Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis during World War II, will be 71 years old tomorrow if he is still alive in the Soviet Union where he has been imprisoned for more than 38 years.
Belief that he is alive was expressed by those testifying today in a hearing on Wallenberg held by the House Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations.
“I am more convinced than ever that Raoul is still alive,” Sonia Sonnenfeld of the Swedish Wallenberg Committee declared. “Tomorrow on his 71st birthday he still suffers somewhere in the Soviet Union waiting for us to come for him. His only hope lies with the United States.”
Rep. Tom Lantos, (D. Calif.), who introduced the legislation which in 1981 made Wallenberg an honorary citizen of the U.S., said that despite the Soviet claim that Wallenberg died in 1947, he was known to be alive at least through the mid-1970’s. He said that although the hope that he is still alive today “is waning,” it is still believed that he may be somewhere in a Soviet prison.
Lantos, who was born in Hungary, said that the Soviet Union must either “free” Wallenberg or, at the minimum give the “true story” of what happened to him.
Rep. Gus Yatron (D. Penn.), chairman of the subcommittee, said the Soviet Union has up to now met all inquiries about Wallenberg “with silence. I hope we can work toward shattering the silence that surrounds the Wallenberg matter.”
TWO MAJOR GOALS CITED
Lantos, a member of the subcommittee, said that since President Reagan signed the law making Wallenberg the second person since Winston Churchill to achieve honorary U.S. citizenship, one of the two major goals in the effort on Wallenberg has been achieved, keeping his name alive.
He said across the U.S., schools, museums, parks and streets have been named for the Swedish diplomat who went to Hungary at the request of the United States and after helping rescue Jews there was arrested by the Red Army when it entered Budapest in January 1945.
But the second goal of freeing Wallenberg has not been achieved. At the same time, Lantos praised the U.S. government and particularly Secretary of State George Shultz and his predecessor, Alexander Haig, for doing all they could in raising the issue at international meetings and at private meetings with the Soviet Union.
HARSH WORDS FOR SWEDEN
State Department Counselor Edward Derwinski stressed that the Wallenberg issue “will be raised again in every forum” until there is “full clarification of Wallenberg’s fate.” Lantos, while praising the U.S. government effort, had harsh words for the Swedish government. He said he was “disappointed” that the Swedish government had missed a “unique historic and God given opportunity” when they rejected his suggestion that they not release the Soviet Submarine and crew Sweden captured in 1981 until Wallenberg was freed.
However, Sen. Claibome Pell (D. R.I.) did not agree with the criticism of Sweden although he did not explain. But he did say the U.S. government should do more. So did several other witnesses.
URGE CONTINUED PRESSURE
Joan Scarob, who along with Lantos’ wife, Annette, is co-chairperson of the Free Wallenberg Committee, said the House subcommittee should keep “pressure on both the Soviet government” and the U.S. government “present and future” on the Wallenberg case.
Former Rep. Joshua Eilberg, speaking for the Wallenberg Committee of Greater Philadelphia, urged that the President issue a directive that the Wallenberg issue be raised at every bilateral and multinational meeting with the Soviet Union. He said that Reagan himself should speak out more often himself on Wallenberg and “not merely to Jewish groups. ” Eilberg also urged members of Congress to continue to press the issue at every conceivable moment.
Rachel Oestreicher Haspel, president of the Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States, in affiliation with the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, also urged that all branches of the U.S. government raise the issue of Wallenberg with the Soviets.
But Mrs. Haspel said that she became interested in the Wallenberg issue because she is “the mother of two young children who are growing up in what today appears to be a very hostile world.” She said she was “staggered by the enormity” of what Wallenberg had done because “I can think of no other human being who has saved 100,000 lives by a direct action and intervention.”
“Our children have few heroes not created by script writers,” Mrs. Haspel added. “If they are going to survive, they must all know that they and others carry within the same possibility for kindness, selflessness and courage that Raoul Wallenberg showed. Only because he is a flesh and blood hero — and because of his flesh, vulnerable like all of us — will our children know they, too, are capable of facing evil and danger with courage.”
A HERO IN THE CLASSIC SENSE
Former Rep. Millicent Fenwick called Wallenberg a “true hero in the classic sense” and said that the “values” that he represents are needed more and more today. Another strategy was argued by Morris Wolff, professor of international law at the Delaware Law School, who has been asked by the Wallenberg family to file a suit in Wallenberg’s behalf in U.S. federal court.
He said he believes that in arresting Wallenberg, the Soviets violated his diplomatic immunity and the international protection he had as a representative of the U.S. government in Hungary. Wallenberg had gone to Hungary as a representative of the U.S. War Refugee Board. Wolff asked the Congressmen to support his efforts in the courts.
Among other testifying were Mrs. Lantos who founded the Free Wallenberg Committee and who described the early efforts to bring the issue to the nation’s attention. Both she and her husband were rescued by Wallenberg.
Rep. Theodore Weiss (D. N.Y.), another subcommittee member, noted today that he was also bom in Hungary and some of his relatives were the “real beneficiaries” of Wallenberg’s efforts. Another former Hungarian Jew who testified was Agnus Adachi of Queens, New York, vice president of the U.S. Wallenberg Committee.
Rep. Hamilton Fish (D. N.Y.) noted that the conferral of honorary citizenship on Wallenberg symbolized America’s commitment as a nation to remember the Holocaust and vigilantly guard against the possibility of a recurrence.
Lantos said that he is urging that an international freedom award be established in the name of Wallenberg and Winston Churchill to honor persons anywhere in the world who have advanced the cause of human rights.
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.
