[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 14431-14432]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    SWEDISH AMBASSADOR GUNNAR LUND'S REMARKS ON THE LEGACY OF RAOUL 
                               WALLENBERG

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 24, 2007

  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call my colleague's 
attention to the candid, earnest, and eloquent speech of the Swedish 
Ambassador to the United States Gunnar Lund which he gave on Tuesday to 
the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. In his presentation my friend 
Ambassador Lund articulated the courageous acts of Swedish diplomat 
Raoul Wallenberg, who during the Second World War single-handedly saved 
tens of thousand of Jews in Budapest from Nazi extermination camps.
  The United States has enjoyed a strong relationship with Sweden since 
the 17th century when Swedish migrants settled on the banks of the 
Delaware River. Under Ambassador Lund's leadership, the Swedish Embassy 
has been an active participant in the political and cultural life of 
Washington, DC., and engaged in many community activities.
  Madam Speaker, the remarks of Ambassador Lund provided an 
extraordinary educational briefing for those who attended this event of 
the Human Rights Caucus. Ambassador Lund wove an intricate account of 
how this young humanitarian at the request of the American War Refugee 
Board went to Hungary at one of the darkest times of mankind. His 
heroic actions are a powerful message that one person, with the courage 
to care, can make a difference in the world.
  Raoul Wallenberg's legacy must not be forgotten. For this reason, I 
particularly welcomed his comments stressing the importance of actively 
educating new generations on Wallenberg's deeds for mankind. I must 
agree with my friend who describes Wallenberg's disappearance as ``one 
of the saddest and most frustrating unanswered questions in Swedish 
history''. Indeed, this is one of the saddest episodes in world 
history.
  Madam Speaker, Wallenberg's sacrifice is a testament to his belief in 
every human being's right to live with dignity and still stands out as 
a shining light. Ambassador Lund brought the message to his young 
audience the most important lesson Wallenberg taught us: the world 
depends on individual's willingness to take on responsibility and I am 
proud to pass along the message to all of my colleagues.
  Because Raoul Wallenberg's heroism continues to play a significant 
role in the U.S. Swedish relations, Madam Speaker, I ask that the 
speech of my friend, Ambassador Lund, be placed in the Record, and I 
urge all of my colleagues to read it carefully.

         The Legacy of Raoul Wallenberg: Hero of the Holocaust

        [Delivered by H.E. Mr Gunnar Lund, Ambassador of Sweden]

       First of all, I would like to express my appreciation and 
     gratitude to you and your wife, Annette, and to the 
     Congressional Human Rights Caucus, for organizing this annual 
     briefing of the life and legacy of my country-man, Raoul 
     Wallenberg. The initiative is yet another proof of your 
     untiring commitment to the improvement of human rights 
     conditions worldwide, well known both in the United States 
     and in Sweden, and beyond.
       We sometimes take for granted that Raoul Wallenberg will 
     not and cannot be forgotten. But to keep his legacy alive, we 
     need to actively educate new generations on who he was and 
     what he did. This is such an opportunity. In fact, it is hard 
     to think of a better way to remember Raoul Wallenberg than to 
     share a moment like this with somebody like

[[Page 14432]]

     you, Congressman Lantos. You have a personal experience from 
     what happened in Budapest in 1944.
       I leave it to my co-speakers to dwell on the details of 
     Raoul Wallenberg's life and deeds. But I would like to point 
     out that through his actions, he has had a significant 
     influence on the relations between the United States and 
     Sweden.
       Wallenberg himself arrived in this country in 1931. He was 
     19 years old and he came here to study architecture at the 
     University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He thereby broke with 
     his family's expectations that he would go into banking. He 
     stayed in the United States for four years, returning home in 
     1935 with a Bachelor of Science degree.
       His next encounter with the United States, nine years 
     later, was of a more indirect nature, but it would determine 
     his life.
       The year was 1944 and Europe was burning. Hungary had been 
     occupied by the Nazis. As a neutral country, Sweden had 
     already started to issue temporary passports to Jews in 
     Budapest in order to save them from deportation and death. At 
     the same time, the United States had established the War 
     Refugee Board, whose task was to save Jews from Nazi 
     persecution. The Board summoned a meeting in Stockholm in 
     order to identify an individual who could travel to Budapest 
     to initiate a major rescue action from the Swedish Legation. 
     Wallenberg's name was presented, and he accepted to take on 
     the risky mission. He was 32 years old and already an 
     established businessman in Stockholm.
       The rest is history. By issuing thousands of protective 
     passports, employing hundreds of persons and hiring over 
     thirty buildings in Budapest which he declared to be Swedish 
     territory and where Jews could seek shelter, Wallenberg saved 
     thousands of lives, perhaps as many as 100,000. He did not 
     use traditional diplomacy, but everything from bribery to 
     threats of blackmail. He took great personal risks. Even when 
     we peel off some of the the myths surrounding his person, 
     Wallenberg remains a remarkable symbol of personal courage in 
     the fight against the atrocities of the Second World War.
       In 1945 Wallenberg was captured by Soviet troops and 
     disappeared. To this day, we don't know what happened to him. 
     His disappearance remains one of the saddest and most 
     frustrating unanswered questions in Swedish history. In 
     hindsight, we have reasons to be critical of our own role in 
     the search for clarity about Wallenberg's fate: Could more 
     have been done by the Swedish Government to demand answers 
     from the Soviet leadership during the years following the 
     disappearance? In 2001, an official commission of inquiry was 
     appointed to investigate the Swedish government's actions in 
     the Wallenberg case, and the title of the report, ``A 
     Diplomatic Failure'' suggests that the question is justified.
       Wallenberg could never be thanked personally for his 
     efforts, but many people around the world, not the least 
     yourself and so many others in the United States, have made 
     great efforts to investigate his fate and carry on his 
     ideals. In 1981, fifty years after he arrived in Ann Arbor, 
     Raoul Wallenberg was declared an honorary citizen in the 
     United States. Streets, squares and schools have been named 
     after him in this country and elsewhere. Not far from where 
     we are now, the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum is 
     located on Raoul Wallenberg Place. In Europe, the Swedish 
     Institute and the Hungarian organization Open Society 
     Archives last month co-sponsored an exhibition in Budapest on 
     Raoul Wallenberg's life and deeds. The exhibition had 
     previously been exhibited in Ukraine, Poland, Bosnia 
     Herzegovina and Romania, and will continue to Russia. 
     Hopefully, initiatives like this can teach new generations in 
     a new Europe the importance of personal courage in the 
     shaping of history.
       Raoul Wallenberg believed in every human being's right to 
     life and dignity. And that legacy continues to influence 
     Swedish foreign policy. The Swedish defense of human rights 
     principles includes a strong commitment to equal 
     opportunities for all people, a total abolition of all forms 
     of torture or other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or 
     punishment, the freedom of thought and expression and the 
     abolition of the death penalty, just to mention a few. This 
     commitment is more needed than ever. Violations of human 
     rights still occur on all continents, around the world. The 
     situations in Darfur, in North Korea, in Iran and in Burma 
     are tragic examples.
       Back to Raoul Wallenberg. Perhaps the most important lesson 
     he taught us was that at the end of the day, individual 
     courage does matter. International efforts, no matter how 
     well-meant, still depend on the individual's preparedness to 
     take on responsibility.