[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 14, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E295-E297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   AMERICAN JOURNALIST KATI MARTON ADDRESSES THE STOCKHOLM HOLOCAUST 
                CONFERENCE ON ``REMEMBERING WALLENBERG''

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 14, 2000

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, just a few weeks ago in Stockholm 
representatives of 40 countries--including the Prime Ministers of 
Israel, Germany and Austria, and the President of Poland--as well as 
Holocaust survivors and spiritual leaders met to focus attention on the 
legacy of the Holocaust. This three-day international conference was 
organized by the government of Sweden as part of an effort to raise 
awareness among young people about the genocide of six million Jews and 
two million others, including Roma (Gypsies) and homosexuals, under the 
Nazi German regime.
  All who participated in the conference spoke of the importance of 
remembering that most heinous tragedy and of fighting against anti-
Semitism, racism and bigotry. In his address to the conference, German 
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said: ``We must support each other in the 
teaching of humanity and civil courage, so that normal people shall 
never again, in the name of some criminal ideology, turn normal places 
into grim factories of execution.''
  Mr. Speaker, one of the highlights of this conference was the address 
by Hungarian-born American journalist Kati Marton entitled 
``Remembering Wallenberg.'' As she explained in her outstanding speech, 
the Swedish humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg was one of the true heroes 
during this blackest of chapters in the history of humankind. Against 
almost insurmountable odds, he went to Budapest at the height of the 
Nazi effort to extinguish the Jews of Hungary, and through courage, 
intelligence and incredible effort, he was instrumental in saving the 
lives of as many as one hundred thousand Jews.
  Mr. Speaker, Kati Marton is superbly qualified to provide this 
outstanding appraisal of Wallenberg. She was born in Hungary, and both 
of her parents were journalists who suffered the Nazi occupation and 
the Communist takeover that followed. She and her parents were able to 
escape to the West, and eventually she came to the United States. Kati 
is a journalist and author of the first rank. She currently serves as 
the president of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonpartisan 
nongovernmental organization dedicated to protecting journalists and 
press freedom throughout the world. She is also the author of 
Wallenberg: Missing Hero and Death in Jerusalem.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the text of Kati Marton's Stockholm address 
``Remembering Wallenberg'' to be placed in the Record, and I urge my 
colleagues to give it thoughtful attention.

                         Remembering Wallenberg

       I am immensely grateful for this chance to talk about Raoul 
     Wallenberg.
       Fifty-five years after the Holocaust we are still learning 
     things about that shameful chapter in history. The Swedish 
     government's recent admission of its mistakes is both 
     commendable and essential . . . Not only for the sake of 
     historical truth--but to put present and future leaders on 
     notice that they will be held accountable. Sweden did 
     misjudge the character of the evil represented by Hitler . . 
     . but this country also gave the world Raoul Wallenberg . . . 
     one of the Holocaust's few genuine heroes. And today . . . 
     thanks to Sweden . . . we are gathered here to learn not only 
     from the misjudgements of the past terrible century . . .  
     but from its extraordinary moments of humanity . . . If those 
     terrible times are to remain real . . . and cautionary . . . 
     to those who are lucky enough never to have experienced them 
     . . . a great deal of the credit goes to conferences like 
     this one . . . for which I thank the Swedish Government and 
     the American Jewish Committee.
       The historians of the Century that has just ended have the 
     responsibility to tell the story of Wallenberg so that the 
     next generation can understand humanity's extraordinary power 
     for both perversity and compassion. Our responsibility is to 
     shape public memory . . . and ultimately to stand against 
     evil by bearing witness.
       Since we are here in search of Historical Truth . . . I 
     would like to say a few words about another Swede whose role 
     in the Holocaust and its aftermath has for too long been 
     forgotten or misunderstood . . . buried under rumor and 
     misinformation: Count Folke Bernadotte. Bernadotte's 
     assassination at the hands of Jewish extremists over half a 
     century ago is a tragically prophetic tale . . . as we 
     continue to search for peace in the Middle East.
       In many ways, Folke Bernadotte was not the right man for 
     the role of the United Nations first Arab-Israeli mediator . 
     . . not in the overheated emotional climate . . . and 
     volatile military situation . . . which prevailed during that 
     traumatic first year of Israel's life. But--whatever his 
     personal shortcomings or the weakness of his peace effort . . 
     . Folke Bernadotte was a good man who threw caution to the 
     winds and acted out of humanity. In the '40s . . . as now . . 
     . those qualities were in short supply. He deserved better 
     than he got: death at the hands of extremists opposed to any 
     negotiated settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
       Long before Bernadotte landed in Palestine, he had proved 
     himself a skilled negotiator and committed humanitarian. He 
     was responsible for the War's most unsung, most 
     controversial, and most successful rescue effort inside 
     Germany.
       Through many hours of hard nosed negotiations with the 
     notorious Heinrich Himmler . . . Bernadotte extricated 21,000 
     prisoners . . . including 6,500 Jews . . . citizens

[[Page E296]]

     of 20 different countries . . . bound for certain 
     extermination . . . from the Nazi's grasp.
       In carrying out his rescue, Bernadotte became the first 
     representative of a humanitarian organization from a neutral 
     country to set foot in one of the Reich's death camps.
       Of course, 21,000 souls saved is a tiny number compared to 
     the final death count . . . but it does mock such assertions 
     as the one in the recent book, The Myth of Rescue, by Prof. 
     William D. Rubinstein, ``that not one plan or proposal made 
     anywhere in the democracies by either Jews or non-Jewish 
     champions of the Jews after the Nazi
       The line between the core subject of our conference: the 
     Holocaust and Bernadotte's assassination, is direct and 
     clear. The Holocaust had taught Bernadotte's assassins the 
     bitter lesson of self-reliance in an unforgiving world. 
     Suspicious even of their own country's founding fathers, they 
     believed they alone were fit to determine Israel's future. 
     Israel's leaders--people like David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir 
     . . . the fabled pioneers revered by so many other Jews--were 
     dismissed by Bernadotte's killers as cowards and 
     compromisers.
       Israelis today have chosen the pragmatic solution over the 
     biblical one. Today, we can have an honest discussion of 
     Bernadotte's tragic fate--and his very real contribution to 
     the search for peace in the region.
       We don't use the world hero much any more . . . we tend to 
     be skeptical about those to whom it is attached. . . . If 
     ever there was a period with a desperate hero shortage it is 
     the Holocaust . . . that chapter of our Century which has 
     changed our view of man and his capacity for inhumanity to 
     his fellow man. . . . There were so few heroes in that bleak 
     period from 1941 until 1945. . . . Heroism is not simply 
     enduring when you have no choice . . . as a prisoner does . . 
     . or an inmate in a camp . . . that is courage . . . Heroism 
     is of a different order . . . it is when you have a choice 
     and you embrace danger for the sake of others. . . . that is 
     what Raoul Wallenberg did . . . and that is why he is that 
     rare breed: a genuine Hero.
       If Sweden made grave mistakes--so too did Washington during 
     the Holocaust. Our leaders had known since 1942 that there 
     were killing camps in Hitler's empire. . . . But Churchill 
     and Roosevelt's only goal was to win the war. . . . They had 
     been persuaded by the military that any large scale effort to 
     save refugees from the Nazis killing camps would divert 
     resources that should be channeled to the War effort. . . . 
     There was also the ever-present poison of anti-Semitism, 
     which still permeated the State Department . . . which, 
     before the war, could have issued life-saving visas to 
     hundreds of thousands of Jews. But, masquerading behind 
     bureaucratic mumbo jumbo, American consular offices dragged 
     their feet until it was too late, though Hitler made no 
     secret of his plan to rid Germany of Jews . . . although at 
     the outset he was willing to let German Jews leave, if they 
     could find sanctuary. When America and the rest of the world 
     was unwilling to take in more than a trickle it confirmed 
     Hitler's view that the world really didn't give a damn about 
     Jews anyway . . . so he proceeded to the Final Solution.
       Why did Wallenberg volunteer to walk into the jaws of the 
     Kafkaesque nightmare of Budapest? He had seen the Nazi's 
     brutality, so he wasn't naive about their capacity for 
     inhumanity. He had been to Berlin . . . to Palestine, . . . 
     had seen the Jewish refugees and heard their stories of 
     terror. He thought he could help. He was young . . . 31, and 
     brave, recklessly brave. He was in part American educated . . 
     . the University of Michigan. . . . so he had a larger view 
     of the world than most Europeans. But we run out of rational 
     explanations for why this well born young man with everything 
     to live for packed a backpack in the hellish summer of 1944 
     and set off for the country that sheltered the largest Jewish 
     community left in Europe . . . Hungary. He packed a pistol . 
     . . and he packed dollars . . . from American sources: the 
     War Refugee Board which was FDR's creation . . . an
       The Jews of the city knew their relatives and friends in 
     the provinces . . . a half a million of them in fact . . . 
     had already taken their final train to Auschwitz. Adolf 
     Eichmann had broken all his prior records for speed and 
     efficiency in rounding up the Jews of the Hungarian 
     countryside . . . including my grandparents. He had to work 
     fast because by now even the most fanatic Nazi knew the War 
     was lost. It would be just a matter of weeks . . . maybe 
     months . . . until the combined force of the Red Army and the 
     Allies brought Hitler to his knees. So the Jews of Budapest 
     played a waiting game . . . and watched their city slowly 
     turn into a Nazi garrison. They lived on rumors. Jews could 
     no longer work, or take public transport, or sit on park 
     benches. They could leave their homes only between 11 am and 
     5 pm. Many of them were hidden in the homes of Christian 
     friends--waiting . . . for something.
       Raoul Wallenberg started his rescue mission on a small 
     scale . . . giving Swedish passports first only to Hungarian 
     Jews who had business dealings with Sweden . . . or Swedish 
     relatives . . . a few hundred. Raoul was testing the waters. 
     The passports seemed to impress the local Nazis. They kept 
     their hands off these freshly minted Swedes.
       So Wallenberg got bolder . . . he started printing his own 
     passports . . . which bore the Swedish royal emblem--
     thousands of them. And as word spread around the terrorized 
     city that they were available, lines of Jews twisted around 
     the Swedish embassy in Buda waiting for the magic passports. 
     Those holding them didn't have to wear the yellow star . . . 
     and were promised repatriation to Sweden. It was a young 
     man's bluff . . . but in the atmosphere of near total anarchy 
     which prevailed in this twilight time . . . the bluff seemed 
     to be working.
       With the dollars he was receiving from American Jewish 
     organizations and the U.S. Government, he rented and even 
     bought houses around the city. He declared them diplomatic 
     property . . . flew the yellow and blue flag of Sweden . . . 
     making them technically off limits to the legalistic-minded 
     Germans. By the end of the War 30,000 Hungarian Jews lived in 
     these safe houses.
       Wallenberg played for time that summer . . . for the 
     Russians were within earshot of the city . . . and the Allies 
     were making their way to Berlin. He wrote his mother, ``I'll 
     try to be home a few days before the Russians arrive in 
     Budapest . . .'' Like everybody else, he assumed the Russians 
     would be better than the Nazis. He did not imagine that the 
     Russian liberation would turn into an Occupation.
       In October 1944, Hungry's ruler, Regent Horthy, tried to 
     bolt from Hitler's grip and declare Hungary's neutrality. 
     Horthy was captured and replaced by a thug from Hungary's 
     indigenous fascists, the Arrow Cross-- a man completely loyal 
     to Hitler and ready to resolve the festering problem of what 
     to do with Budapest's resilient Jews. This was Wallenberg's 
     real testing . . . now he was a man possessed . . . there was 
     so little time. ``These are extraordinary and tense times,'' 
     he wrote his mother, ``but we are struggling, which is the 
     main thing. I am sitting by candelight with a dozen people 
     around me . . . each with a request. I don't know who to deal 
     with first. The days and nights are so filled with work . . 
     .''
       The city was in total panic now as the Arrow Cross broke 
     into homes looking for Jews and then marched them to the edge 
     of the frozen Danube to face firing squads . . . or line them 
     up to die on the forced march to the German border.
       Wallenberg was at his most resourceful . . . and most 
     frenetic. He befriended the pretty Austrian wife of the 
     Hungarian Foreign Minister and used that relationship to 
     wring concessions from the Hungarian Nazis. He followed the 
     endless columns of miserable humanity marching in rain and 
     sleet the 120 miles to the border. When he could do nothing 
     more he thrust blankets and food at them. But he always tried 
     to pull people from the line. Sometimes he saved dozens this 
     way, or, on a bad day, only one or two. Each life was sacred 
     to him. Nearly one hundred thousand Jews were left in the 
     city. Wallenberg even arranged to meet the Jews' executioner, 
     to attempt to reason with him--Eichmann. ``Leave now, while 
     you can'', Wallenberg urged Eichmann. Eichmann shook his 
     head. ``Budapest will be held as if it were Berlin.'' 
     Eichmann tried to have Wallenberg killed. A traffic 
     ``accident'' was arranged but Wallenberg was not in his car.
       The siege of Budapest . . . one of the War's bloodiest 
     struggles . . . began in December 1944 and turned the entire 
     city into a battleground. Under the Allies' bombs the City 
     was starving to death . . . living in cellars and praying for 
     the Russians to arrive. The Nazis now rounded up 60,000 Jews 
     who were not sheltered in Wallenberg's safe houses and forced 
     them into a ghetto in the heart of Pest . . . living under 
     conditions of far greater misery than anyone else in the 
     hellish city.
       Wallenberg, who always put things in writing (he had post 
     War justice in mind), drew up sort of a contract guaranteeing 
     the safety of the Jews in the ghetto and got an SS General to 
     sign it. When the Arrow Cross men came to start the 
     slaughter, the General blocked their way. Wallenberg had 
     persuaded him that he would personally charge him with 
     genocide before the War Crimes Tribunal that Churchill and 
     Roosevelt had avowed would be convened after the war.
       Early in January, the starving, ravaged city was at last 
     ``liberated''. The Russians looted, pillaged and raped their 
     way across the city . . . unleashing a new brand of terror. 
     Everywhere the Russian soldiers turned there were reminders 
     of the Swede. Who was this one man rescue squad? The fact 
     that more Jews had survived the Hungarian Holocaust than any 
     other was largely the result of his courage. His passports 
     were scattered throughout the city, stories of his exploits 
     were told by survivors.
       The Russians came with their own plans for the city and the 
     country. They were not just passing through . . . they were 
     going to construct a Communist State, ruled by a single 
     party, controlled by Moscow . . . it was the end of even the 
     modicum of freedom the Hungarians had known before the War. 
     But that was all carefully kept from the exhausted people . . 
     . including Raoul Wallenberg. He should have at this point 
     stayed underground--hidden like his fellow diplomats until 
     the situation calmed down. But that was not Wallenberg's way. 
     He had survived six months of savage Nazi brutality.

[[Page E297]]

     He had begun to believe in his own immortality. He had plans 
     for rebuilding the Jewish community of Budapest. He could not 
     now abandon the people he had just saved.
       So, in a supreme act of courage and recklessness, 
     Wallenberg went looking for the Russian High Command. He 
     found them . . . and at that point his good fortune ran out. 
     His reward for saving up to one hundred thousand lives was 
     not the warm homecoming he had dreamed of. In January 1945 
     Wallenberg began his long journey into the Soviet Gulag. He 
     never returned.
       His precise odyssey is a subject to some speculation and 
     some dispute. Some things regarding his fate are 
     indisputable. He was taken to the Lubyanka . . . the dreaded 
     hell hole that is the KGB's headquarters in Moscow. 
     Wallenberg was accused of being a spy . . . the catchall 
     crime in the paranoid Stalinist state. The Soviets claimed he 
     died of a heart attack two years later. But they never 
     produced a body or a death certificate . . . In my research I 
     interviewed former Gulag inmates who swore Wallenberg was 
     alive through the Fifties, Sixties and even Seventies. The 
     trail has gone cold in the last decade . . . and no one can 
     wish this man such a long ordeal at the hands of his captors.
       The injustice of this story is almost too much to bear . . 
     . For Raoul Wallenberg had stood up to the two greatest evils 
     of our Century . . . the Nazis and the Communists. He proved 
     that one man acting fearlessly and with great imagination 
     could make the brutes back off.
       In a way, Wallenberg's story is a terrible reminder of the 
     world's cowardice. How many people, how many countries, 
     pleaded that there was nothing to be done. Hitler had power 
     and numbers on his side. Wallenberg made liars of them all.
       After the last few years of intimate contact with the 
     savage ethnic wars of the Balkans . . . from Bosnia to Kosovo 
     . . . to Rwanda . . . I have seen how quickly demagogues . . 
     . from Hitler to Milosevic . . . can fan the flames of 
     nationalism and hatred among their people . . . turning 
     former neighbors into murderous enemies.
       I hear so often in my prosperous, privileged country the 
     question raised, ``Why should we get involved in other's 
     problems? Why should we risk our lives to stop genocidal 
     warfare in another country, another continent?'' I have a 
     single word answer to those who say, ``Let them take care of 
     themselves. There is nothing to be done. It is inevitable.'' 
     My answer is: Wallenberg.

     

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