[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 107 (Wednesday, September 13, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1469-E1470]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   TRIBUTE TO AMBASSADOR PER ANGER ON HIS RECEIVING HONORARY ISRAELI 
                              CITIZENSHIP

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 13, 2000

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on the 18th of September, Israel will award 
honorary citizenship to Ambassador Per Anger, the distinguished Swedish 
diplomat who worked so closely with Raoul Wallenberg to rescue 
Hungarian Jews during the Second World War. I would like to invite my 
colleagues to join me in recognizing Anger's lifetime accomplishments, 
including his association with Raoul Wallenberg during 1944, as an 
example of the good that human beings can accomplish, even when faced 
with incomprehensible darkness.
  Per Anger received his first diplomatic assignment at the age of 27 
as an attache to Berlin in the early stages of the Second World War. 
During that year (1941) he worked for the Foreign Department's trade 
section dealing with relations between Sweden and Hungary. It was this 
position which eventually led him, in November of 1942, to join the 
Swedish legation in Budapest. In March of 1942 he became second 
secretary in the Swedish legation in Hungary.
  Mr. Speaker, for two years prior to the Nazi occupation of Budapest, 
Anger reported that conditions in Budapest were relatively stable and 
calm. But with the arrival of the German military in March 1944 and the 
subsequent deportation of Hungary's Jewish population, he entered the 
defining year of his life and career as a diplomat. When the Nazis 
initiated deportations, Anger assumed an early role in devising schemes 
to protect Jews. While the later schutzpasse was Wallenberg's 
innovation, Anger originally conceived the idea of issuing special 
certificates to Hungarian Jews who had applied for Swedish citizenship. 
Before Wallenberg arrived, the Swedish legation had issued 700 
certificates and provisional passports which had no legal validity, but 
served their purpose in preventing the shipment of individuals to 
Auschwitz.
  With Wallenberg's arrival on July 9, 1944, Per Anger began a 
partnership that would deliver tens of thousands of Jews from 
deportation and almost certain destruction in Nazi death camps. While 
Wallenberg's tragic end has made him the more recognizable rescuer, 
Anger made a substantial contribution in his quiet but efficient 
manner. Per Anger was frequently Wallenberg's partner in missions of 
mercy to the columns of Jews forced to march out of Hungary after 
Allied bombing had made the railways unusable. Where the Jews marched 
and died, Wallenberg and Anger distributed food, administered comfort, 
and often managed to return with some of the suffering people to 
Budapest.
  Mr. Speaker, Per Anger's life and legacy are permanently linked with 
Wallenberg, not only because their shared efforts in Budapest during 
the Second World War, but also because of Anger's lifelong 
compassionate quest to discover the fate of his partner, who 
disappeared mysteriously behind Soviet lines in January of 1945. 
Throughout the second half of the twentieth century Anger labored to 
disseminate information about Wallenberg and to bring his plight to the 
attention of world leaders. In 1989 he urged Helmut Kohl to take the 
issue directly to Mikhail Gorbachev, and listened in to a telephone 
call as Kohl pleaded with Russian leader to ``let that old man go.'' 
Gorbachev, according to Anger, had no response.
  Mr. Speaker, it is most appropriate and fitting that the state of 
Israel has granted Per Anger the high recognition of making him an 
honorary citizen. He has spent most of his life in the service of 
others, including that turbulent year in Budapest collaborating with 
Raoul Wallenberg in saving innocent lives. I invite my colleagues to 
join me in paying tribute to this distinguished Swedish diplomat for 
his

[[Page E1470]]

courage, humanitarian dedication, and good works.

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