[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 57 (Tuesday, May 6, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E848-E850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING RAOUL WALLENBERG

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JON D. FOX

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 6, 1997

  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor an 
outstanding individual who is credited with saving thousands of lives 
in the face of Nazi tyranny and under the threat of certain death. 
Raoul Wallenberg belongs--or belonged--to one of the most famous 
families in Sweden, the large Wallenberg family. It is a family that 
has contributed Sweden with bankers, diplomats, and politicians during 
several generations.
  Raoul's father, Raoul Oscar Wallenberg, was an officer in the navy, 
and cousin to Jacob and Marcus Wallenberg, two of Sweden's most famous 
bank and industrial men during half a century. Raoul was born August 4, 
1912, 3 months after his father's death. His mother, Maj Wising 
Wallenberg, remarried Fredrik von Dardel in 1918.
  Raoul's grandfather, Gustav Wallenberg, took care of Raoul's 
education. The plan was for him to continue the family tradition and 
become a banker, but he was more interested in architecture and trade.
  In the year 1930 Raoul Wallenberg graduated with top grades in 
Russian and drawing. After his army service he traveled to the U.S.A. 
in 1931 to study architecture at the university in Ann Arbor, MI. In 
1935 he received his bachelor degree in science and returned back to 
Sweden. But the market for architects was small in Sweden. Instead his 
grandfather sent him to Cape Town in South Africa where he practiced at 
a Swedish firm selling building materials. After 6 months his 
grandfather arranged a new job for him at a Dutch bank office in Haifa, 
Palestine--now Israel.
  It was in Palestine he first met Jews that had escaped Hitler's 
Germany. Their stories of the Nazi persecutions affected him deeply. 
Maybe not only because he had a very humane attitude to life, but also 
because he owned a drop of Jewish blood--Raoul's grandmother's 
grandfather was a Jew by the name of Benedicks whom arrived to Sweden 
by the end of the 18th century--after his return from Haifa in 1936 
Raoul Wallenberg resumed his old interest for business.
  Through Jacob Wallenberg's good contacts in the business world Raoul 
was eventually brought together with Koloman Lauer, a Hungarian Jew. He 
was a director of a Swedish based import and export company 
specializing in food and delicacies.
  Thanks to Raoul Wallenberg's excellent language skills, and thanks to 
his freedom of movement in Europe, he was a perfect business partner 
for Lauer. Within 8 months Raoul Wallenberg was a joint owner and 
international director of the Mid-European Trading Company.
  Through his trips in Nazi occupied France and in Germany itself, 
Raoul quickly learned how the German bureaucracy functioned. He had 
also made several trips to Hungary and Budapest, where he visited 
Lauer's family. Hungary was still a relatively safe place in a hostile 
surrounding.


              Raoul Wallenberg--Background to his mission

  During the spring of 1944 the world had awoken and realized what 
Hitler's final solution to the Jewish problem meant. In May 1944 the 
first authentic eyewitness report reached the Western World of what 
happened in the extermination camp at Auschwitz. It came from two Jews 
who managed to escape the German gas chambers.
  Hitler's plans for total extermination of the Jews of Europe became 
known. In Hungary, which had joined Germany in the war against the 
Soviet Union in 1941, there still lived an estimated 700,000 Jews at 
the beginning of 1944.
  When the Germans lost the battle of Stalingrad 1943, Hungary wanted 
to follow Italy's example and demand a separate peace. Hitler then 
called the Hungarian head of state Miklos Horthy and demanded continued 
solidarity with Germany. When Horthy refused to meet the demands, 
Hitler invaded Hungary on March 19th 1944. Soon after that the 
deportations of Jews started. The destination was Auschwitz-Birkenau in 
southern Poland, and a certain death.
  The Germans started deporting the Jews from the countryside, but the 
Jewish citizens of Budapest knew that their hour of fate was also soon 
to come. In their desperation they sought help from the embassies of 
the neutral countries, where provisional passes were issued for Jews 
with special connections to these countries.
  The Swedish legation in Budapest succeeded in negotiating with the 
Germans that the bearers of these protective passes would be treated as 
Swedish citizens and exempt from wearing the yellow star of David on 
their chest. It was Per Anger, a young diplomat at the legation in 
Budapest, who initiated the first of these Swedish protective passes.--
In 1982 Per Anger was also awarded the honor of ``righteous among the 
nations'' by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for his heroic actions to save 
Jews during the war.
  In a short period of time the Swedish legation issued 700 passes, a 
drop in the ocean compared to the enormous amount of Jews being 
threatened. The legation requested immediate staff reinforcements from 
the foreign department in Stockholm.
  In Sweden at the same time the World Jewish Congress had a meeting in 
Stockholm. The most important issue was organizing a rescue operation 
for the Hungarian Jews.
  In 1944 the U.S.A. established The War Refugee Board [WRB], an 
organization with the purpose of saving Jews from Nazi persecution. The 
WRB soon realized that serious attempts were being made from the 
Swedish side to rescue the Jewish population in Hungary. The WRB's 
representative in Stockholm

[[Page E849]]

called a committee with prominent Swedish Jews to discuss suitable 
persons to lead a mission in Budapest for an extensive rescue 
operation. Among the participants was Raoul Wallenberg's business 
partner Koloman Lauer, chosen as an expert on Hungary.
  The first choice was Folke Bernadotte, chairman of the Swedish Red 
Cross and relative to the Swedish king. After Bernadotte was 
disapproved by the Hungarian Government, Koloman Lauer suggested that 
his business partner Raoul Wallenberg should be asked. Lauer emphasized 
that Wallenberg had made many trips to Hungary while working for their 
joint company. Raoul was considered too young and seemed inexperienced, 
but Lauer was persistent. Raoul was the right man according to him--a 
quick thinker, energetic, brave and compassionate. And he had a famous 
name.
  Soon everybody had approved Wallenberg. At the end of June 1944 he 
was appointed first secretary at the Swedish legation in Budapest with 
the mission to start a rescue operation for the Jews. Raoul was very 
excited to go to Hungary, but first he wrote a memo to the Swedish 
foreign department. He was determined not to get caught in the protocol 
and paper work bureaucracy of diplomacy. He demanded full authorization 
to deal with whom he wanted without having to contact the ambassador 
first. He also wanted to have the right to send diplomatic couriers 
beyond the usual channels.


                 Raoul Wallenberg--The rescue operation

  When Raoul Wallenberg arrived in Budapest by July 1944, it was late. 
Under the leadership of Adolf Eichmann the Germans had already sent 
away more than 400,000 Jewish men, women, and children. They had been 
deported on 148 freight trains between May 14 and July 8. When 
Wallenberg came to Budapest there were only about 230,000 Jews left.
  The German ``SS'' officer Adolf Eichmann was now preparing a plan 
that in 1 day would exterminate the whole Jewish population in 
Budapest. In a report to Berlin he said that ``the technical details 
will take a few days.''
  If this plan had been but into action Raoul Wallenberg's mission had 
been meaningless. Then the Jewish issue would have been permanently 
solved for the part of Hungary. The head of state Miklos Horthy 
meanwhile received a letter from the Swedish king Gustav V with an 
appeal that the deportations were canceled, one train with 1,600 Jews 
was stopped at the border and sent back to Budapest.
  Oddly enough the German authorities approved the cancellation of the 
deportations. The explanation may have been that Heinrich Himmler, one 
of the top Nazi officials, during this time played a high level game 
for peace. He thought he could negotiate a separate peace with the 
western allies and might have thought he'd stand a better chance if the 
pressure on the Jews was decreased. Adolf Eichmann could do nothing but 
wait.
  At this time minister Carl Ivar Danielsson was head of the Swedish 
legation. His closet man was secretary Per Anger. Raoul Wallenberg now 
headed the department responsible for helping the Jews. Before 
Wallenberg arrived the head of the Red Cross in Hungary, Valdemar 
Langlet, helped the Swedish legation. Langlet rented buildings for the 
Red Cross and put signs like ``The Swedish Library'' and ``the Swedish 
Research Institute'' on its doors. These buildings were then used as 
hiding places for Jews.
  Raoul Wallenberg's first task was to design a Swedish protective pass 
to help the Jews against the Germans and Hungarians. He had previous 
experience that both the German and Hungarian authorities were weak for 
flashy symbols. He therefore had the passes printed in yellow and blue 
with the coat of arms of the Three Crowns of Sweden in the middle, and 
added the appropriate stamps and signatures on it. Of course 
Wallenberg's protective passes had no value what so ever according to 
international laws, but it provoked respect. To begin with Wallenberg 
only had permission to issue 1,500 passes. Quickly though he managed to 
negotiate another 1,000, and through promises and empty threats to the 
Hungarian foreign ministry he eventually managed to raise the quota to 
4,500 protective passes.
  In reality Wallenberg managed to issue more than three times as many 
protective passes. He controlled a staff of several hundred coworkers. 
There were all Jews and thanks to their work with Wallenberg they 
didn't have to wear the degrading yellow star.
  In August 1944, the Hungarian head of state Horthy fired his pro-
German prime minister Sztojay and let General Lakatos succeed him. The 
situation for the Jews improved considerably. Through diplomatic 
pressuring, mediated and emphasized by Raoul Wallenberg, the 
responsibility to ``solve the Jewish issue in Hungary'' was taken away 
from Adolf Eichmann.
  Now Wallenberg thought his department at the legation could be 
dismantled and that he himself could return to Sweden. He expected the 
invading and winning troops of the Soviet Union to soon take over 
Budapest.
  October 15 the head of state Miklos Horthy declared that he wanted 
peace with the Soviets. But his radio speech had barely been broadcast 
until the German troops took command. Horthy was overthrown immediately 
and replaced by the leader of the Hungarian Nazis, Ferenc Szalasi. He 
was the leader of the Arrow Cross organization, who was just as feared 
as the German Nazis for their cruel methods against the Jewish 
population. Adolf Eichmann returned and received free hands to continue 
the terror against the Jews.
  Raoul Wallenberg kept on fighting in spite of the ruling powers of 
evil and appeared often as an unwelcome witness to the atrocities. In 
many cases he managed to save Jews from the clutches of the Nazis with 
his firm action and courage as his only weapon.
  Now Raoul started to build his Swedish houses. It was some 30 houses 
in the Pest part of the city where the Jews could seek refuge. A 
Swedish flag hung in front of the door and Wallenberg declared the 
house Swedish territory. The population of the Swedish houses soon rose 
to 15,000.
  During this time Eichmann started his brutal death marches. He went 
through with his promised deportation plan by having large number of 
Jews leave Hungary by foot. The first march started November 20, 1944, 
and the conditions along the 200 kilometer long road between Budapest 
and the Austrian border were so horrendous that even the Nazis 
themselves complained.
  The marching Jews could be counted in the thousands along never-
ending rows of starving and tortured people. Raoul Wallenberg was in 
place all the time to hand out protective passes, food, and medicine. 
He threatened and he bribed, until he managed to free those with 
Swedish passes.
  When Eichmann's killers transported the Jews in full trains 
Wallenberg intensified his rescue efforts. He even climbed the train 
wagons standing on the tracks, ran along the wagon roofs, and stuck 
bunches of protective passes down to the people inside. The German 
soldiers were ordered to open fire, but were so impressed by 
Wallenberg's courage that they deliberately aimed too high. Wallenberg 
could jump down unharmed and demand that the Jews with passes should 
leave the train together with him.
  Raoul Wallenberg's department at the Swedish legation grew constantly 
and finally kept 340 persons busy. Also in their building lived another 
700 persons.
  Wallenberg searched desperately for suitable people to help, and 
found a very powerful ally in Pa'l Szalay, a high ranking officer in 
the police force and an Arrow Cross member--after the war Szalay was 
the only Arrow Cross member that wasn't executed. He was set free 
instead in recognition for his cooperation with Wallenberg.
  The second week of January 1945 Raoul Wallenberg found out that 
Eichmann planned a total massacre in the largest ghetto. The only one 
who could stop it was General August Schmidthuber who was commander in 
chief for the German troops in Hungary.
  Wallenberg's ally Szalay was sent to deliver a note to Schmidthuber 
explaining that Raoul Wallenberg would make sure that the general would 
be held personally responsible for the massacre and that he would be 
hanged as a war criminal after the war. The massacre was stopped in the 
last minute thanks to Wallenberg's action.
  Two days later the Russians arrived and found 97,000 Jews alive in 
Budapest's two Jewish ghettos. In total 120,000 Jews survived the Nazi 
extermination in Hungary.
  According to Per Anger, Wallenberg's friend and colleague, Wallenberg 
must be honored with savings at least 100,000 Jews.


                Raoul Wallenberg--What happened to him?

  On January 13, 1945, an advancing Soviet troop saw a man standing and 
waiting for them in front of a house with a large Swedish flag above 
the door. In fluent Russian, Raoul Wallenberg explained to a surprised 
Russian sergeant that he was Swedish charge d' affaires for those of 
the Russians liberated parts of Hungary. Wallenberg requested, and was 
given permission to visit the Soviet military headquarters in the city 
of Debrecen east of Budapest.
  On his way out of the capital on January 17--with Russian escort--
Wallenberg and his driver stopped at the Swedish houses to say good-bye 
to his friends. To one of his colleagues, Dr. Erno Peto, Wallenberg 
said that he wasn't sure if he was going to be the Russians guest or 
their prisoner. Raoul Wallenberg thought he'd be back within 8 days--
but he has been missing since then.
  If Raoul Wallenberg is alive or not is uncertain. The Russians 
proclaim that he died in Russian captivity on July 17, 1947. A number 
of testimonies indicate though that he was alive and that he still 
could be alive.
  In November 1944, Wallenberg had established a section in his 
department that under his supervision would make a detailed financial 
support plan for the survived Jews. The

[[Page E850]]

Russians did not at all have the same views of Jews and presumably 
couldn't therefore understand that a person had devoted his soul to 
save them. Therefore it was of importance to Wallenberg to explain his 
rescue operation.
  The Russians probably believed that Wallenberg and another reason for 
his rescue efforts. They probably suspected him to be an American spy 
too. Most certainly they were skeptical to Raoul Wallenberg's contact 
with the Germans also.
  Raoul Wallenberg and his driver Vilmos Langfelder never returned from 
Debrecen. According to reliable testimonies they were arrested and sent 
to Moscow. They were arrested by NKVD, and organization that later 
changes its name to KGB. Wallenberg and Langfelder were placed in 
separate cells in the Lubjanka prison according to eye witnesses.
  Wallenberg wasn't the only diplomat in Budapest though that aroused 
the Soviets suspicion. The Swiss legation had also run extensive rescue 
operations for the Hungarian Jewish population. The Russians arrested a 
secretary of their legation together with a clerk and sent them to the 
Soviet Union. However the Swiss succeeded in getting them extradited 
with Soviet citizens detained in Switzerland.
  It would take some time though until authorities in Stockholm got 
concerned over Raoul Wallenberg's disappearance. In a letter to the 
Swedish ambassador in Moscow, the Russian Vice Foreign Minister 
Dekanosov declared that ``the Russian military authorities had taken 
measures and steps to protect Wallenberg and his belongings.''
  The Swedes, of course, expected Raoul Wallenberg to come home soon. 
When nothing happened Raoul's mother, Maj von Dardel, contacted the 
Russian ambassador in Stockholm, Aleksandra Kollontaj, whom explained 
that she could be calm, since her son was well kept in Russia. To the 
Swedish foreign minister Christian Gunthers wife, Aleksandra Kollontaj 
said at the same time that it would be best for Wallenberg if the 
Swedish Government wouldn't stir things up. Kollontaj was called back 
to Russia meanwhile, and the issue took a new turn.
  On March 8, 1945 the Soviet controlled Hungarian radio announced that 
Raoul Wallenberg had been murdered on his way to Debrecen, probably by 
Hungarian Nazis or Gestapo agents. This created a certain passiveness 
with the Swedish Government. Foreign minister Osten Uden and Sweden's 
Ambassador in the Soviet Union presumed that Wallenberg was dead. In 
most places however, the radio message wasn't taken seriously.
  Many persons have drawn the conclusion that Sweden had an opportunity 
to negotiate for Wallenberg's release after the war but that the 
Swedish side missed the chance.
  From 1965 there is a speech from Sweden's prime minister at the time, 
Tage Erlander, which is included in a collection of documents regarding 
the research around Raoul Wallenberg. Erlander concluded that all 
efforts that had been done shortly after the war were without results. 
In fact, the Soviet authorities had even denied knowledge of 
Wallenberg. Between 1947 and 1951 nothing new occurred. But when 
foreign prisoners started to be released from Russian jails many 
testimonies came regarding Raoul Wallenberg's faith after January 1945.
  February 6, 1957, the Russians announced that they had made extensive 
investigations and found a document most likely to be regarding Raoul 
Wallenberg. In the handwritten document it was stated that ``the for 
you familiar prisoner Wallenberg passed away this night in his cell''. 
The document was dated July 17, 1947 and signed Smoltsov, head of the 
Lubjanka prisons infirmary.
  The Russians regretted in their letter to the Swedes that Smoltsov 
deceased in May 1953, and that Abakumov had been executed in connection 
with cleansing within the security police. The Swedes were very 
distrustful toward this declaration, but the Russians have till this 
day stuck to the same statement.
  Testimonies from different prisoners who had been in Russian jails 
after January 1945 tell, in contradiction to the Russian information, 
that Raoul Wallenberg was imprisoned during the whole 1950's.
  In 1965 the Swedish Government published a new official report on the 
Wallenberg case. An earlier white book had been released in 1957. 
According to the new report Erlander had done everything in his power 
to find out the truth about Raoul Wallenberg.
  Now the Wallenberg case went into a phase when nothing much happened. 
The stream of war prisoners from the Soviet Union decreased, and the 
testimonies were few. By the end of the 1970's though the case was 
brought up again. According to the Swedish foreign department two very 
interesting testimonies were the basis for a note to Moscow requesting 
the case to be reexamined. The answer from the Kremlin was the same as 
earlier--Raoul Wallenberg died 1947. On the grounds of additional 
material considered reliable, foreign minister Ola Ullsten sent another 
request in the beginning of the 1980's regarding Raoul Wallenberg to 
the Russian chief of government Aleksej Kosygin. The reply was the same 
as usual--Raoul Wallenberg died in 1947.
  Is Raoul Wallenberg alive today? During the 1980's the interest for 
Wallenberg grew around the world. In 1981 he became an honorary citizen 
of the United States of America, 1985 in Canada, and 1986 in Israel, 
and all over the world the large opinion that still think he's alive, 
demand that he be released from his Russian captivity.
  In Sweden and other countries--mainly U.S.A.--Raoul Wallenberg 
associations work endlessly to find answers to what happened to Raoul 
Wallenberg. In spite a large number of secret documents opened after 
the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 Raoul Wallenberg's fate remains a 
mystery.
  After his incomparable help efforts Raoul Wallenberg was put into a 
life long imprisonment, a cruel destiny for a man who sacrificed 
everything to give his fellow man a chance for a life in freedom. He is 
still celebrated and honored around the world for his heroism, courage 
and his fight for human rights.
  In honor of his efforts to rescue the innocent from the scourge of 
Nazi oppression, the United States Postal Service has honored this 
great international hero and honorary American citizen with a stamp. On 
April 24, I was proud to stand with other Americans while the stamp was 
issued during ceremonies at the United States Holocaust Memorial 
Museum, of which I am a proud member of the board.
  Joining me was my friend and colleague, Congressman Tom Lantos, the 
only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress. Acting on legislation 
sponsored by Congressman Lantos, President Ronald Reagan approved a 
special act of Congress making Wallenberg an honorary American 
citizen--a distinction awarded to only two other individuals--Sir 
Winston Churchill and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India who was so named 
just this year. The Postal Service issued a stamp honoring Churchill in 
1965. It is appropriate that we honor Raoul Wallenberg with a U.S. 
stamp. In this age devoid of heroes of his caliber, he is the original 
upon which other heroes should be modeled.
  The new postage stamp features a profile portrait of Wallenberg on 
the telephone. In the background, a group of Holocaust survivors look 
over his shoulder. A Schutzpass is included in the upper left corner.
  Burt Silverman, the designer of the stamp, is an established artist 
whose work has appeared on the cover of The New Yorker Magazine.

                          ____________________