[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 19 (Tuesday, March 3, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E270-E271]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            ANNETTE LANTOS PAYS TRIBUTE TO RAOUL WALLENBERG

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. GARY L. ACKERMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 3, 1998

  Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, Annette Lantos, the wife of our colleague 
Congressman Tom Lantos of California has been a leading advocate for 
the Hungarian Holocaust hero, Raoul Wallenberg. Well before her husband 
was elected to Congress, Annette had established the International Free 
Wallenberg Committee to press Soviet authorities to release the Swedish 
humanitarian from prison. Much of the credit for bringing the tragic 
plight of Wallenberg to international and particularly to American 
consciousness has been the result of her work.
  On February 8, Mr. Speaker, Annette Lantos delivered a Tribute to 
Raoul Wallenberg at a special meeting of the Sydney Australia, chapter 
of WIZO (Women's International Zionist Organization), the non-party 
voluntary charitable women's organization which is similar to the 
organization Hadassah here in the United States. I have received 
reports of her exceptional presentation, and I ask that her recent 
address be placed in the Record.

                      Tribute to Raoul Wallenberg

                          (By Annette Lantos)

       Fifty-four years ago, on March 19, 1944, as the Nazi's 
     campaign of terror and genocide finally overtook our native 
     land of Hungary, a young idealistic Swede made his way to 
     Budapest to interpose his own frail body between the Nazi war 
     machine and the persecuted, unarmed thousands facing 
     deportation and annihilation in Auschwitz.
       By the time Raoul Wallenberg arrived to Budapest, 500,000 
     Jews from the Hungarian countryside had already been taken to 
     Auschwitz where most perished. But Raoul Wallenberg's arrival 
     to Budapest delayed the execution of the death sentence upon 
     the remaining 300,000 Jews of the cities long enough to 
     enable some 100,000 of them--including my husband Tom and 
     myself--to survive. It is on their behalf, and behalf of 
     their children and their grandchildren that my husband, Tom, 
     and I have dedicated many years of our lives to make 
     Wallenberg's story known, and to honor this great man.
       When I began my work for Wallenberg in 1975, I had two 
     goals in mind. First and foremost, I wanted to free him from 
     the horrors of the Gulag where he was languishing--by that 
     time for over 30 years. The second goal was to make Raoul 
     Wallenberg's life and accomplishments penetrate the 
     consciousness of mankind and to inspire all those who are 
     touched by his story to become better, more unselfish, more 
     caring human beings, willing to transcend the barriers of 
     race, religion, or nationality in their concern for others.
       Raoul Wallenberg taught us two major things. First, he 
     taught us that a single individual committed to a noble goal 
     can achieve miracles. Second, he taught us that human rights 
     are indivisible, that it is not enough just to be concerned 
     simply with our own human rights.
       As Jews or Catholics, Australians of Hungarians or 
     Americans, the only relevant concern for human rights that 
     deserves respect is a concern that transcends religion and 
     race and color and national origin. Raoul Wallenberg did not 
     go to Budapest in 1944 to save Lutheran Swedes. He went there 
     to save Hungarian Jews, with whom he had nothing in common 
     except his common humanity. Raoul Wallenberg not only fought 
     evil, but he also fought indifference, and indifference is 
     the twin of evil. Those who kill are murderers, but those who 
     stand by and do nothing in the face of murder share a 
     complicity in crime. Wallenberg's message was loud and clear. 
     We must fight evil, but just as hard we must fight 
     indifference.
       Most of you have heard the story of Wallenberg. He started 
     out issuing Swedish passports to all who managed to reach him 
     at the Swedish legation in Budapest. He brilliantly 
     negotiated with the Nazis and later the Arrow Cross gangsters 
     (Hungarian Fascists) who ran Hungary in the final few months 
     of the German occupation, until they recognized the validity 
     of these fictional documents and exempted their owners from 
     deportation and having to wear the yellow star.
       He bought or leased 32 large apartment houses and succeeded 
     in declaring them Swedish territory in Hungary. Thousands of 
     people were crowded into these protected houses, many of whom 
     he brought back personally from the forced marches heading 
     toward the death camps. He rushed the saved persons to the 
     protected Swedish houses in Budapest. He even brought people 
     back from the railroad cars, pulling them out of deportation 
     trains, and from the banks of the Danube river. He interposed 
     his own body between the fallen victims and the machine guns 
     that were leveled at them by the Arrow Cross guards.
       When the Russians finally liberated Budapest in January 
     1945, he believed he was finally safe, and went to their 
     headquarters to report and ask for food and medicine for the 
     surviving victims. The Soviets didn't believe his story. 
     They were convinced that he was an American spy. They 
     kidnaped him on January 17, 1945, and he languished in the 
     Soviet Gulag until 1981, when I personally believe that he 
     finally died still in a Soviet prison.
       Even today, people ask me whether I think Raoul Wallenberg 
     still lives. I personally do not believe that he is 
     physically alive anymore, but I do believe that in the 
     spiritual sense Wallenberg is more alive than most of us who 
     are still around living our ordinary, day-to-day lives.
       He is more alive than most of us, because of what he has 
     done. He not only saved lives, but he saved our faith in 
     humanity. He continues every day to touch the lives of 
     thousands of young people the world over, who, hearing or 
     reading his story, testify that they have been inspired to 
     become better human beings and to dedicate themselves to 
     fight for the right of others who are still persecuted and 
     oppressed all over the world.
       I would like to share with you tonight the writing of one 
     of these young people who has been inspired by Wallenberg. 
     The letter I am about to read to you was written by my 
     granddaughter Chelsea Swett at age 10, on the occasion of the 
     dedication of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, 
     DC. This truly magnificent museum, a considerable portion of 
     which was paid for by successful Holocaust survivors in 
     America, is not only a memorial to honor those who were 
     consumed in the flames of the Holocaust, but it is intended 
     as a warning to future generations of Americans of the 
     consequences of unbridled racism, religious intolerance and 
     national hatreds.
       The exhibits at the Holocaust Museum not only highlight the 
     brutality and callous disregard for human life, but they also 
     reflect the occasional heroic willingness of non-Jews to risk 
     their lives in order to save another fellow human being. I am 
     also very grateful that we succeeded in passing an Act of 
     Congress to rename the street upon which the U.S. Holocaust 
     Museum is located as Raoul Wallenberg Place.
       It is most significant that in addition to the permanent 
     exhibition at the museum there is a special exhibit entitled 
     ``Remember the Children,'' which commemorates the more than 
     one million children who died in the Holocaust. This special 
     exhibit also provides a presentation aimed at children so 
     that they can understand the experience of children who 
     suffered in the Holocaust. It is in connection with the 
     special exhibit ``Remember the Children'' on the occasion of 
     the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Museum that my 
     granddaughter Chelsea read the following letter:

       Dear Mr. Raoul Wallenberg: I have wanted to write you a 
     letter for a long time. My grandparents told about you all 
     the time. They tell me stories about how you saved hundreds 
     of thousands of people in Hungary from the Nazis and their 
     concentration camps.
       You are a hero. Sometimes I think and wonder what happened 
     to you. Grandfather says that it has been almost fifty years 
     since anyone has heard from you. Still, no one can forget 
     what you did and how brave you were.
       My grandparents told me that you were very shy and modest. 
     I can't believe that you were ever shy. My grandparents have 
     told me how tough and strong you were against the Nazis. They 
     said that, representing Sweden, you would walk up to people 
     on their way to the camps and with a handful of fake 
     passports, you would hand them out and say, ``Of course 
     you're Swedish. Here's your passport,'' and you'd take them 
     away to safety. You had houses where you would hide these 
     people and they were safe because you flew the Swedish flag 
     over the homes. My grandparents said that you even went onto 
     the death trains and pulled people into safety. Most of all 
     you are my hero because you saved my grandparents. You gave 
     my grandfather a passport so he could escape the Nazis in 
     Hungary. My grandfather is now a Congressman in the United 
     States and he will never forget what you did for him and 
     thousands of others. He worked to pass a law

[[Page E271]]

     in Congress saying that you are an honorary citizen of the 
     United States. My grandmother also escaped from Hungary with 
     a Portuguese passport. She, along with my mom, organized a 
     committee to find you after you disappeared. After a long 
     time of looking hard, they still could not find you.
       That is why you are a hero to me. That is why you are a 
     hero to so many others. You stood up to the Nazis and did 
     what was right, You saved thousands of lives because you were 
     brave and courageous. Now, a museum for the Holocaust is 
     being dedicated in Washington, DC and it is on a street named 
     for you, Raoul Wallenberg Drive.
       There are so many of us who owe so much to you. For all of 
     us, I say thank you for all you did. Thank you.
           Your friend,
                                                     Chelsea Swett

       Some rescuers risked their lives for an hour, some for the 
     duration of the war. Some save one life, others saved 
     thousands. What all the rescuers have in common, and what 
     their message and legacy is to all of us was their inability 
     to avert their eyes to the tragedy of others.
       Tom and I have tried personally to carry on this legacy of 
     Wallenberg through the creation of an organization called the 
     Congressional Human Rights Caucus. It is a totally non-
     partisan organization. Democrats and Republicans work 
     shoulder to shoulder to accomplish its purposes. It has one 
     single goal, to make Wallenberg's message a reality globally. 
     The congressional Human Rights Caucus fights for human 
     rights, wherever human rights are abased.
       We try to implement daily Wallenberg's message that human 
     rights are indivisible. We fight for the right of Christians 
     to practice their religion in China and Africa; we fight for 
     the Jews in Syria; we fight for the rights of Tibetans to 
     retain their culture and religion in Tibet; we fought for the 
     rights of ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania; we fight for the 
     Ba'hai in Iran so that the Ayatollah cannot succeed in 
     crushing that peaceful, gentle people.
       It is not an accident that in the entire history of the 
     United States that the two men have been honored by the U.S. 
     Congress with honorary American Citizenship--Sir Winston 
     Churchill and Raoul Wallenberg. These two men represent the 
     two great ideals of our century. Churchill, the champion of 
     freedom and democracy, and Wallenberg, the champion of human 
     rights.
       I suspect that as time goes on the scope, the heroism and 
     the depth of these two giants will increasingly penetrate the 
     world, and future generations will see their timeless ideals 
     fulfilled in their own lives. Long after all of us here in 
     this room are gone, long after the sound and fury of this 
     twentieth century have been relegated to the garbage heaps of 
     history, the ideals and the memory of Raoul Wallenberg will 
     live on. He will live on to teach future generations what I 
     think is the single most important lesson of human history--
     that in order to survive, in order to create more livable 
     condition in this world, we must accept the responsibility of 
     becoming our brothers' and our sisters' keepers. This is the 
     meaning of Wallenberg's legacy, and this is the meaning of 
     our struggle for human rights across the globe.

     

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