HispanicVista Columnists
An Unsung Hero
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By
Sal Osio, JD - From the Publisher's Corner
- June 5, 2006
By their valor and courage, reflecting their moral values, at the sacrifice of their own well being, persons who climb above the fray to help their fellow men, are the real heroes in the history of mankind. And, yet, many of these real life heroes are unrecognized, at least during their life time.
One such hero was Eduardo Propper de Callejon who served in the diplomatic service of Spain for 40 years.
In the Spring of 1939 Eduardo Propper was the First Secretary at the Spanish Embassy in France. As the German forces were invading France in 1940, panicky hordes of refugees, primarily Jews, in fear of Nazi persecution, congregated at the at the Spanish Consulate in the hope of getting transit visas that would allow them safe conduct through Spain to escape the imminent threat. The problem was that the Spanish Consulate required authorization from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Madrid in order to issue the visas.
The situation was desperate. There was no time to process the required authorization in order to protect the lives of so many desperate refugees who would be rounded up and detained for transit to concentration camps.
Young Eduardo, in the infancy of his career, took the initiative and managed to convince the Spanish Ambassador to allow him to issue ‘special visas’, albeit at his peril, without the proper authorization from the Ministry. Propper, in the sweltering heat of the Parisian Summer, spent countless hours and days issuing the ‘special visas’ to the desperate souls facing persecution and extinction.
His courage and bravery saved thousands of refugees.
For his unauthorized conduct, Propper was summarily transferred to a remote outpost in Spanish Morocco by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was accused of serving the interests of the French Jewish community. His diplomatic career was forever damaged. He was forever deprived from reaching his final promotion to ‘Ambassador of Spain’ - at a cost to him of honors and sacrifice of retirement benefits.
- To his credit, Eduardo Propper left a legacy of honor and courage – a pride that his son and daughter, and grand children, value beyond any material inheritance. I have the privilege of counting his son and grandson as my very close friends. And in his honor, deservedly so, the Instituto Cervantes and the Raul Wallenberg Foundation this month in New York are celebrating his life and commemorating his humanitarian contribution, a first step on his being recognized as a ‘Just Man’ by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem
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- Sal Osio is the Publisher of HispanicVista (www.hispanicvista.com) Contact at: sposio@aol.com