[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 28 (Wednesday, March 13, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E332-E333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  AMBASSADOR RICHARD SCHIFTER'S INSIGHTS ON THE RAOUL WALLENBERG CASE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 13, 2002

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago the American Jewish 
Committee held an extremely interesting briefing on the case of Raoul 
Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews 
in the last days of the Holocaust of World War II. Wallenberg 
disappeared into the horrors of the Soviet Gulag in January of 1945, 
and his fate is still not known.
  This event commemorated the twentieth anniversary of the designation 
of Raoul Wallenberg as an Honorary Citizen of the United States. The 
legislation to make Wallenberg an honorary U.S. citizen was my first 
congressional action when I entered Congress. I hoped that if 
Wallenberg were a U.S. citizen, our government would be in a stronger 
position in our attempt to find and free him. It also brought greater 
public attention to the Wallenberg story and his great courage and 
heroism.
  Mr. Speaker, The American Jewish Committee event featured a number of 
people who have spent many years trying to solve the Wallenberg 
mystery. The Chair of AJC's International Relations Commission, 
Ambassador Richard Schifter, made remarks that were particularly 
insightful and important. Ambassador Shifter brings a wealth of 
experience as a senior United States diplomat and as a respected 
attorney. I would like to share his remarks with my colleagues, and 
request that they be placed in the Record.

          [From AJC Lunch on Raoul Wallenberg, Feb. 13, 2002]

                       The Raoul Wallenberg Case

                    (By Ambassador Richard Schifter)

       The cause of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, 
     the great product of the Enlightenment, is now for the third 
     time in less than one hundred years under attack from 
     totalitarians. As we move forward to deal with this latest 
     onslaught, it is fitting for us to remember a great hero in 
     the struggle against the first totalitarian attack, the 
     Nazis, who, sadly, fell victim to the second, the communists.
       It was in the hell on earth created by the evil forces at 
     work two generations ago that Raoul Wallenberg, a man of 
     decency and truly uncommon courage appeared in 1944. Arriving 
     in Budapest in the summer of that year, he demonstrated what 
     one courageous person committed to a righteous cause could 
     accomplish in the fight against those who murder at will. 
     Taking risks, using his ingenuity, working day and night out 
     of the other neutral countries into action, he saved tens of 
     thousands of Hungarian Jews from certain death.
       Tom and Annette Lantos witnessed it all. And they did not 
     forget. Tom must once again be thanked and congratulated for 
     having provided a fitting memorial for Raoul Wallenberg's 
     unforgettable accomplishments. Tom's very meaningful gesture 
     is most certainly deeply appreciated by the Wallenberg family 
     and by many other Swedes.
       Although his cover was that of a Swedish diplomat, Raoul 
     Wallenberg has volunteered for his work in Budapest as the 
     representative of the United States War Refugee Board. It was 
     that agency of the United States Government that provided him 
     with the standing necessary to carry out the tasks that he 
     undertook.
       It is worth noting, in this context, that Wallenberg would 
     not have gone to Budapest, the tens of thousand would not 
     have been saved, and Tom and Annette Lantos might not be with 
     us today if a bureaucratic coup had not been carried out in 
     the Roosevelt Administration, with strong Congressional 
     support, in January 1944. The persons who initiated the coup 
     were four mid-level officials of the Treasury Department, 
     John Pehle, Josiah DuBois, Randolph Paul, and Ansel Luxford.
       These Treasury officials had become increasingly concerned 
     with the failure of the State Department to lift a finger to 
     assist in the rescue of those European Jews who had at least 
     a slim chance of escaping the Nazi death machine. The State 
     Department leadership consisted in those years of the 
     Secretary, one Under Secretary, and four Assistant 
     Secretaries.
       The Assistant Secretary supervising the Visa Division, 
     Breckinridge Long, had been given responsibility for European 
     refugee policy. As to Jews his policy was very simply: don't 
     let them come to the United States. Further, given the 
     concerns of the British Foreign Office that Jews might want 
     to migrate to the Mandate of Palestine, the United States, 
     under Long's policies, was not to help in any rescue effort. 
     As the United Kingdom had advised the United States: ``The 
     Foreign Office are concerned with the difficulties of 
     disposing of any considerable number of Jews should they be 
     rescued from enemy occupied territory.'' It is evident that 
     by letting them be killed, one avoided the difficulty of 
     disposing of them.
       Further, so as not even to get the issue discussed in 
     Washington, the U.S. Legation in Bern, which was in receipt 
     of information about the magnitude of the Holocaust, was 
     explicitly instructed not to transmit such information to 
     Washington.
       But the United States Government had another mission in 
     Bern. It was staffed by personnel from the Treasury 
     Department's Division of Foreign Funds Control. Its task was 
     to enforce the Trading-with-the-Enemy Act. It was that 
     mission which continued to transmit information on the 
     Holocaust and on the State Department's failure to take 
     action. The four officials that I have mentioned, none of 
     whom, I should note, was Jewish, became increasingly 
     concerned and finally decided to write a report to the 
     Secretary of the Treasury. It was entitled ``Report to the 
     Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the 
     Murder of the Jews.'' It was a severe indictment of the State 
     Department.
       Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau was quite shaken by 
     the Report and decided to take it to President Roosevelt. 
     Treasury also prepared a plan to take responsibility for 
     refugees from the State Department and create a separate 
     rescue agency. President Roosevelt accepted the plan, without 
     even checking with the State Department. The Executive Order 
     that established the War Refugee Board a few days later, and 
     John W. Pehle, the leader of the Treasury Department effort, 
     became its Executive Director.
       The speed with which this bureaucratic coup was carried 
     out--it all happened in a matter of days--was undoubtedly the 
     result of the fact that if the Administration did not move 
     forward without delay, Congress would enact legislation 
     calling for the establishment of a refugee agency. The leader 
     of eleven other Senators, including Senator Robert Taft of 
     Ohio. It was this combination of

[[Page E333]]

     Treasury officials and Members of Congress that at long last 
     got the United States engaged in the rescue effort, whose 
     greatest hero is indeed Raoul Wallenberg.
       It is thus particularly appropriate for this memorial event 
     to take place on Capitol Hill. It is Congress that for 
     decades has insisted that the foreign policy of the United 
     States must be infused with moral content and it has 
     succeeded. Tom Lantos, who has been witness to the history 
     that we recount today, has been a truly outstanding leader in 
     this effort. We are indebted to him.

     

                          ____________________