President Obama paid tribute Wednesday to Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, and also heard an emotional request from Wallenberg’s family.
The family asked Obama to help them pressure Russia in an effort to learn what exactly happened to Wallenberg after his arrest by the Soviet Union in 1945.
“Researchers need committed support in their efforts to obtain direct and uncensored access to Russian archival collections, especially those of the Soviet era intelligence and security services,” says a Wallenberg family letter to Obama obtained by the Associated Press[1].
The Wallenberg family also told Obama: “It is time that the world finally learns what happened to him … It would be a fitting tribute to all those who risk their lives every day in the defense of civil liberties and to the millions of victims who, in spite of all efforts, could not be saved.”
During a ceremony Wednesday at the Great Synagogue in Stockholm, the U.S. president also told Swedish citizens that Wallenberg is “beloved in both our countries.”
Said Obama: “Wallenberg’s life is a challenge to us all — to live those virtues of empathy and compassion, even when it’s hard, even when it involves great risk.”
Some background from the Associated Press[2]:
“Wallenberg’s work as Sweden’s envoy in Budapest in 1944 was a cover for a humanitarian mission as secret emissary of the U.S. War Refugee Board, created in an attempt to stem the annihilation of Europe’s Jews. He saved at least 20,000 Jews in Budapest by giving them Swedish travel documents or moving them to safe houses and is also credited with dissuading German officers from massacring the 70,000 inhabitants of the city’s ghetto.
“Wallenberg disappeared after being arrested in Budapest by the Soviet Red Army in 1945. The Soviets initially denied Wallenberg was in their custody, but then said he died of a heart attack in prison on July 17, 1947.”
