George Mandel-Mantello, Honorary First Secretary for El Salvador in Geneva, 1942-45

George Mandel was born into an orthodox Jewish family in Romania in 1901.  Because of his business contacts with Salvadoran politicians and diplomats, including the Salvadoran consul general, he was appointed General Secretary of El Salvador in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1941. 

As early as 1942, George Mandel-Mantello began issuing Salvadoran citizenship papers and documents to Jews in Nazi occupied Europe, including France, Belgium and the Netherlands.  Mantello worked closely with Jewish organizations and neutral legations to develop an elaborate network to distribute these life-saving papers, especially in Hungary.  Mantello enlisted the services of Romanian diplomat Florian Manoliu to distribute the visas.  Carl Lutz, the Vice Consul for Switzerland in Budapest, issued them to numerous Jews.  Many of these were blank forms that could be filled out by the recipients.  Mantello spent thousands of dollars of his own money covering the costs of issuing these life-saving documents. 

Mantello also was responsible for the widespread dissemination of the Auschwitz Protocols in Europe.  This was the first major report on the murder of Jews in Europe.  For this, he was briefly jailed by Swiss government officials for violating Swiss neutrality.

George Mandel-Mantello died in 1993 and is buried in Israel.