17 January 1945: Raoul Wallenberg disappears in the bowels of the Soviet system
17 January 1945: Raoul Wallenberg disappears in the bowels of the Soviet system
Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg is a great source of inspiration to Israel's supporter, especially to the non-Jewish supporters. It is only appropriate that we remember that on this day, sixty year ago, Raoul Wallenberg disappeared, as he fell into Soviet hands in Budapest, never to be seen as a free man again.
How ironic it is that the man who evaded the Nazis and succeeded in saving many thousands of Jews, was ultimately felled by Soviet agents.
May Raoul Wallenberg continue to inspire us today: the Jewish homeland is still under attack, Raoul's motherland is still among the worst offenders, and the Arab disciples of the former Soviet Union, including the chap who earned a PhD denying the Holocaust, are still at work.
The life and rescue operations of Raoul Wallenberg have been documented in numerous articles. Googling under "Raoul Wallenberg" yields 109,000 links. Chosen at random, here is a brief excerpt from Wikipedia (note, however, that the arrest date given by Wikipedia, January 7, is wrong, and should read January 17):
Raoul Wallenberg (August 4, 1912 – [date of death uncertain]) was a Swedish diplomat and a member of the influential Swedish Wallenberg family. As a Legation Counsellor in Budapest, he used his diplomatic status to save many Hungarian Jews during the later stages of World War II, by issuing temporary Swedish "protective passports" and claiming the bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation. He also skillfully negotiated with Nazi officials such as Adolf Eichmann for the cancellation of deportations by playing on their fear of the consequences of having perpetrated war crimes. He is thought to have saved the lives of between 20,000 and 100,000 Jews.
His tactic was mainly to buy houses, put Jewish refugees in them and provide them with a "protection passport" (German: Schutz-Pass). The buildings were bought with embassy capital. The "protective passports" were legally speaking invalid, but Wallenberg had noticed that German and Hungarian fascist authorities were obsessed with official-looking papers and thus believed that such papers would actually protect their holders. In many cases this tactic worked. Wallenberg also housed numerous refugees at the Swedish Embassy in Budapest.
Wallenberg was arrested by the Red Army on January 7 [sic], 1945, probably on suspicion of being a spy for the United States. What happened to him since is not known — the official Russian version is that he died in captivity on July 17, 1947, but a number of testimonies have placed him alive in Siberian or Russian prisons as late as the 1960s.
Raoul Wallenberg was made an Honorary Citizen of the United States in 1981. The bill was sponsored by Representative Tom Lantos, a Hungarian Jew who as a teenager sought refuge in one of Wallenberg's safe houses. He was later made an honorary citizen of Canada in 1985, and of Israel in 1986.
He was honored by Israel's Yad Vashem memorial as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations", recognizing those non-Jews who helped save Jews from the Holocaust.
There are also over 8,000 links to photographs related to Raoul Wallenberg. One example is the
photo album of the Wallenberg memorial park in Budapest; the link given leads to the first photo of the album, at which point one may continue to browse by using the "next" button.
Posted by Joseph Alexander Norland at January 17, 2005 08:02 AM
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1
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J. Lichty
said:
A true inspiration in these dark times. Thank you again Joseph for bringing to light the righteous amongst nations and those who have not gotten recognition they deserve (e.g. Meinertzhagen).
Posted by: J. Lichty on January 16, 2005 10:21 PM
2
.
george
said:
It is my belief that both the US and the allies were fully aware of the horrors that were happening in the concentration camps and chose to suppress the information and do nothing. Seems nothing changed after the war and Raoul was left to rot in Stalin's prisons when he could have been "bought back".But the US under the Dulleses were more interested in importing Nazis under the guise of defence against communism.
Would the Dulles brothers have acted to save a man who rescued Jews? Is the Pope Jewish?
The information i had was that Raoul was arrested because Stalin wanted to steal his splendid Mercedes Benz, which he had used so often to rescue Jews from the jaws of death.
The abandonment of Raoul was a shameful scandal
Posted by: george on January 17, 2005 04:28 AM
3
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David Gerstman
said:
And Wallenberg's righteousness stands in stark contrast to the corruption of his niece's husband, one Kofi Annan of Ghana, otherwise known as His Excellency the Secretary General of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Posted by: David Gerstman on January 17, 2005 12:06 PM
17 January 1945: Raoul Wallenberg disappears in the bowels of the Soviet system
Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg is a great source of inspiration to Israel's supporter, especially to the non-Jewish supporters. It is only appropriate that we remember that on this day, sixty year ago, Raoul Wallenberg disappeared, as he fell into Soviet hands in Budapest, never to be seen as a free man again.
How ironic it is that the man who evaded the Nazis and succeeded in saving many thousands of Jews, was ultimately felled by Soviet agents.
May Raoul Wallenberg continue to inspire us today: the Jewish homeland is still under attack, Raoul's motherland is still among the worst offenders, and the Arab disciples of the former Soviet Union, including the chap who earned a PhD denying the Holocaust, are still at work.
The life and rescue operations of Raoul Wallenberg have been documented in numerous articles. Googling under "Raoul Wallenberg" yields 109,000 links. Chosen at random, here is a brief excerpt from Wikipedia (note, however, that the arrest date given by Wikipedia, January 7, is wrong, and should read January 17):
There are also over 8,000 links to photographs related to Raoul Wallenberg. One example is the photo album of the Wallenberg memorial park in Budapest; the link given leads to the first photo of the album, at which point one may continue to browse by using the "next" button.Posted by Joseph Alexander Norland at January 17, 2005 08:02 AM