Ceremony in Honor of Raoul Wallenberg
26 January 2000
 Ambassador Per Anger, Sweden |
"On the 19th of March, 1944 Hitler's armies occupied Hungary and forced Hungary to fight more efficiently on the east front and to take stronger steps against the Jewish population. The final solution had so far not yet reached Hungary. That was when the Hungarian Jews realised their doomsday. In bigger numbers they started to queue up outside the neutral embassies in Budapest pleading for help outside the Swedish embassy, where I was stationed, and outside the Swiss, the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Vatican representation."
(...)
"And so Raoul Wallenberg was sent to Budapest. He arrived on the 9th of July 1944. I received him there, I knew him before, he was a very good friend from younger days in Stockholm, so I knew that he was the right man for this mission. He was a very clever negotiator and organiser. He had a very good heart. He was a born humanitarian. So when I explained to him what we had done so far, he said, 'Well, these certificates we could perhaps make them still better'. So he on the spot designed these 'skyddspass', these protective passports. They were going to be the salvation for thousands and thousands of people."
(...)
"The last time I saw Raoul Wallenberg was on the 10th of January 1945 when he came to where we were staying and we were all hiding because the Nazis attacked the Embassy at Christmas time.
I tried to convince him to hide, because the Nazis were after him. But then he gave the typical answer, `I could never do that, I could never return to Stockholm without knowing that I had done everything I could to help as many people as possible'. He left and went over to the west side where he had his office. Three days later he was arrested and brought to prison in Moscow.
Today Raoul Wallenberg is known all over the world as one of the greatest humanitarians in modern time. Innumerable tributes have been paid to him. Monuments have been erected in many countries honouring him. All these tributes will for ever testify to Raoul Wallenberg's deeds. Through his righteous acts he has become a symbol of the struggle for human rights and for dignity of Man."
Photo from the exhibition "Visa for Life" in honor of Raoul Wallenberg and other diplomats, who saved Jews from the Holocaust |