rabbi of Beszterce. Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov was related to the Hassidic leader Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Teitelbaum of Sighet.
Mantello, a prominent financier and businessman had made the acquaintance of Jose Arturo Castellanos, the Salvadoran Consul General in Germany in the 1930s. In 1939 Castellanos appointed Mantello, who had greatly helped him, honorary attache of the El Salvador legation in Bucharest and honorary consul of El Salvador in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
In 1942 Castellanos named Mantello first secretary (second in line only to the vice consul) of the Salvadorian Consulate in Geneva. Now he was a full diplomat in possession of a diplomatic passport and enjoying diplomatic immunity.
In that year, Mantello liquidated his business affairs in Bucharest and moved to Switzerland. Kranzler writes “Mantello a very wealthy man could now have attended to his own comfort and ignored the horrible fate of his fellow Jews. He could have lived on the fortune he transferred to Switzerland which amounted to several million Swiss francs but he was haunted by the tragedy that threatened the Jews of Europe. He later stated, “Although I was safe in Switzerland, I always saw before me heart-rending scenes of the horrible Jewish martyrdom in Nazi occupied Vienna and Prague. (Mantello had been in Vienna when the Nazis marched into that city in 1938 and in Prague when the Germans overran it in 1939). The moment that with the help of G-d, I had escaped from this fate, I promised myself to do everything to save my fellow Jews from their fate and to improve their lives.”
David Kranzler writes in his book that he discovered Mantello quite by chance. More than twenty years before, while on a research trip to Jerusalem, an acquaintance directed him to an elderly gentleman with a beret, who turned out to be Maitre Matthieux Muller, a Paris lawyer and leader of Agudath Yisrael. Muller, who spent the World War II
years as a refugee in Switzerland, was in charge of Mantello’s office which prepared and distributed Salvadorian
citizenship papers (about this aspect of Mantello’s rescue activity, more details later on). “Muller gave me the first
inkling of the extent of Mantello’s rescue efforts and told me that he was still alive in Rome,” Kranzler states.
Kranzler eventually met Mantello in New York. The latter told him of extraordinary tales of rescue , especially in Hungary. Kranzler was skeptical, He had specialized in Holocaust rescue research for many years but had never heard or read about Mantello. However when delving into all the available literature on the rescue efforts and researching documents relating to them, he came across Mantello’s activities. This encouraged him to endeavor to
present a complete, documented history of Mantello’s rescue activities, however fantastic they may have appeared. He taped 80 hours of interviews with Mantello before the latter’s death in 1992; he spent 13 years doing research in public and private archives in Israel, England, Switzerland and the United States, and photocopied thousands of documents. The result — as presented in the book before us — was a fantastic saga that substantiates about 95 percent of Mantello’s claims. The remaining five percent which include many aspects of Mantello’s personal life (most of which naturally had no place in documents) are presented in the book as personal recollections.
Continued next week
The Jewish Press, Friday, April 20, 2001
Cםntinued from last week
Mantello served as First secretary of the El Salvador Legation in Geneva without remuneration, as he had done his service as honorary consul.
In the autumn of 1942, a short time after he had settled in Switzerland, Mantello organized the Swiss Rabbis’ Committee (Schweizer Rabbinerverband) which he conceived as an efficient, non-political association whose task it was to intercede with the Swiss authorities, church bodies and foreign missions to protect and rescue Jews.
The new organization developed into a valuable lobby and was of great help to Mantello in his rescue efforts.
In the beginning of 1943 Mantello started issuing Salvadorian citizenship papers to protect and aid Jews in danger. The first to use Latin American passports to help Jews in German occupied territories was Eli Sternbuch, a brother -in-law of the rescue heroine Recha Sternbuch.
The Sternbuchs purchased Paraguayan and other Latin American passports from Latin America Consuls in Switzerland. Eli Sternbuch was soon followed by various individuals and Jewish organizations in using Latin American citizenship papers as rescue tools. Israel Chaim Eis, a Polish Agudist who represented the World Agudah Israel in Switzerland, having been convinced by the Sternbuchs of the efficacy of the Latin American papers, turned to Mantello to provide him with Salvadorian papers for Jews in German occupied territories who he sought to save. Mantello provided the papers gratis or at the most, accepted payment only to cover the costs.
When Eis died in the fall of 1943, Mantello put Maitre M. Muller, who had assisted Eis, in charge of the Salvadorian papers project.
Kranzler writes about Mantello’s citizenship papers operation: “In contrast to the careful discrimination and regulatory procedures of the Jewish organizations and individuals distributing such papers, Mantello made no distinction of any kind. Any Jew or Jewish organization that requested help, whether for family or friends, was accommodated unconditionally.”
At the end of 1943, the Germans temporarily withdrew the recognition of such papers after the Paraguayan government refused to recognize the passports which had been issued by its consul in Switzerland. The action of the Paraguay government endangered not only those who held Paraguayan papers, but all those who were in possession of Latin American documents, The Sternbuchs, who were among the first to hear about this, alarmed Agudath Israel and the Vaad Hatzalah in New York to intercede with the U.S. authorities, asking them to persuade of the governments of Latin America to officially recognize the citizenship papers which had been made out by their consuls in Switzerland and other countries. It was only several months later, following a second intercession by the Vaad Hatzalah, that the State Department sent the desired cables to the governments of Latin America. By that time — April 1944– almost all of the Jews in possession of Latin American documents who had been held in the camp of Vittel in northeastern France, had been sent to their death in Auschwitz.
David Kranzler estimates that from the time he began issuing them until the German occupation of Hungary, Mantello’s Salvadorian citizenship papers saved approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Jews throughout German occupied territories. He issued about 10,000 Salvadorian citizenship papers, each good for an entire family to Jews and to many endangered non-Jews as well.
Kranzler stresses that in issuing these papers, Mantello was fully supported by the aforementioned Jose Arturo Castellano, who during the war was Salvadorian consul general in Geneva; by Jose Gustavo Guerrero, a former president of El Salvador and former Justice in the International Court at the Hague, Holland who was residing in Geneva and offered Mantello much moral support; and by the government of El Salvador itself.
On March 20, 1944, one day after the Germans marched into Hungary, George Mantello and his brother Josef Mandl rushed to Zurich. Together with Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Taubes, chief rabbi of the Zurich Jewish community and head of the Swiss Rabbis’ Committee, they arranged a meeting of influential individuals to discuss what could be done to save the Jews of Hungary. At the meeting which was chaired by Michael Banyai, a well to do Swiss of Hungarian origin, it was decided to establish an organization which would focus solely on the plight of Hungarian Jewry. It was called Schweitzerisches Hilfskomittee fur die Juden in Ungarn (Swiss relief Committee for the Jews of Hungary).
(To be continued)
The Jewish Press, Friday April 27, 2001
(Continued from last week)
The SHC (Schwetzerisches Hilfskomittee fur die Juden in Ungarn) adopted the rescue plans advocated by Mantello and represented Hungarian Jewry vis-a-vis the Jewish organizations, the Swiss and Allied governments, as well as international bodies, particularly the International Red Cross.
Seeking cooperation with other Jewish organizations, Mantello arranged two emergency meetings with representatives of these groups, at which he acquainted them with his rescue plans.
With the help of trusted couriers, such as the attaches of Turkey and Portugal. Mantello sent hundreds of Salvadorian citizenship papers to Hungary. However, since Hungarian Jewry had already been sealed off by the Germans, he did not receive any responses from the recipients of these papers.
Mantello hoped that the War Refugee Board, which had been established in January 1944, would persuade various countries, especially the Latin American states, to grant temporary citizenship to Jews in danger and to help in the evacuation of Jewish children.
Mantello also appealed to the International Red Cross to look after the welfare of Jews who had been driven from their homes and confined in camps. Because these Jews had been deprived of their rights as Hungarian citizens, the Allies should regard them as prisoners of war and ask the International Red Cross to take care of their needs.
SHC also met with Filippe Bernadini. the papal nuncio in Switzerland in the hope of reaching the influential but quiescent pope. The SHC wanted the Vatican to instruct the Catholic clergy in Hungary to shelter Jews in monasteries and convents.
A very important task of the SHC was the collection of information about the situation of the Jews in Hungary. It transmitted the gathered information to the International Red Cross, the Swiss government and the War Refugee Board, and shared it with the other Jewish organizations
Despite its widespread activities, the SHC was not able to advance the rescue activities. The Swiss government and the International Red Cross continued to evade involvement in the rescue of Jews, and the War Refugee Board took no steps to come to the aid of Hungarian Jewry
Mantello came to the conclusion that only a large public rescue campaign could change the situation. In order to mount such a campaign, he felt that he must be in possession of authentic information about the state of Hungarian Jewry, information which could be neither denied nor dismissed. He decided to send a courier directly into Hungary to obtain realistic information about the situation of the Jews. Mantello and his brother Josef chose an old friend of theirs for that mission: Dr. Florian Manoliu. the commercial attache at the Romanian Consulate in Bern.
At the time Mantello sent Manoliu on his mission, Jewish organizations in Switzerland were m possession of authentic information about the deportations of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz, but these organizations didn’t share their information with Mantello and his SHC
The information which had been received by various Jewish organizations included the so-called “Auschwitz Protocols. ”
In February and in March 1944, the Germans were feverishly working to expand the death facilities in Auschwitz in order to be able to carry out efficiently the murder of Hungary’s 800,000 Jews.
In order to alert world opinion to what was happening in Auschwitz., the Auschwitz underground helped two young, courageous Slovakian Jews to escape from the camp. The two. Walter Rosenberg and Alfred Wetzler, who had been clerks in Auschwitz-Birkenau since 1942. escaped on April 7. On April 25 they arrived in Zilina, Slovakia, where they were questioned by members of the Slovak Jewish underground.
On the basis of the information he received from the two escapees, Oskar Krasznyansky from Bratislava, a member of the Slovak Jewish underground compiled a report which not only described the atrocities and murders committed by the Germans in Auschwitz, but also listed transports which had arrived there from various countries and the number of those murdered from April 1942 through April 1944– a total 1,765,000. The report which was written in German and filled 26 pages, became known as the “Auschwitz Protocols” or the “Auschwitz Report.” Different versions of the report, of various lengths and with various additions, were sent out. The report was received by Jewish representatives in Istanbul, Geneva, London and Jerusalem.
Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, one of the heads of the Slovak-Jewish underground, in addition to composing various versions of the report, added to each copy a plea to the Allies to bomb the railway lines leading to Auschwitz.
A second series of the report was sent out by the Slovak Jewish underground on May 16, one day after the beginning of the deportation of Hungary’s Jews to Auschwitz at the rate of 12000 per day. The new report was accompanied by a plea of Rabbi Weissmandl: “Remain silent no longer! Have no doubt about the accuracy of the atrocity reports, especially now, when we are dealing with out last remnant…”
The atrocity reports were in the hand of representatives of Jewish organizations, but Mantello was not told about them. He only received them weeks later from the courier he had sent to Budapest.
“One can imagine how many more tens if not hundreds of thousands of Jews could have been saved had the Jewish organizations in Switzerland shared the atrocity reports with Mantello when they received them, six or seven weeks before he obtained them himself,” Dr. David Kranzler writes. Had Mantello received the information at the time it was received by the others he would have commenced his successful public rescue campaign much earlier.
(Continued next week)
The Jewish Press, Friday, May 4, 2001
Continued from last week
Dr. Florian Manolia, the commercial attache of the Rumanian consulate in Bern was sent by Mantello to Hungary not only for the purpose of collecting information about the situation of the Jews in the country, but also to help them.
His first stop was to be Bistrice where Mantello’s parents and many members of the family resided. Manoliu carried with him 1000 completed and stamped Salvadorian citizenship papers. One hundred of these he was to give to members of Mantello’s family. As one such certificate was made out for an entire family, members of the Mantello family could claim non-relatives as family.
Manoliu also carried with him an undisclosed sum of money and a supply of medications for the Jewish community.
Manoliu left on his mission on May 22, 1944. When he arrived in Vienna, he was ordered by the Germans to proceed to Berlin, where he was questioned about the purpose of his journey. Fortunately, Manoliu, who was officially going to Bucharest to deal with Rumanian matters had deposited his diplomatic pouch containing Salvadorian papers, the money and the medications with Vienna’s Rumanian Consul who had come to meet him at the railway station.
Only after strong intervention by Romanian officials in Bucharest was Manoliu permitted to return to Vienna. Ha had to give the Germans a written assurance that he would go straight to Bucharest and not get off in Budapest. After settling his affairs in Bucharest, instead of returning straight to Switzerland as he had assured the Germans, Manoliu, risking his life went to Bistrice to look for Mantello’s parents. There were no Jews in Bistrice. It was Judenrein. All the Jews had been deported. Manoliu also visited other locations in Transylvania. They too were Judenrein.
He then travelled to Budapest arriving there in the morning of June 17 or 18. After visiting the Rumanian consul who promised to help him carry out his mission, he called upon Carl Lutz, the head of the Swiss Division of Foreign Interests, which represented many countries that had broken off relations with the Axis powers. Manoliu told Lutz of his mission and gave him most of the Salvadorian protection papers. Lutz introduced Manoliu to Moshe Krasuz, the head of the Palestinian Office in Budapest as a man who could provide him with authentic information about the situation of Hungarian Jewry.
Moshe Krausz, whose office handled the immigration permits to Palestine issued by the British, had , after the German occupation of Hungary, sought refuge in the compound of the Swiss Legation which also represented British interests.
Krausz handed Manoliu two reports about the deportations to Auschwitz. One was an abridgement of the original Auschwitz report. It included a summary of the testimony of two more Jews who had escaped from Auschwitz in May and provided corroborate information and statistics on the annihilation of Hungarian Jewry from early April until late May. The second report detailed the ghettoization and deportation of Hungarian Jews, town by town to Auschwitz. The first full scaled deportation began on May 15th and within three weeks by June 7, more than 334,000 Jews had been deported to death camps.
Krausz also gave Manoliu a letter addressed to Dr. Chaim Posner of the Palestine Office in Geneva, in which he, Krausz described the desperate situation of the remnants of Hungarian jewry. “The whole Jewish race in Hungary is condemned to death. There are no exceptions., there is no escape, there is no possibility of concealment and we have to face our fate. We have not even the possibility of escaping to a neighboring country…” In his letter Krausz added to the detailed report about the ghettoization and deportation of Hungarian Jewry, that from June 7 until June 19 (when Krausz gave the reports to Manoliu) an additionial 100,000 Jews had been killed in Auschwitz.
In Budapest Manoliu also met Mantell’s father in-law, Ignaz (Yitzchak) Berger. He gave him Salvadoria citizenship papers for him and his family. Irene, Mantello’s wife, was also in Budapest. Manoliu didn’t meet, but was told by Lutz that he had assigned her to care for Jewish children who had found refuge in the Swiss compound.
Immediately upon his return to Geneva, on the night of June 22 to 23, Manoliu went to Mantello and his brother. With great sadness he described to them the tragedy of Hungarian Jewry as well as the brothers’ personal loss — more than 200 members of their family had been deported from Bistrice to their death. He handed them the reports and the letter he had received from Moshe Krausz as well as a slip from Mantello’s father-in-law. Y. Berger, who wrote to Mantello: You can imagine what we have to endure. I beg of you, do whatever, you can. Don’t delay.”
The brothers listened to Manoliu in profound shock, after Manoliu left their apartment, the two brothers embraced and cried. They tore their lapels, as Jews do when hearing tragic news.
The brothers now resolved to do whatever they could to save Hungary’s remaining Jews.
Kranzler writes: “Mantello’s anguish was now transformed into a demon that would not let him rest until he had accomplished his goal. For the next week or so, neither food nor sleep were of consequence to him, he caught short naps and occasionally grabbed something to eat, rushing about as if in a frenzy. No one dared interfere with him monomaniacal determination to inform the world about the tragedy of Hungarian Jewry. Against all odds, against all logic, against the opposition of bureaucrats, petty officials and gainsayers, both Jewish and non Jewish, Mantello intended to break the world’s silence in the face of Hitler’s Final Solution.”
Continued next week
May 11, 2001
continued from last week
As soon as Mantello and his brother Josef were in possession of the reports about Auschwitz and the situation of Hungarian Jewry, they organized — with their friends of the Swiss Rabbis’ Committee and the Swiss Relief Committee for the Jews in Hungary — a well planned rescue campaign.
Many pages of Kranzler’s book are devoted to a detailed description of this campaign and its great impact on the people of Switzerland and the political and spiritual leaders of the free world.
“With the help of well-placed connections in the American and British intelligence forces, and a strong letter of support from four of the leading Swiss Protestant theologians. Mantello sent a summary of the two atrocity reports to all diplomatic circles in the West,” Kranzler writes. :The head of the British News Exchange cabled Roosevelt, Churchill, and the Archbishop of Canterbury and Francis Spellman, Archbishop of New York. He also made the summaries available to more than 120 Swiss newspapers, resulting in more than 400 articles, many of which were featured on the front page.”
The first article on the tragedy of Hungarian Jewry appeared in the Neue Zuercher Zeitung on June 24, only a few days after Mantello’s return from Hungary.
One of Mantello’s most prominent allies in the rescue campaign was the Protestant pastor. Dr. Paul Vogt, Switzerland’s most popular preacher. He was known as the “Refugee Preacher” because of this great concern for refugees from Nazism who sought refuge in Switzerland. He asked the Protestant clergy to help special service dedicated to the plight of Hungarian Jewry, personally delivering the first stirring sermons on the subject in Switzerland’s largest churches.
On July 14, Vogt sent an urgent request to the Swiss Federal Council (Bundesrat– the Swiss Parliament) to discuss practical ways to come to the aid of Hungary’s Jews. In his letter, which opens with the words,” MY conscience won’t let me rest,” he suggested that the Federal Council send 50 Swiss citizens to Budapest to facilitate rescue.
The articles in Swiss newspapers — many of which are quoted by Kranzler at great length– not only condemned the German murderers and their Hungarian accomplices, but also criticized the Swiss authorities and the International Red Cross for their silence and indifference, for having refrained until then from having anything to do with the rescue of Jews. In the course of Mantello’s rescue campaign, both the Swiss government and the International Red Cross changed their policies with regard to actively intervening on behalf of our people. It was also during the rescue campaign– on July 12– that the Swiss authorities rescinded a regulation, introduced in October, 1938. As a result, thousands of Jewish refugees who had entered Switzerland illegally were sent back across the border and delivered to their German persecutors.
On July 13, Mr. Clara Nef, head of the Federation of Swiss Women’s Organization, published an article, “We Women,” in which she wrote: “……For five years we have had news of mass deaths, bombardments, persecutions, deportations, but somehow it doesn’t enter our conscience…. we cannot turn away from what has been happening to the Jewish people, who are also our brothers and are like others before G-d…….”
Mrs. Nef also cabled in the name of her organization, an appeal to Mrs. Horthy: “Deeply shocked by the atrocious destiny of the Jews of Hungary, we implore your Excellency in the name of Swiss women and mothers to use your great influence to save people who are our brothers before G-d.”
Mrs. Horthy replied the next day, saying that she would do everything in her power “to obtain recognition of the principles of humanity.”
Moved by the press reports, various associations organized demonstrations in the streets and town squares. Those who demonstrated included representatives of labor, women and university students. A large protest meeting was held in Basle on Thursday, July 27th. Organized by the Worker’s Union and several other labor parties it was attended by about 3000 men and women. The demonstration , addressed by four members of the Swiss parliament concluded with a resolution which read, inter alia. “The assembly raised an ardent protest against the terrible murders of several hundred thousands of Jews in Hungary. The assembly asks the Federal Council to undertake all necessary steps to save the lives of those still threatened by extermination. We expect them to permit entry and provide asylum to all who search for a safe haven in Switzerland.”
When writing about the demonstrations of Swiss Christians on behalf of Hungarian Jewry and their criticism of their own government, Dr. Kranzler cannot help recalling the silences of American Jewry during World War II. He writes, “Other than the march of 400 Orthodox rabbis in front of the White House in October 1943, there was not a single public demonstration in the United States to protest the American government’s indifference s to the fate of European Jewry.”
Continued next week
The Jewish Press, May 18, 2001
Continued from last week
Mantello’s rescue campaign started in the last week of June.
Pressure on Hungary’s Regent Horthy began to build up almost immediately.
On June 26, President Roosevelt sent a strongly-worded warning to the Hungarian Regent to stop the deportations immediately. On the same day, at an urgent meeting of the Crown Council, Horthy declared; “I shall not tolerate this any further. I shall not permit the deportations to bring further shame on the Hungarians. The deportations of the Jews must cease.”
On June 28, Cardinal Spellman condemned, in an impassioned radio plea to Admiral Horthy and the Hungarian people, the deportations “which are in flagrant contradiction to the Catholic faith, followed by the great majority of the Hungarian nation.”
The same day, the Committee for Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives expressed its deep concern over the plight of the threatened millions in Nazi-dominated Europe and declared its determination to assure that the criminals who were guilty of this inhuman conduct shall be brought to justice.
On the 30th of June, the Swedish Ambassador handed Horthy a cable by King Gustav V, appealing to him “In the name of humanity, to intervene for the benefit of those unfortunates who could still be saved.”
Horthy was deeply affected, not only by the appeals and warnings of political and spiritual leaders of the free world, but also by the strong protests of the Swiss population, which engendered anti-Hungarian feelings throughout Switzerland.
On July 7 he informed Edmund Veesenmayer, the German Ambassador in Budapest, of his decision to halt the deportations “because of mounting international and domestic pressure.”
Despite Horthy’s halting of the deportations, Eichmann and his Hungarian cohorts continued, without the Regent’s knowledge, to deport Jews from communities around Budapest. By July 11 more than 55.000 Jews had been deported.
On July 18 and 24, respectively, Eichmann and his men deported 1,200 Jewish men and women from the internment camp in Kistarcsa and 1.500 from the internment camp at Sarvar.
Carl Lutz, who was in charge of the Division of Foreign Interest in the Swiss consulate in Budapest, informed Mantello about the deportations. Mantello contacted the International Red Cross, which in turn pressured the Hungarian consulate in Bern.
The Hungarian Deputy Premier Remenyi Schneller responded immediately, stating that it was really the (Germans who deported the Jews from Kistarcsa and Sarvar, and they did it without the knowledge and consent of the Hungarian authorities. He added that there was no danger of this being repeated because the Jewish question was now being handled exclusively by the Hungarian Government.
In the wake of these new deportations. Mantello mounted a new press campaign against the Hungarian government. It included sending into Hungary anti-Nazi material and detailed descriptions of the horrors of the new deportations.
Eichmann persisted. He was determined to complete the extermination of Hungary’s Jews. On August 18. he had the president and the two vice-presidents of the Jewish Council arrested and ordered that the deportations be resumed on the 25th of the month.
These developments prompted neutral diplomats in Budapest to submit a memorandum to the Hungarian government protesting the reported resumption of the deportations of the Jews. The memorandum, which was signed by the Apostolic Nuncio, the Swedish ambassador and the Charges Affaires of Spain. Portugal and Switzerland, was handed on August 21 to the Hungarian Deputy Premier by the Apostolic Nuncio and the Swedish Ambassador.
The following day, Horthy repeated his opposition to the resumption of the deportations. Emboldened by the steadily deteriorating military situation of the Axis powers, the Regent, a few days later, took an even stronger stand in the defense of the Jews of Budapest, demanding, among others, the withdrawal from Hungarv of Eichmann’s S.S. contingent of 160 men.
On August 25, Heinrich Himmler sent a cable to Budapest, forbidding any further deportation of Hungarian Jews to German territory.
( to be continued)
The Jewish Press, Friday, May 25, 2001
On October 15,1944, the German in cooperation with the Arrow Cross Party carried out a coup, deposing Horthy and his government, who had planned to desert the Axis Powers. Ferenc Szalasi, the new prime minister, was a staunch Nazi and his rise to power posed a great threat to Hungary’s remaining Jews. The new premier’s take-over was accompanied by a series of pogroms by members of the Arrow Cross Party,
On October 17, Eichmann returned to Budapest and began pressuring the Hungarian authorities to complete the “Final Solution,” the extermination of Hungarian Jewry
One of Szalasi’s first actions, in the early days of his regime, was the establishment of two distinctive ghettoes, separating those Jews, who were in possession of protective papers, from the rest of the Jews.
Those with protective papers were concentrated in the “International Ghetto,” which was under the supervision of representatives of neutral nations. Initially, the “International Ghetto” had a population of 30,000, not including thousands of “squatters,” who had succeeded in getting into the protected ghetto illegally. The Jews were quartered in separate houses, which were under the care of the neutral representatives.
Carl Lutz managed to receive 25 high-rise buildings to house those who were under his protection. Eventually, the number of the houses and size of the population increased greatly as many thousands of additional people received protective papers.
The “Regular Ghetto” for the unprotected Jews eventually housed about 70,000 Jews. It was supervised by the Judenrat, which sought to alleviate its constantly deteriorating conditions.
Whereas Horthy, after having halted the deportations, had agreed to the emigration to Palestine of 8,000 Jews, who were in possession of certificates, and to the departure for Switzerland of 4500 Jews, who had Swedish papers. Szalasi forbade emigration altogether.
The Arrow Cross regime lasted until Budapest was taken by the Red Army in January 1945. Kranzler writes that “these very dangerous three months of the Arrow Cross era were to become the neutrals’ finest hour.”
“Because Jews would no longer be permitted to emigrate legally, the neutrals’ main battle now was to resist constant attempts by the Pro-Nazi elements to isolate, ghettoize and deport as many Jews as possible. If no longer by trains to Auschwitz, at least by foot to Germany,” Kranzler writes. “Leading this battle were Wallenberg and Lutz, supported by the papal nuncio, the representatives of the Spanish and Portuguese legations and the International Red Cross. These activists worked from a disadvantaged position to thwart the new onslaught, for they did not have the active support of their governments.
According to Kranzler. the neutrals, with outstanding courage, and creativity were largely successful, eventually rescuing about three-quarters of Budapest’s remaining 200,000 Jews.
Kranzler describes in great detail, some of the activities of various representatives of neutral states.
Raoul Wallenberg, who was sent to Budapest to help Hungary’s Jews, arrived there on July 9. Soon after his arrival he received a telephone call from Mantello asking him to assume the protection of those who held Salvadorian papers, because the negotiations with the Swiss government to become the protecting power — had not yet borne fruit. Wallenberg assented and carried out this task until it was taken over by Lutz, following the full recognition of the Salvadorian papers by the Swiss government. After the Swiss-government finally recognized the Salvadorian papers, they became the most sought after protective documents available. Mantello was in constant contact with Lutz and kept sending him protection papers.
In order to carry out his new task of protecting those in possession of Salvadorian papers, Lutz enlarged the Swiss compound in the “International Ghetto” by renting additional quarters, including a building, which was formerly a mirror company and was called by its owner the “Glass House.”
According to a International Red Cross report of December 1944, entitled ‘The Jewish Situation in Hungary” the Swiss Location in Budapest had taken under its protection the greatest number of Jews. According to one reliable source, the Swiss compound eventually protected about 60,000 people in all. Mantello put about 10,000 Salvadorian protection papers into circulation in Hungary and Lutz’ department used them to protect between 20.000 and 30,000 people.
Because of the great demand for Salvadoran protection papers, individuals as well as organized groups forged such documents by the thousands. The Hungarian authorities, who became aware of this, forced Lutz to separate the genuine papers from the falsified.
November 1944, at the instigation of Eichmann, between 50,000 and 60,000 Jews were forced to march from Budapest to the Austro-Hungarian border, where thev allegedly were to be employed in building a last line of defense. These were mostly children, women and old men, because most men of military age were already in forced labor battalions. Before they started out, they had been beaten and had not received food for almost three days. The tired, hungry and sick dropped out quickly and were shot by Arrow Cross men.
When informed about the “Death March.” Lutz. Wallenberg and the papal nuncio rushed to the Obuda brickworks, where the march had started and distributed hundreds of protective papers. The recipients filled in their names and were pulled out of the brickworks. Later, the neutrals caught up with the marchers and succeeded in saving many of them in the same manner.
In December, Arrow Cross thugs disregarding official government policy and protective papers grabbed hundreds of Jews from the Ghetto, even breaking into protected houses, and tortured and killed them.
On January 16, 1945 the Russians entered the “International Ghetto” and two days later the “Regular Ghetto.”
Conclusion next week
The Jewish Press, Friday, June 1, 2001
Conclusion
George Mantello was not only prominently involved in efforts and actions to rescue Jews in danger, his heart and hands were always open to help Jews who needed his assistance.
Towards the end of 1944, when Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, the Admor of Satmar, who was on the Kastner train, arrived in Switzerland. Mantello rented a villa for him in Geneva.
Rabbi Yonathan Steif, who had been the head of the Rabbinical Court of Budapest, was also on the Kastner train. When he arrived in Switzerland, the Union of Swiss Rabbis decided to provide him with a monthly grant. Mantello contributed to the fund established for that purpose.
Rabbi Dr. Elie Munk of Paris fled during the war to Switzerland. He was held briefly in a refugee camp from which he was released as a result of an intercession by Mantello. Rabbi Munk temporarily made his home in Geneva, where he tried to eke out a living by giving lectures. When Mantello was informed that Rabbi Dr. Munk, his wife and their four children could not afford to eat chicken on Sabbath, he made arrangements that every Erev Shabbath and eve of Yom Tov, a chicken would be delivered to the rabbi’s home.
Rabbi Dr. E. Munk was a prominent author, whose works have appeared in several languages. Kranzler relates what he had heard from Mr. Mendel Brach, who had been an associate of the late Rabbi Zusia Portugal, the Sekulener Rebbe. Rabbi Portugal, who then resided in Communist Rumania took care of a large number of Jewish orphans there. When Brach presented Mantello with a list of Rabbi Portugal’s needs, Mantello immediately offered him $15,000.
The above are only a few of the various instances of Mantello’s aid to individuals, mentioned by Kranzler in his book. Strange as it may seem, even after the end of the war, Mantello was able to help people by providing them with Salvadorian papers.
Here we will mention only Yaakov Griffel’s use of Mantello’s Salvadorian papers. Dr. Griffel of Agudath Israel was a member of the Jewish Agency’s Vaad Hatzala. He was also a member of the New York-based Orthodox Vaad Hatzala. During the war he was stationed in Istanbul. After the war he continued his rescue activities trying to get Jewish survivors, who were stuck in Poland, out of that country. Griffel visited Mantello who gave him a large number of “used” Salvadorian citizen papers he had kept The Polish government granted exit permits to holders of such papers — which, naturally, had to be provided with new photographs, whereas the Czechoslovak government permitted the owners of these papers to come to Prague. Griffel traveled to Prague with Mantello’s papers. With the help of Rabbi Victor Vorhand, who had excellent connections with the Czechoslovak authorities, he succeeded in bringing thousands of Jewish survivors to Prague from where they were able to continue to other countries.
***
On May 3, 1944, while Mantello was trying to come to the aid of Hungarian Jewry, Heinrich Rothmund, the head of the Swiss Alien Police — no great friend of the Jews — and several police officers came to Mantello’s hotel and placed him under house arrest. He was charged with black-market activities with regard to the chronographs and other instruments he helped the British acquire. He was also extensively questioned concerning the Salvadorian papers and accused of selling them for an unconscionable profit. The charges were dropped when Mantello deposited 2,000 Swiss francs to cover any fines for the possible violation of police regulations. The house arrest was lifted on May 19.
Though the charges were baseless, they were renewed by certain Swiss circles after the war, which harassed Mantello for several years, to the point where Switzerland was ready to deprive him of his right to residence. Swiss public figures came to Mantello’s aid and the “case” was eventually closed.
Mantello. who was greatly pained by the slanderous accusation that he had profited from the issuance of the Salvadorian papers, whereas, in truth, he had contributed much of his own money to the rescue operations, requested on September 25, 1945 from the Federation of Swiss Jewish communities that they appoint a panel of judges to oversee a public enquiry of his rescue activities. The Federation complied and appointed three highly qualified Swiss personalities as judges: Dr. Paul Guggenheim, head of the Swiss section of the World Jewish Congress, a judge of the International Court in Hague and a professor at the University of Geneva; Dr. Max Gurny, a judge on the Swiss Supreme Court in Zurich; and Dr. George Brunscbvig, president of the Federation and a military magistrate in Bern. Some witnesses testified personally, others sent in affidavits.
“The panel concluded its hearings on June 27. 1946.” Kranzler writes. “It not only cleared Mantello completely of even the slightest wrongdoing, but also provided a highly complimentary portrait of this much-maligned rescue activist, even going so far as to imply that the accusations of various groups against Mantello were based primarily on envy.”
In 1956. Mantello made his permanent residence in Rome. He died there in 1992 and was buried in Israel where he was a frequent visitor. In 1948 he helped the young State of Israel acquire arms from Switzerland.
“During his lifetime, Mantello received no recognition for his valiant efforts either from historians or from the State of Israel itself,” Kranzler writes near the end of his book.
“Only during his last few years was he the recipient of a few honors in the United States.”
I have devoted to Kranzler’s book more articles than to any other book reviewed in this column, because I have felt duty-bound to tell our readers about Mantello’s efforts to rescue Jews from the Nazi hell. All of us are greatly indebted to Dr. David Kranzler for having written The Man Who Stopped The Trains to Auschwitz which is undoubtedly one of the great books about rescue efforts during the Holocaust.
The Jewish Press, Friday, June 8, 2001 • THE JEWISH PRESS •