July 2004

Missing in action

This section is dedicated to the world campaign that aims at finding the whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg. After saving about 100,000 lives between 1944-45 in Budapest, Wallenberg was arrested by the Soviet Army and nothing else was known of him since then.

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Cardinal Walter Kasper inaugurates kindergarten

On Saturday, July 10, 2004, Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Commission for the Relations with the Jews, inaugurated the ”Monsignor Angelo Roncalli” Kindergarten at the Raoul Wallenberg Community Center of the Movement of Unemployed Workers of La Matanza (MTDLM), in Gregorio de Laferrere, province of Buenos Aires.

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Cardinal Kasper receives accolade

On Saturday, July 10, 2004, at the Latin-American Rabbinical Seminary of Buenos Aires, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and the Angelo Roncalli Committee presented to H. E. Cardinal Walter Kasper the ”Memorial Mural Award”, for his lifetime dedication to the causes of understanding and reconciliation between Jews and Catholics.

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Zenit News Agency. Interview with Baruch Tenembaum

As the 18th international meeting of the Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee was closing in Argentina, ZENIT interviewed Baruch Tenembaum, an Argentine-born Jew who established the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and the Angelo Roncalli Committee.

Read the whole interview

Interfaith bulletin

Inter-religious news from Jerusalem.

Read the July report

Florian Manoliu. Romanian Savior

”In 1944 Manoliu traveled to Hungary on George Mantello´s request, a Jewish diplomat who worked for the Consulate of El Salvador to Geneva, Switzerland. He was entrusted with knowing the Jewish situation and helping them.”

Read the complete history

Jerusalem Post. The man who wanted to bomb Auschwitz

Israelis may remember Benjamin Akzin (1904-1985) as a distinguished academic who served as dean of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law, president of Haifa University, and recipient of the 1967 Israel Prize. What is less well known about Akzin is that he was the first person to propose to the Roosevelt administration that it bomb the Auschwitz death camp.

Read the whole note

Budapest Week. Beyond the shadows of Raoul teWallenber

”I am personally satisfied with the work of the commission,” announced dispassionately the former KGB colonel of the Soviet secret police, Vladimir Vinogradov, on a study of the fate of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, ”the official work is now closed, although there remain questions which have been recognized as requiring answers.”

Read the whole note

”LEGACY” in Prague

The documentary film ”Legado”, produced by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, directed by Vivian Imar and Marcelo Trotta, following an idea by Baruch Tenembaum, was presented at the ”9 Gates” film festival in Praga, Czech Republic.

The festival presents different artistic disciplines related to the world Jewish culture. The main theme this year was the Jewish influence in the Argentina culture. Legado was screened on June 21st before a selected audience of diplomatic officials, film-makers, dramatists and historians from several countries.

Directors Imar and Trotta attended the festival and presented the film. They answered questions from the audience and were warmly praised after the screening of the documentary.

Read about the film ”LEGACY”

We are looking for people rescued

The IRWF is looking for people rescued and / or relatives of those saved by Wallenberg in Budapest during 1944 – 1945 or by Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux or Bayonne in June 1940.

Please contact irwf@irwf.org

Looking for Chinese saviors

Continuing with its work of searching for people who have rescued those persecuted by the Nazi regime during the 1933-1945 period, the Wallenberg Foundation focuses on the recollection and classification of information of men and women of Chinese nationality who have helped Jews and other persecuted anywhere in the world.

Please contact irwf@irwf.org