Further
reading:
The Raoul Wallenberg Case
by Tekla Szymanski (the article is in German
and was published in the German newspaper Freitag)
|
News
Flash:
On
May 22, 2007, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a special
briefing on "The Legacy of Raoul Wallenberg, Hero of the
Holocaust", discussing the latest development in the mystery
of Wallenberg's disappearance. Speakers at the event that was
sponsored by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), included Congressman
Tom Lantos; former Congressman Richard Gephardt; Swedish Ambassador
Gunnar Lund; and Professor William Korey, author of The Last
Word on Wallenberg, published by the AJC.
Who
Was
Raoul Wallenberg?
Raoul
Wallenberg was born in 1912 into a prominent Swedish family.
After
finishing his studies in architecture at the University of Michigan
and upon returning to Sweden, his grandfather sent him to Cape
Town, South Africa, where Wallenberg practiced at a Swedish firm,
selling building materials. After six months, his grandfather
arranged a new job for him at a Dutch bank office in Haifa, then
Palestine.
In
1944, Wallenberg accepted the offer of the "United States
War Refugee Board" (WRB), an organization with the purpose
of saving Jews from Nazi persecution, to observe the plight of
Hungarian Jews in Budapest. He traveled as an envoy of the Swedish
Foreign Ministry to Hungary.
Ivar
Danielsson was head of the Swedish legation. His closest aide
was secretary Per Anger. The Swedish legation in Budapest succeeded
in negotiating with the Germans that the bearers of so-called
"Schutzpässe" (protective passes, see picture at
left) would be treated as Swedish citizens and exempt from wearing
the yellow Star of David on their chest. It was Per Anger, who
initiated the first of these Swedish protective passes.
In
1966, Yad
Vashem in Jerusalem honored Raoul Wallenberg as "righteous
among nations." The same honor went to Per Anger in 1982
for his heroic actions to save Jews during the war.
Wallenberg
headed the department responsible for helping Jews. In the following
months, he courageously succeeded in saving 100,000 Jews from
being deported and killed. Within six months, he managed to issue
thousands of Swedish "Schutzpässe." In addition,
he helped hide Jews in 30 safe houses in the Pest part of the
city, where Jews could seek refuge, and he provided food and health
care.
By
power of his diplomatic orders, he was even able to pull a number
of Jews off the deportation trains that were headed for the concentration
camps in Poland. He climbed the train wagons, stood on the tracks,
ran along the wagon roofs, and stuck bunches of protective passes
down to the people inside.
In
1945, after Hungary's liberation by Soviet troops, Wallenberg
and members of the Swedish consulate in Budapest were arrested.
All were later released—except Wallenberg. He was accused
of being an "American spy."
Whether
Raoul Wallenberg is alive or dead is uncertain. The Russians claim
that he died in their captivity on July 17, 1947 of heart failure.
A number of testimonies, as late as the 1980s, indicate, however,
that he was seen alive.
On
August 4, 2004, Wallenberg would have celebrated his 92nd birthday.
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 “In
the spiritual sense, [Raoul] Wallenberg is more alive than most of us
who are still around living our ordinary, day-to-day lives. He
is more alive than most of us, because of what he has done.”
—Tom
Lantos, U.S. Congressman, rescued by Wallenberg
“When
you think of what [Wallenberg]
did, you ask yourself: 'But how come that there were
so few Raoul Wallenbergs?' ”
—Kofi
Annan, U.N. Secretary General
“As
long as Nazi violence was unleashed only, or mainly, against the Jews,
the rest of the world looked on passively and even treaties and agreements
were made with the patently criminal government of the Third Reich.
[...] The doors of Palestine were closed to Jewish immigrants and no
country could be found that would admit those forsaken people.
They
were left to perish like their brothers and sisters in the occupied
countries. We shall never forget the heroic efforts of the small countries,
of the Scandinavian, the Dutch, the Swiss nations, and of individuals
in the occupied part of Europe who did all in their power to protect
Jewish lives.”
—Albert
Einstein (Dec. 10, 1945)
January
17th 2005 marked the 60th anniversary of the disappearance of Raoul
Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews
during the Holocaust by issuing diplomatic documents and sheltering
them in "safe houses" (see sidebar below). His story is still
newsworthy, part of a mystery never solved. Only questions about his
fate remain, ever since he vanished without a trace in the last days
of World War II, never to be seen or heard of again.
But
there are those who try to keep his memory alive.
The "International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation"
(IRWF*) in New York—founded by Baruch
Tenembaum of the Argentinean non-governmental organization "Casa Argentina"
in Buenos Aires—remembers the deeds of Raoul Wallenberg (and others)
and
honors this "Hero Without a Grave" and keeps his legacy alive.
As an adviser to the foundation, I try to get the word out that there
are still some forgotten "Righteous Gentiles," whom humanity
owes recognition and deep respect. Now, it is up to us to make sure
that this man's mission is duly remembered, because the number of eyewitnesses
is dwindling down.
Raoul Wallenberg's
actions have a great impact today; they are proof that even one person
can change history. They prove that there is always a need for a person
who takes risks and defies a convenient herd mentality to the point
of endangering his or her own life. It shows that civil courage, honesty,
humanity and compassion are possible even when faced with evil. Wallenberg
stands for speaking out openly against injustice, intolerance, prejudice,
bias and hate, which are still prevalent today. His deeds remind us
that even when evil seems insurmountable, one still has to try to overcome
it. Today, that could mean taking a bolder stance against human right
abuses and genocides happening in our midst — like in Darfur, Sudan.
Wallenberg's
story also shows us that we can act individually by becoming whistleblowers
in our own community, in our schools, among our peers; we just need
to be curious and interested in other points of view. We need to become
less complacent. But Wallenberg's story also reminds us that sometimes,
even when we are just and righteous, evil might prevail and we initially
might not win. But we should always try.
Vanished
Without A Trace
 Wallenberg
was captured in 1945 by Soviet troops during the liberation of Budapest
and vanished. According
to Russian officials, Wallenberg died in captivity.
"When
you think of what he did," U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (who
is married to the niece of Raoul Wallenberg) was quoted in Time Magazine
(Sept. 4, 2000), "you ask yourself: 'But how come that there
were so few Raoul Wallenbergs?' When you talk to his sister—my
mother-in-law," Anan continues, "she says he was not a daredevil
but a very calm, gentle man. Yet he had a kind of inner strength that
let him do what he needed to do to save people. You ask yourself: 'there
were all these other, more powerful people—where were they?' "
An
Honorary American Citizen
On
October 5, 1981, Wallenberg became an honorary American citizen. At
the time, only one other person had been made an honorary American citizen:
Sir Winston Churchill. The legislation, initiated by Congressman and
Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) — who owed his life to
Wallenberg's deeds — sped through Congress, and President Reagan
signed it into law in the Rose Garden that fall. "Our hope was
that we could save [Wallenberg] by using a tactic similar to the one
Wallenberg himself had so creatively applied during the war to save
us and so many others," explains Lantos. "We would create
an American citizenship document to give the United States an opportunity
and reason to work for his protection. Some of us in Congress continued
to press the Soviets through the years, using the vehicle of Wallenberg's
honorary citizenship. Unfortunately, our progress in solving this mystery
has been minimal."
On October 8, 1986, the street in Washington, D.C., where the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum was about to open to the public
was renamed Wallenberg Place. And a bust of Raoul Wallenberg stands
in the U.S. capitol.
"Many
honors have been given, and will continue to be given, to preserve the
memory of Wallenberg's achievements," says Lantos. "[In November],
he will be made an honorary citizen of Budapest. Such honors are helpful
in educating the world about Wallenberg's selfless and courageous work....The
international community, and most especially the American government,
must redouble their efforts to establish the facts of what happened
to him. Additional pressure must be brought to bear against Russia to
open all archives related to his case, even if it means unleashing embarrassing
secrets of the Soviet era—or more recent secrets, and not just
Russian ones."
The
media, however, are not doing what they should to honor this man and
commemorate his deeds. My numerous requests to grant Wallenberg some
recognition in newspapers and magazines, is usually met with silence.
After
all, Wallenberg is not news anymore.
A
Formal Inquiry Begins
 In
August 2004, Wallenberg would have celebrated his 92nd birthday. Many
people believe that he is still alive—until they receive conclusive
evidence and substantial information proving otherwise. In 2001, Sweden's
Prime Minister, Goran Persson, announced, "It cannot be said [Wallenberg]
is dead," and he concluded, "There is no evidence of what
happened [to him]."
In
November 2000, Russian officials acknowledged for the first time that
Raoul Wallenberg had been sentenced to death and probably been shot
in 1947. "This important pronouncement should prompt Russian President
Vladimir Putin to issue a decree," demanded the New York Times
in its editorial of November 29, 2000, "at long last acknowledging
that Wallenberg was a victim of Stalin's repression....It is time for
Mr. Putin to set the record straight about Raoul Wallenberg's last years."
In
September 1991, a Swedish-Russian working group on Raoul Wallenberg
was commissioned to inquire about his fate. The working group presented
its findings at a press conference in Stockholm on January 12, 2001.
Their
initial report is available in Swedish, English, and Russian.
The report
by the Russian side of the working group was published in 2004. A complete
presentation of all the documents released by the working group can
be found here
(or copy/paste the following link into your browser: www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/3105/a/18447;jsessionid=a-XHNjuFTPB4).
Six decades
after Wallenberg's disappearance, the International Raoul Wallenberg
Foundation will start a worldwide campaign to collect 100,000 signatures,
as many as the lives saved by the “Hero Without a Grave”,
which will be presented to the United Nations to urge the solution of
one of the most controversial and unresolved cases of modern history.
Baruch
Tenembaum: "The wealth of nations is not only the result of accumulating
capital, but above all, a precious benefit that important countries
obtain and preserve by looking at their past, directly and without shame,
regardless of how atrocious it may have been. We
find that life comprises things that are more important than life itself.
One of these things is truth. When we renounce truth, the fall is unavoidable
and unlimited."
Go
to Raoul Wallenberg Study Aid
*
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation in New
York can be reached at: irwf@irwf.org
For
further reading:
The Jewish Virtual Library: http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/wallenberg.html
The Raoul Wallenberg Project Interviews: http://rwa.bibks.uu.se/
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation: http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/
The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States: http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/
Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs: http://www.utrikes.regeringen.se/inenglish/wallenberg.htm
"Raoul
Wallenberg and the Rescue of Jews in Budapest" and a Raoul
Wallenberg Bibliography, compiled by the Holocaust Learning Center
of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington.
Storyteller
Syd Lieberman on his family's rescue by Raoul Wallenberg (audio excerpt)
The
Raoul Wallenberg International Movement for Humanity
http://www.rwallenberg-int.org/index.htm
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