Hungary may be preparing to pay public tribute to Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps in 1944 by granting them the protection of the Swedish Embassy in Budapest.
Reports here by recent visitors to the Hungarian capital say the street named after Wallenberg shortly after the war is being refurbished, possibly in anticipation of the forthcoming conference of the European branch of the World Jewish Congress in Budapest, the first such event in an Eastern European Communist bloc country.
But there is no evidence that the authorities will bring a statue dedicated to Wallenberg back to Budapest, although it has been discussed recently in official Hungarian journals. The statue of a man wrestling with a snake was removed to the city of Debrecen during the Stalin era and shorn of its inscription recounting Wallenberg’s exploits.
The statue was commissioned and paid for mainly by Hungarian Jews who owed their lives to Wallenberg. Postcards depicting it suddenly have become available in Budapest. Although intended as a tribute to his wartime activities, the statue has become a poignant symbol of Wallenberg’s fate.
Arrested when the Red Army entered Budapest on January 17, 1945, he has not been heard from since. The Soviet authorities claim he died in prison in 1947, but over the years, he was reported seen alive in prison, and the Swedish government officially regards him as being alive. He would be 74.
The latest exchanges between Moscow and Stockholm on Wallenberg’s fate took place last year. Neither country has altered its position.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
