Photo: Thomas Veres
Raoul Wallenberg is probably the greatest and most tragic humanitarian figure of the 20th century. He was born on August 4th, 1912, 112 years ago and disappeared on January 17th, 1945, before turning 33.
A great deal was written about this giant, including by myself, in this very blog.
Russia and several countries of the West have recently struck a major prisoner exchange, whereby 24 prisoners were released, including US reporter Evan Gershkovich and a Russian Intelligence officer jailed in Germany for the murder of a Chechen refugee.
Photo: Kirill Zykov – Kremlin Pool via AP
Regrettably, the US and Sweden lack the degree of commitment shown by President Putin, who personally greeted the released operatives at the airport, stating: “The Motherland has not forgotten about you for a minute“.
Putin seldom travels to the airport to greet foreign heads of state, but this time, he did it for his prisoners, sending a clear message: “If you get caught, Russia will do everything to bring you back home“.
I ask myself: Why wasn’t Wallenberg included in this swap deal? Obviously, in his 112th birthday one should not expect him to be alive, but the West could have insisted on receiving his mortal remains or at least, verifiable information as to his fate. To be sure, the Russian operatives were extremely important to Putin, so it seems there was a strong leverage to try to solve Raoul Wallenberg’s mystery.
I have the feeling that once again, Wallenberg was left behind in the battlefield.
Wallenberg’s story is awe-inspiring. Devoid of any diplomatic experience, he arrived in Budapest on July 9th, 1944, and in six months, he managed to save the remainder of the Hungarian Jewry from the hands of the Nazis.
His remarkable life-saving feats were the direct result of his bold courage, ingenuity, persuasive skills and determination. Where other well-meant people failed, he succeeded.
While managing to avoid assassination by the Nazis, he ended-up as the victim of another cruel and arbitrary regime. With the end of the war in sight, he set-up a meeting with the Soviet military to coordinate the relief efforts for the surviving Jewish community in Hungary. But he fell in a trap carefully designed by the MERSH (the Soviet counter-intelligence apparatus) and he disappeared from the face of the Earth, together with his reliable aide and chauffer, Vilmos Langfelder.
Wallenberg’s feats took place 80 years ago, but his legacy lives on, not only because of his courage but because eight decades later, we are living in an unstable world, where evil is seen by many as good.
I ask myself, how Raoul would react following the Russian aggression on Ukraine and the barbaric October 7th. Invasion of Israel by Hamas, or the recent assassination of 12 Druze children and youngsters by Hezbollah?
We are living in troubling times. A UN member country (Iran) is explicitly calling for the annihilation of another UN member country (Israel) and the world is standing in silence.
High-profile celebrities like Roger Waters and Susan Sarandon embrace lies, which make George Orwell’s 1984, pale into insignificance. The same can be seen in the leading University campuses in the US and in Europe. Antisemitism is on the rise almost everywhere, and the world is silent.
Some 1,200 Israelis were mutilated, raped and murdered by Hamas and more than 200 were taken from their beds and abducted to Gaza, and the world not only is silent, but accuses Israel of “Genocide” for defending itself.
Hamas’s terrorists are embedded amongst their civilian population, using them as human shields. Under these impossible conditions, no other country has ever taken so many precautions as Israel does, to minimize the enemy’s civilian casualties under such conditions.
Clearly enough, the lessons of the Holocaust have not been properly learned. People like Raoul Wallenberg, had a moral compass that guided them to distinguish between right and wrong.
This moral compass is not working now. We need more Raoul Wallenbergs in the world. People who have a clear mind and a pure heart. Otherwise, the world will sink again into a dark era.
Happy birthday, Raoul Wallenberg! I hope your legacy will prevail! And above all, I still do hope that you will not be left alone.
