Foreword
 More than twenty years ago, on July 24, 1979, the American Jewish Committee hosted a press conference in New York City where Mrs. Nina Lagergren, the half sister of Raoul Wallenberg, announced the formation of the Free Wallenberg Committee. This was the first time that most Americans had ever heard of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat stationed in Budapest who, working for the U.S. War Refugee Board, saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis in the final days of World War II, and was last seen being taken into custody by the Russians on January 17, 1945.
That AJC press conference and the media attention it attracted laid the groundwork, two years later, for the House of Representatives resolution that granted Wallenberg honorary U.S. citizenship, only the second time in American history that a non-American was accorded this status. This, in turn, created the legal basis for the American government to intervene directly with the Russians to determine what happened to Raoul Wallenberg.
From the very start, two of the leading spirits behind the campaign to investigate Wallenberg’s fate have been Congressman Tom Lantos of California and his wife, Annette—who was one of those Hungarian Jews saved by the Swedish diplomat. Acknowledging the AJC’s unique role, they wrote: "We shall never forget the actions of the American Jewish Committee, who were the first to help us at a time when the rest of the world was indifferent to the fate of the heroic savior of the Jewish people."
Despite continuing efforts over the years by AJC and others, including noted scholars, to get at the truth, today, fifty-five years after Wallenberg’s disappearance, we remain to a disturbing degree in the dark about what actually happened to him and why.
In commissioning and publishing this comprehensive analysis, by the distinguished researcher Dr. William Korey, of all the evidence adduced so far, the American Jewish Committee hopes to revitalize the search for answers to the Wallenberg mystery. As we enter a new century, it is surely time to do justice to Raoul Wallenberg, one of the truly heroic figures of our age.
David A. Harris Executive Director The American Jewish Committee.
|
|
Page 1 of 14 |
Next >>
|
