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.

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