November 17, for his role in saving the lives of about 100,000 Hungarian Jews during World War Two.
Speaking at a ceremony near Budapest’s memorial to Wallenberg overlooking the Danube river, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy bowed his head for the former Swedish diplomat who in his words “showed how to behave in times of peril.”
Medgyessy told holocaust survivors, relatives and Wallenberg supporters, there was “no simple or complicated situation” to justify persecution and that “no person can be above the law.”
He said the legacy of Wallenberg reminded the modern world of the 21st century “there should be no divisions between people based on their religion and nationality.”
“ROLE MODEL”
Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky called him “a role model,” at another event just before the Budapest municipal council voted for Wallenberg’s Honorary title Monday, November 17.
Demszky, who suffered as a dissident under the Soviet backed Communist regime that took over after the war, said he had “a picture of the hero (Wallenberg) hanging on the wall” above his bed.
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Ironically Wallenberg shares the title Honorary Citizen with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who received the honor from Budapest in different circumstances. Budapest Mayor Demszky said in earlier interviews that while he condemns Stalinism, “it must be realized that history cannot be deleted.”
“COURAGEOUS MAN”
“I am one of Raoul Wallenberg’s children, saved by this courageous young man” said Katalin Wacz, one of the survivors of the Holocaust saved by Wallenberg. “His uncommon bravery will never be unforgotten, his name will always remain a symbol for human rights, justice and tolerance.”
Magda Kertesz, wife of last year’s Nobel Prize winning author Imre Kertesz, a holocaust survivor, was also at the event. Swedish Ambassador to Hungary Bengt Lundborg said the ceremony was “a tribute to a single person’s achievement” of rescuing so many people.
He recalled how Wallenberg as a first secretary in the Swedish embassy in Budapest from July 1944 issued Swedish protective documents and started safe houses to save an estimated 100,000 Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps.
60TH ANNIVERSARY
“Few such actions have been spear-headed by one single person in history,” he stressed. Lundborg noted that July, 2004, will see the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Wallenberg’s arrival to Hungary on his special and dangerous mission aimed at giving Jews diplomatic protection.
“He even climbed the train wagons, stood on the tracks, ran along the wagon roofs, and stuck bunches of protective passes down to the people inside,” recalled the Jewish Virtual Library, which has done extensive research.
“The German soldiers were ordered to open fire, but were so impressed by Wallenberg’s courage that they deliberately aimed too high. Wallenberg could jump down unharmed and demand that the Jews with passes should leave the train together with him.”
GOODBYE TO FRIENDS
On his way out of the capital on January 17th—escorted by the Russian troops that began to liberate Hungary after it had finally switched sides, Wallenberg and his driver stopped at the “Swedish houses” to say good- bye to his friends, Jewish research shows.
To one of his colleagues, Dr. Ernö Petö, Wallenberg reportedly said he wasn’t sure if he was going to be the Russian’s guest or their prisoner. Raoul Wallenberg hoped he would be back within eight days–but he has been missing since then.
Mayor Demszky said it was never really confirmed that Wallenberg had died when he was taken by Russian soldiers toward the end of World War Two, although Russian authorities have said he died several years later in a Soviet prison.
CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS
Yet Christian and other aid organizations have often said their sources claimed to have seen him alive even decades after his supposed death. “For all we know Wallenberg may still be alive,” Demszky said, adding that during his 13 years in office as mayor Budapest strived to commemorate Wallenberg as much as possible.
“Wallenberg has inscribed his name into the history of Budapest for ever,” the mayor said. “Thanks to Wallenberg and some Hungarian, Italian and Swiss collaborators, Budapest is the only city in Central and Eastern Europe to still have a population of 100,000 Jewish citizens after the Holocaust.”
Before 1944 Hungary had 800,000 Jewish citizens. At least 600,000 Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust during World War Two, when Hungary for the most part was a close ally of Nazi Germany.
ARROW CROSS
A translator of Wallenberg, Eva Winner, said the former Swedish diplomat re-discovered human dignity in these times of terror. She recalled an occasion when 4 from 10 Jews saved by Wallenberg from a “death march to Austria” were shot in the back by Hungarian fascists, known as The Arrow Cross.
As she saw them dying, a gentle Wallenberg tried to calm her down saying: “The people who did this feel their end is near…” Yet making him Honorary Citizen lead to mixed reactions among people living in Budapest’s only Raoul Wallenberg Street.
An 80-year old Holocaust survivor, who only identified herself only as Klari, suggested that the Wallenberg ceremony should have come earlier. “I am very happy that it is happing. It is a very nice gesture. Maybe it is too late, but it is nice that it is happening and I am very proud of it” she told BosNewsLife.
MANY KILLED
She said with tears in her eyes Wallenberg was not able to safe her family. All, except Klari, died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. “I was the only one from my family who came back from Auschwitz. All my family died in Auschwitz where they were gassed. I had two brothers and my parents, all of them were gassed. Only I survived…”
71-year old Benjamin Szabo, who describes himself as a Reformed Christian, recalled how as a teenager he lost “many Jewish friends and school friends” during the war, something he “will never forget as it marks your life.”
However Communists in Hungary discouraged any mentioning of the Swedish diplomat and even his memorial was removed, recalled Szabo. “The monument for Wallenberg was made between the 40s and 50s as a man struggling with a big snake,” he said.
“SNAKE SYMBOL”
“The monument was placed here just at the end of the street in the park. Later the monument was taken away by Communists I think, and placed in (the town of) Debrecen in a pharmacy garden. They must have thought that this is a good place because pharmacies also have this snake symbol.”
Much has changed since the collapse of Communism 13 years ago: the half-sister of the diplomat, Nina Lagergren, handed the mayor a bronze statue replica she received for her 80th anniversary as a token Wallenberg family’s gratitude to Budapest as it is now after all, honoring Wallenberg.
“The original giant-size bronze statue was made by a Hungarian sculptor Gustav Kraitz in 1987, and is called the Wallenberg Memorial Bronze Briefcase, located in New York,” she said.
FLOATING EXHIBITION
A floating exhibition, which also visited other cities including Berlin, will also remember him. It will be held at a 30 square-meter transitional location for at least three months in the Hungarian capital, organizers said.
The International Mensch Foundation, the Sofar Association and the Hungarian Wallenberg Foundation, which organized the event, hope to find a permanent place for the exhibition, most likely in Budapest.
“It would be nice to have a permanent Raoul Wallenberg exhibition and information center in Budapest,” said Szabolcs Szita of the International Mensch Foundation. “This has been our dream for the past 13 years, “added Jozsef Sebes of the Hungarian Wallenberg Foundation.
Yet the initiatives have been somewhat overshadowed by concern among Jewish leaders and politicians about anti Semitism in Hungary following a high court decision this month to acquit Reformed pastor Lorant Hegedus of anti Semitism.
Hegedus had urged Hungarians to expel Jews in a controversial publication from the far right Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIEP) for which he has served as vice president.
