The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is increasing to $500,000 the reward it is offering to any person or entity who can provide solid and provable information on the whereabouts of Wallenberg and his chauffeur, Vilmos Langfelder, Baruch Tenembaum and Eduardo Eurnekian, Founder and Chairman of the Foundation, announced last week.
The announcement was made at meetings of the top leaders of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the UN’s New York Headquarters, and with the Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Jan Eliasson, marking the 100th birthday of Raoul Wallenberg. Both hosts congratulated the IRWF, a global reach educational NGO, for its relentless work to preserve and promote the legacies of the Swedish hero and other heroes.
In addition, to commemorate the Centennial, the IRWF is publishing an e-book with artwork inspired by the deeds of Raoul Wallenberg and their legacy. There are currently 90 free e-books open to the public that can be downloaded at the Foundation website: www.raoulwallenberg.net
Wallenberg, a young Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of lives in Budapest during the Holocaust, was arrested by Soviet forces on January 17, 1945, along with Langfelder. Since then, their fate and whereabouts remain a mystery.
Based on available information, the IRWF is convinced that if Wallenberg and Langfelder were in fact killed by the Soviets, historical records should be available. Unfortunately, the Soviets, and now the Russian authorities, are preventing unrestricted access to the KGB archives by scholars and researchers.
The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate passed a bill on July 11 to award Raoul Wallenberg a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of his work in Budapest to save thousands of lives during the Holocaust.
Baruch Tenembaum founded the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, with headquarters in New York City, 15 years ago to keep alive the memory of the Swedish diplomat missing since January 1945.
The IRWF’s main mission is to research and educate the public about the brave legacies of the rescuers of victims of the Holocaust. Many young people don’t know who Wallenberg was – a fact that makes the IRWF’s work all the more critical.
