[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 106 (Wednesday, July 9, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S4327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         AWARDING CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL TO RAOUL WALLENBERG

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I wish to honor the memory of one of the 
world's most courageous humanitarians: Raoul Wallenberg. Seventy years 
ago today, Raoul Wallenberg arrived in Budapest, risking his own life 
to save the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from the 
atrocities of the Holocaust.
  Raoul Wallenberg emerged as a champion of those who were persecuted 
during one of the darkest chapters of human history. Mr. Wallenberg 
served on the War Refugee Board, an independent government agency 
established in 1944 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and tasked with 
the ``immediate rescue and relief of the Jews of Europe and other 
victims of enemy persecution.'' Through his courageous work on the War 
Refugee Board, Mr. Wallenberg prevented the deportation of tens of 
thousands of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Wallenberg risked 
his own life and livelihood in order to save Jewish people through a 
variety of means by issuing thousands of protective documents for them; 
by securing their release from deportation trains, death march convoys, 
and labor service brigades; and by establishing the International 
Ghetto of protected houses.
  While the Holocaust showed us that human beings are capable of 
committing unspeakably evil acts, heroes like Raoul Wallenberg proved 
that we are also capable of bravery, selflessness, and goodness.
  It is only fitting that we passed legislation in 2012 bestowing one 
of America's highest civilian awards, the Congressional Gold Medal, to 
one of the greatest heroes this world has known. That actual medal is 
being awarded to Raoul Wallenberg's family in a ceremony today to honor 
his legacy.
  American citizenship is not a requirement for receiving the 
Congressional Gold Medal; but if it were required, Wallenberg would be 
eligible. He received honorary U.S. citizenship in 1981 thanks to the 
efforts of former Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA, 12th) who, as a 16-
year-old in 1944, escaped from a Nazi forced labor camp outside of 
Budapest and hid with his aunt in a safe house Wallenberg had 
established.
  Throughout the world, streets have been named after Raoul Wallenberg 
including one here in Washington, where the U.S. Holocaust Museum is 
located. Monuments bearing his name are testaments to Raoul 
Wallenberg's heroism and to the thousands of lives he saved during the 
Holocaust. Awards are given in his name to honor humanitarians around 
the world. The most important reminders of all that he accomplished are 
the human ones the descendants of those who survived the Holocaust, 
thanks to Raoul Wallenberg's heroism. Raoul Wallenberg left this earth 
too soon but he accomplished more in his short life than most of us 
could ever hope to.
  We can honor Mr. Wallenberg by trying to live with the courage and 
conviction that he demonstrated in his short time. By doing so, we can 
do right by him, and we can do right by all those whose lives were lost 
or forever changed by the Holocaust.

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