This news comes in a story released by the Spanish evangelical ACPress.net and sourced to La Nación, which said, ”Wallenberg, an unselfish benefactor, was kidnapped by the invading Soviets on January 17th, 1945. He was taken to the military headquarters of the Red Army to the east of Budapest and nothing more was heard of him. It is thought that he might have died later in Russia. (Pictured: Raoul Wallenberg).

”Wallenberg, a Protestant architect, was the son of a business family. He forged passports which the authorities accepted. He increased the number of Swedish safe-houses to 30, his country being neutral in the conflict. In this way, he managed to look after many refugees who would otherwise have been deported and executed.”

The story went on to say, ”Sixty years after his disappearance, the Wallenberg Foundation is launching an international campaign to collect 100,000 signatures. It intends to present a petition to the United Nations demanding an enquiry into what happened to the diplomat. They are calling on the Russian authorities to put an end to the tragic mystery and reveal what happened. A memorial to the diplomat in Vienna still has the date of his death with a question mark: ‘4th August, 1912 – ?’, is how it reads.

”Many diplomats attended a memorial ceremony at which they called for the mystery to be cleared up. Similar acts are to be held in other cities. Survivors of the Nazi persecution who had been saved by Wallenberg laid a wreath on the monument honoring the diplomat. Laszlo Ladanyi recalled that he was 23 when he received a passport from Wallenberg. Today he is 83 and he still has the passport at his home in Buenos Aires, with profound gratitude for his benefactor.”

During the 1980’s, interest in Wallenberg grew around the world. In 1981, he became an honorary citizen of the United States, in 1985 in Canada, and in 1986 in Israel. All over the world, many people think he is still alive and demand that he be released from his Russian captivity. In Sweden and other countries — mainly the USA — Raoul Wallenberg associations work endlessly to find answers to what happened Raoul Wallenberg.

According to the Washington Post, in November 2000, Alexander Yakovlev, the head of a presidential commission investigating Wallenberg’s fate, announced that the diplomat had been executed in 1947 in the KGB’s Lubyanka Prison in Moscow. He said Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former Soviet secret police chief, told him of the shooting in a private conversation. The Russians released another statement in December admitting that Wallenberg was wrongfully arrested on espionage charges in 1945 and held in a Soviet prison for 2½ years until he died. The statement did not explain why Wallenberg was killed or why the government lied about his death for 55 years, claiming from 1957 to 1991 that he died of a heart attack while under Soviet protection.

On January 12, 2001, a joint Russian-Swedish panel released a report that did not reach any conclusion as to Wallenberg’s fate. The Russians reverted to the claim that he died of a heart attack in prison in 1947, while the Swede’s said they were not sure if Wallenberg was dead or alive. The report did unearth evidence that the reason the Soviets arrested Wallenberg was the suspicion that he was a spy for the United States.

• U.S.A.
• Israel
• Argentina
• Hungary
• Uruguay
• China
• Canada
• Australia
• Slovak republic

U.S.A.

In New York, a full house performance of the musical ”Wallenberg”, based on the true story of the Swedish diplomat, was presented by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation to commemorate the 60th anniversary of his disappearance. Wallenberg, who was sent to Hungary by the U.S., saved 100,000 lives during the Holocaust. He was captured on January 17th 1945, never to be seen again.

More than 200 people gathered at the JCC Manhattan to pay tribute to Raoul Wallenberg. Among them Mayor Bloomberg’s sister, Marjorie Bloomberg Tiven, the New York City Commissioner for the Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol and representatives of Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, among other countries.

Ambassador Kjnell Anneling, Consul General of Sweden in New York, addressed the audience and holocaust survivors Judith Saly and Vera Goodking, both saved through Wallenberg’s actions, narrated their personal stories and remembered their encounters with the Swedish diplomat.

During the ceremony, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation launched an international campaign to obtain 100,000 signatures, which will be presented to United Nations’ Secretary General, urging the solution of one of the most controversial and unresolved cases in history of humankind. The 100,000 names directly respond to the 100,000 individuals Wallenberg saved during the Holocaust. U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos and his wife, Annette, who were extricated from the jaws of Nazism by Raoul Wallenberg, head the signature campaign list.

The musical ”Wallenberg” is written by Laurence Holzman and Felicia Needleman, with music by Benjamin Rosenbluth, and directed by Annette Jolles. The cast is headed by Thom Christopher Warren (currently appearing on Broadway in The Lion King) in the title role; Michele Ragusa as the Baroness Elisabeth Kemeny, Michael Greenwood as Adolf Eichmann, and Broadway veteran Alice Evans as Raoul’s mother Maj Wallenberg von Dardel. The musical takes the audience through the general story of Raoul Wallenberg’s 6-month stay in Budapest, beginning with Raoul’s decision to take on the daunting mission (”Do I Really Have a Choice?”), and end with the finale, ”A Million Tomorrows,” which focuses on the those who survived as a result of his heroic efforts.

In Miami, on Sunday, January 13th, radio station Shalom Israel dedicated a program to Raoul Wallenberg. Host Aron Glantz was accompanied by journalist Jaime Dromi and by José Weiss, saved by Wallenberg.

Israel

A tribute to Wallenberg was paid at the monument which remembers him in Tel Aviv. Among the attendants were Malkiel Tenenbaum and Mario Ablin, Vicepresidents of the IRWF, and Max Grunberg, President of the Raoul Wallenberg Honorary Committee of Israel, who read to the audience a moving biographical sketch of the Swedish Diplomat.

Gabriela and Daniela Sykora whose grandfather, Joel Sykora, was saved by Wallenberg, also took part in the event. Sixty flowers, one for each passed year of the disappearance of the ”Hero without a Grave”, were placed by the little Yeshaya Sykora, grandson of Joel.

On January 17th, the International Day of the Savior was celebrated in Jerusalem. The program included film shows, debates and readings at the Merkaz Hatarbuyot Theater. At Eliat, the Center of the Memory and Study of the Holocaust, Jad Bamidbar, prepared a special program in order to teach Raoul Wallenberg’s heroic deeds to students.

Argentina

On Monday morning, January 17th, a large audience gathered at the Wallenberg’s statue to listen to the words of Linnea Arvidsson, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Swedish Embassy in Argentina. Tomás Kertesz and Laszlo Ladanyi, saved by Wallenberg in 1944, laid bouquets while other people laid dozens of carnations. German Ambassador, Rolf Schumacher; Spanish Ambassador, Carmelo Angulo Barturén; Austrian Ambassador, Alexandru Micula; Austrian Ambassador, Gudrum Graf; Swiss Ambassador, Daniel von Muralt; Secretary of the Holland Embassy, Reneko Elema; Chargé D’affaires of the Hungarian Embassy, Zoltan Bács; Counselor of Uruguay, Daniel Castillos; Amiel Sandrine and Jean Marie Cabrieres members of the French Embassy; Norberto Laporta, Legislator of Buenos Aires; Valery Malykh, member of the Russian House; Uki Goñi, investigator and the author of ” The Real Odessa”; Sergio Widder, Executive Director of the Wiesenthal Center in Buenos Aires and Great Rabbi Salomón Ben Hamú, attended the ceremony.

Furthermore, the Asociación Comunidad Israelita – Sefaradí (Abudat Todim) of Buenos Aires, remembered Raoul Wallenberg on Saturday, January 15th, after the reading of the Torah by Rabbi Aarón Benshimon.

Hungary

On January 16th 2005 the Hungarian Wallenberg Association organized a celebration in the New Holocaust Museum. The speakers were Dr. Katalin Szili and Louise von Dardel, Wallenberg’s niece. Pupils of the High School Raoul Wallenberg and the Goldmark Choir presented an artistic show. On January 17th commemorative acts were celebrated at the Austrian Embassy; in the same spot were Wallenberg and his chauffer, Vilmos Langfelder, was arrested and in the Wallenberg Street.

Uruguay

Charlotte Grunberg, the General Director of the ORT School in Uruguay, laid flowers at the monument which remembers Wallenberg.

China

Samuel Tenembaum, the IRWF correspondent in China, held a working meeting with the Swedish Ambassador.

Canada

On January 17th, Archbishop Hutchison, Primate of the Anglican Church in Canada, delivered a speech during an event sponsored by the Swedish Embassy in Canada.

Australia

A moving a tribute was paid to Raoul Wallenberg in St. Kilda City Council. The meeting was presided by Mayor of Port Phillip and by Dr. Frank Vajda.

Slovak Republic

The promoters of the inauguration of the Wallenberg monument, unveiled in November 2004, met to say a prayer for the Swedish Diplomat.

Dear Friends of Raoul Wallenberg,

I and my wife Birgit are honored to be present here tonight to share this evening with you commemorating the 60th anniversary of Raoul Wallenberg’s disappearance and we are gathered here today to remember him and his good deeds. It is an important event because – and I am convinced you all agree – we must never forget!

We also share this evening with friends around the world. I know that many of my colleagues in other countries – Swedish ambassadors and consul generals – are present at events these days around the world honoring Raoul Wallenberg and we are proud to have had such a distinguished collegue.

Raoul Wallenberg is by many considered an international citizen. He is also an international hero in the true sense of the word, someone who is bold and daring, imaginative and inventive, someone in charge, quick to make decisions, a person with authority. A real ”doer”.

Raoul Wallenberg was all of that – and more, and we desperately need more of his kind, not least in these times of unrest and turmoil around the world. People are suffering and sometimes we feel frustrated and some of us might feel as if the international community stands paralyzed. Raoul was never paralyzed.

We will probably never know exactly how many Jews could be saved from the Holocaust thanks to the efforts of the Swedish legation in Budapest and Raoul Wallenberg. In a historical perspective, however, this is of no significance. What is important to remember is that there was one person who was prepared to devote all his energy to and in the end was also forced to sacrifice his freedom for the sake of a great humanitarian deed. Or as has been said about Raoul Wallenberg in a few short words: ”One single person can make a difference.”

Raoul Wallenberg’s fate after 17 January 1945 was unknown for a long time. Not until twelve years later did the Soviet government admit that he had been arrested on false grounds and taken to Moscow where he was said to have died of a heart attack in July 1947. In January 2001, another 44 years later, the Russians explained that Raoul Wallenberg had not died a natural death but had been killed in Lubyanka Prison in Moscow.

The Swedish Government cannot accept this as the ultimate truth about the fate of Raoul Wallenberg. Far too many questions still remain unanswered about what really happened to Raoul Wallenberg after 17 January 1945. Sweden continues its efforts, therefore, to bring clarity to the Raoul Wallenberg case. This is being done through contacts with the Russian authorities at the highest political level when necessary and through Russian archives. The Government also supports independent research into the case of Raoul Wallenberg in Sweden and abroad.

We need to know what really happened to him, as do survivors and their families.

We need to know so that that our wound may finally be allowed to heal.

Until such time we cannot rest. We do not know if Wallenberg is alive, most likely not. However, he lives in our hearts and he is in our prayers.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation for all its work here in the United States and around the world. You work effortlessly to promote peace and understanding between nations and people, and you spread the word about Raoul Wallenberg and his heroic work.

We also thank you for your tireless efforts to shed light on the fate of Raoul Wallenberg.

There has been many books written about Raoul Wallenberg, there have been numerous articles published, films and documentaries have been produced but to my knowledge never a musical before this one. I so very much look forward to listening to the music here tonight.

City College students had the opportunity to listen to Judith Saly’s story of survival during a touching evening on April 13, 2005, while Columbia students gladly received Agnes Adachi on April 20th, 2005.

As a young Hungarian Jew, Judith Saly was not allowed to marry John, her non-Jewish boyfriend, but decided to follow him anyhow. When he heard about Raoul Wallenberg’s presence in Budapest, John offered him his help and Judith moved to one of the Safe Houses were she was protected from Nazi persecutions.

Agnes Adachi’s vast knowledge of foreign languages was a great help to Raoul Wallenberg and the Swedish delegation in Budapest. She became one of Wallenberg’s helpers typing protective passports Schult-pazz and even saving people thrown into the Danube alive.

The film ”Raoul Wallenberg: Buried Alive”, a documentary about the Swedish diplomat who saved 100,000 in Hungary during the Holocaust, contains a wealth of archival material that graphically shows the rise of the ruthless ”Arrow Cross Nazis” in Hungary. Astounding footage of ghetto pogroms and the enforced death marches are interwoven with interviews with survivors who owe their lives to Wallenberg, and those who have reported seeing him alive. The film won the Genie Award (Canadian Academy Award) for Best Theatrical Documentary in 1985.

Raoul Wallenberg disappeared in 1945, after being taken by the Soviets. ”In the year of the 60th anniversary of Raoul Wallenberg’s disappearance, it is important that Raoul Wallenberg’s example should be taught to a new generation of students.” said Baruch Tenembaum, founder of the IRWF.

The Foundation with branches in New York, Buenos Aires, Jerusalem and Caracas, is a non-profit organization, with the aim of promoting peace among nations and people, as well as developing educational projects based on concepts of solidarity, dialogue and understanding with the aim of rendering homage, promoting the message and remembering the actions of all those Heroes of the Holocaust who, like Raoul Wallenberg, risked their lives to save persecuted people during World War II.

For information about how to organize a screening in your educational or cultural institution, please contact the IRWF at 1 212 737 3275 or irwf@irwf.org.

The first of these was the 60th anniversary of the disappearance of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from certain death by the Nazis during WWII. Wallenberg was captured by Soviet troops who ”liberated” Budapest on January 17, 1945, and his fate remains unknown to this day.

For 60 years, Wallenberg’s family, the Swedish government, and people whom he had saved have tired to influence the Soviets to reveal his whereabouts and/or details of his death so as to bring finality to the uncertainty of his fate.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation recently launched an international effort to collect 100,000 signatures on a letter asking for truthful disclosure form the Russian government. The number 100,000 is very significant because Wallenberg is credited with saving no less than 100,000 Jews.

The letter was distributed to audiences at special programs held in Sweden, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, England, South America, Israel and the United States.

HERC Director, Tova Weiss, was invited to attend a special program in New York on January 17th, held at the Manhattan Jewish Community Center. The program included a special performance of a new musical entitled ”Wallenberg,” which was performed by Broadway actors and actresses in the presence of Swedish Ambassador Kjell Anneling, and several ”Wallenberg survivors,” people who had been saved by Raoul Wallenberg.

The lead role of Wallenberg was played by Tom Christopher, who is presently appearing on Broadway in ”The Lion King,” and Broadway veteran Alice Evans played Wallenberg’s mother.

The final part of the program allowed the audience to hear first-person testimony from two ”Wallenberg survivors” who recalled their direct interaction with ”the angel of life” in their youth. One of the women described being saved with her family from a transport at the railway station in Budapest, while the other spoke of living in one of the ”Swedish houses” (see sidebar story).

It is hoped that such events will raise awareness of the scope of Wallenberg’s actions, pay tribute to his courage and dedication, and lead to truthful revelations while his siblings are still alive.

The other anniversary of note was the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945. Commemorations were held across the globe and a number were held in the U.S., as well. Among the national commemorative programs was the airing of a documentary on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), ”Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State,” which was shown in two-hour segments on three consecutive Wednesday nights beginning on January 16th.

Locally, WVIA-TV (Channel 44) made special arrangements to air the final segment exactly on January 27th, and added meaning to the anniversary by scheduling a pre-documentary interview with three local survivors. With the cooperation of the Holocaust Education Resource Center, the three joined WVIA president, CEO and chief correspondent, Bill Kelly, for an hour-long ”State of PA” program devoted to Holocaust remembrance. Phone lines were open for area residents to call in with questions and comments.

The three survivors were Tom Breslauer of Stroudsburg, originally from Germany, Sam Rosen of Scranton, originally from Czechoslovakia, and Juliana Schonfeld, also of Scranton, originally from Yugoslavia.

In the course of the phone calls, it became clear that the residents of NEPA, along with WVIA and the HERC, were grateful to these three people for their willingness to speak to the general public, and share painful memories. They were thanked directly by several callers, including a young girl.

A man who identified himself as an Egyptian Muslim made one of the most touching calls. He said that, in his opinion, what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust was the worst and saddest event in all of human history.

The HERC wishes to thank Thom Curra, Vice-President of Television and Executive Producer at WVIA, for conceiving the original idea and inviting its cooperation, Mr. Kelly for facilitating the emotional program with grace, and the three interviewees for agreeing to participate.

January 17th and January 27th – the two anniversaries are very much connected. Russian troops liberated Auschwitz and the remnant of Hungarian Jewry. And Russian troops were responsible for the disappearance of a courageous individual whose ingenuity and resolve had helped the remnant of Hungarian Jewry to survive.

*Director, Holocaust Education Resource Center