On Friday August 4th, friends and volunteers of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation gathered to place flowers at the Hope monument. Some of the visitors included Agnes Adachi, a woman saved by Wallenberg; Lars Ostling and Helen Daun Rosengren, Consul for Economic and Commercial Affairs and Information Officer of the Consulate of Sweden; as well as Baruch Tenembaum and Elin Borg, the founder and a Swedish volunteer of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, among many others.

The monument, dedicated to Raoul Wallenberg, is located across from the United Nations on First Avenue and 47th Street, in New York. Five columns of black diabase mined from the Swedish bed-rock are craved with the Swedish diplomat’s quotes and heroic deeds. The paving stones that surround the monument were taken from the Budapest Jewish ghetto that Wallenberg saved from annihilation.

On Sunday, August 6th, a celebration took place in Central Park where children and parents engaged in activities ranging from face painting, arts and crafts, storytelling, and other games that pertain to Raoul Wallenberg. One of the highlights was at the hand printing station, where young children imprinted their hands on a white canvas endorsing the Foundation’s campaign ”Let’s Bring Raoul Wallenberg Home!” The canvas is a symbol for all those who hope the mystery surrounding Wallenberg’s fate will be solved, bringing him back to his family.

A group of volunteers, attracted by the meaningful event, work on the organization and implementation of the activities, including the folk duo Sour Grapes, who performed their original songs giving a lively atmosphere to the afternoon. The event attracted a variety of people including Swedish priest Mikael Mogren and Swedish Rabbi Jeremy Gerber, as well as Holocaust survivors and families.

Raoul Wallenberg, who rescued 100,000 Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps during World War II by issuing protective passports and creating safe houses, was taken into Russian custody on January 17, 1945.His fate remains a mystery to this day.

Let this be the last year Wallenberg’s birthday is celebrated while he is still missing.

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Raoul Wallenberg saved tens of thousands of people condemned to death by the Nazis. He was a role model of courage and altruism. Therefore, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation organized in Buenos Aires a ceremony in his honor to mark the 94th anniversary of his birth. The tribute took place next to the statue that commemorates the ”Hero without a Grave”, located on the corner of Figueroa Alcorta and Austria.

The Minister of Culture of Buenos Aires, Architect Silvia Fajre, was the main speaker. ”Memories are enough to distinguish and value Wallenberg’s work. His labor goes beyond frontiers, extending his influence to the four corners of the globe.”

Political, educational, and diplomatic representatives from governmental and Non-Governmental organizations attended the ceremony. Among them: Fredrik Folkinger, Officer of the Swedish Embassy; Rolf Schumacher, German Ambassador; Stanislaw Paszczyk, Polish Ambassador; José Antonio Ruiz, Spanish Embassy; Zoltan Bácz, Hungarian Embassy; Toty Flores, leader of the Movement of Unemployed Workers of La Matanza; Guillermo Nielsen, Minister of Finance; rabbis Simón Moguilevsky and Sergio Bergman; José Ignacio García Hamilton, historian and vice-president of the IRWF; Ricardo Faerman and Enrique Zanin; Patricia Bullrich, president of the association ”Unión Por Todos”; Jacobo Luterstain, in representation of DAIA; Yaacov Rubel, from the Center of Judaic Studies; Norberto La Porta, Daniel Amoroso and Jorge Enriquez, Congressmen of the Buenos Aires City; Tomás Kertesz, saved by Wallenberg in 1944, along with other survivors of the Holocaust like Jack Fuchs, David Galante and Miriam Kesler.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is also sponsoring in Argentina other projects destined to preserve the memory, the altruistic values and the courage of the missing Swedish diplomat. Some of undertakings are: Raoul Wallenberg’s Day in Buenos Aires; Raoul Wallenberg’s Day in Santa Fe and Mendoza provinces; Raoul Wallenberg’s Street in Buenos Aires City; Monument in honor of the Holocaust Saviors; Wallenberg in School Program; Solidary Youth Contest, a joined project with the Ministry of Culture of Buenos Aires.

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Translation: Ileana Cheszes