IRWF Members Appointed to Barack Obama’s Cabinet
Janet Napolitano, Governor of the State of Arizona, has been selected to lead the US Department of Homeland Security by President Obama. A member of the IRWF since September 2005, Napolitano is the first woman to serve in that office.
The newly confirmed Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas Vilsack, has been with the Wallenberg Foundation since May 2001. ”This administration is strongly committed to the issues surrounding human rights and I commend you and your colleagues at the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation for your hard work,” stated Vilsack during his tenure as the Governor of the State of Iowa.
The WSJ article sheds a new light on family struggle to disclose Raoul Wallenberg’s fate
Published on February 28, Joshua Prager’s article details the 64 year long struggle of Raoul Wallenberg’s family to disclose what happened after his disappearance in 1945. A tragedy that forever changed the lives of his mother and step-father and that eventually, led them to commit suicide; information just reveled by Wallenberg’s half-sister Nina Lagergren. The story narrates the family’s commitment in spite of the reserved attitude of the Swedish government and Foreign Office and the wall of silence and the contradictorily information from official Russia. The quest has never been an easy one, but never lacked the dedication of the family, starting with Wallenberg’s mother Maj and stepfather Fredrik von Dardel, and continuing with their kids Nina Lagergren and Guy von Dardel, as well as Guy’s daughters Marie Dupuy and Louise von Dardel.
Click here to read the article.
Russian Federation officially blames Stalin for Wallenberg disappearance
In relation to the article on Wallenberg in the WSJ, the IRWF Foundation and it’s founder Baruch Tenembaum issued a press release disclosing the letter that IRWF received from Mr. Alexander Darchiev, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Russian Embassy in Washington D.C., as a result of a worldwide campaign that the Foundation launched to uncover the Wallenberg’s fate. In the letter, Mr. Darchiev states: ”responsibility for the death of Mr. Wallenberg lies with the USSR leadership at that time and on I.V. Stalin personally. No other authority could deal with a Swedish diplomat, representative of a neutral state, a member of the ”Wallenberg House”, well known both abroad and to the Soviet government.”
Wallenberg, the Musical
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is proud to be one of the associate producers of the amazing, new Broadway-bound Wallenberg musical, which will have a new performance on Sunday, April 26. The concert presentation will take place at 3:00 pm in the Jewish Community Center of Harrison, located at 130 Union Avenue, Harrison, New York, 30 minutes north of Manhattan. Following the performance, the audience is invited to meet Award-winning librettists Felicia Needleman and Laurence Holzman and Composer Benjamin Rosenbluth, as well as Director Annette Jolles and the entire cast, at a talk-back reception.
For more information and tickets click here.
New addition to ”Documenting Wallenberg” project
Elmer Milko was one of Raoul Wallenberg’s closest collaborators in Budapest. He used to go to the bank of the Danube River in order to save people who were waiting to be shot. With the help of his son Julio, he organized the distribution of medicine and food, and the manufacturing of false identity papers. Julio Milko’s astonishing account about his father, Raoul Wallenberg, and WWII in Budapest is the new addition to our ”Documenting Wallenberg” project.
Click here to read the testimony.
The 5th piece of the ”Wallenberg Booklets” presented in Budapest
The 5th piece of the ”Wallenberg Booklets” was presented on February 19, 2009, in the Raoul Wallenberg Secondary School in Budapest. ”Wallenberg Booklets” is published by ”Kolor Optika” with the financial support of the Hungarian Raoul Wallenberg Association. It contains a bilingual version (German and Hungarian) of ”Wallenberg or The Endgame in Lubyanka” drama, written by the Austrian author Ernst Pichler. The translation and the adaptation in Hungarian was made by Gabor Forgacs, who, as a young man, worked with Raoul Wallenberg.
”Hero’s Many Faces: Raoul Wallenberg in Contemporary Monuments”
by Tanja Schult
There are thirty-one Wallenberg monuments in twelve countries on five continents, from Hungary to Sweden, from Canada to Chile, from Australia to Russia. A new book by Tanja Schult, an art historian from Sweden, explores the rich diversity of the monuments and discusses the different concepts of Wallenberg and heroism as expressed in the artists’ works. The art-historical focus of this interdisciplinary study makes it a valuable contribution to the discussion of personal monuments, as well as to the socio-historical research on the commemoration of Wallenberg and the concept of the hero.
For more information click here.
International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation on Facebook
The IRWF has a new presence on the Internet through the online social network Facebook. You can become a friend of the profile or a fan of the IRWF page for immediate updates and information on events and other activities.
Appeal for Information on the WWII Rescuers from France and Germany
The IRWF is looking for any information regarding the citizens of France and Germany that saved persecuted people during WWII. Information regarding relatives of the Rescuers will also be welcome. Anyone who could provide us testimonies and information is kindly requested to contact our offices:
- New York: Svetlana at 34 E 67 Street, New York, NY 10065, USA, Phone: +1 212 7373275
- Jerusalem: Danny at 3 Antebi Street, Jerusalem, Israel – Phone: + 972 2 625 7996
