March 2008

Introduction to the Rescue in Budapest

Between May 14 and July 8, 1944, 437,402 Hungarian Jewish men, women and children were transported to the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. It took 148 trains to carry them. More than 90% of the Jews were gassed immediately upon arrival. By July 9, 1944, only 230,000 Jews survived in Budapest.

Anger, Per

Per Anger, has worked with Raoul Wallenberg at the Swedish Legation in Budapest. He was awarded as a “Righteous Among the Nations” by the State of Israel and Yad Vashem in 1982.

An incredible woman and her amazing gift to mankind. Irena Sendler. An unfamiliar name to most people, but this remarkable woman defied the Nazis and saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. As a health…

Sousa Mendes, Aristides de

Sousa Mendes granted visas to numerous refugees, going against the express orders of his government. For that reason, countless people began to crowd in the vicinity of the Portuguese Conculate – Portuguese visas became their only hope.

Erfurht church

Stainglass at St Mikael church (1285), Thüringen, Germany.Donator Monika Wiegandt

Fereshteh Fazeli

Fereshteh Fazeli has made a painting for “Why Raoul Wallenberg Matters” Published in Judisk Krönka may 2007

Hanalisa

Switzerland Awakens Background: Bratislava, Slovakia (Pozsony, Pressburg) Daily deportation of 12,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz began on May 15, 1944. Shortly thereafter a desperate Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl of the Bratislava Working Group – co-headed by Mrs Gizi Fleishmann -(background…

Paul Lancz

Paul Lancz, avoided deportation to the Nazi death camps at least in part because of diplomat Raoul Wallenberg’s courageous initiative. He began carving at the age of twelve and later studied at the Budapest School of Fine Arts. For three…

Bernard Szajner

Szajner; a French contemporary artist, created a first piece of art as a homage to Raoul Wallenberg in 1982 when together with Karel Beer, an English musician, they composed the music forming a record named : Wallenberg/Budapest. Along with the music, a text narrates Wallenberg’s fate in a way that makes it impossible for the listener to understand the story.