Franz Werfel stamp issued by Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is proud to present a new commemorative stamp dedicated to the memory and literary legacy of Franz Werfel.
Franz Werfel (1890-1945), Austrian poet, modernist playwright, and novelist, was born in Prague, the son of a Jewish merchant. During World War I, Werfel served for several years on the Russian front as a soldier in the Austrian army. A friend of authors Max Brod and Franz Kafka, Werfel later moved to Vienna and Berlin. He was forced to leave the Prussian Academy of the Arts in 1933. His 1933 novel, Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh (The Forty Days of Musa Dagh), detailed the mass murder and expulsion of Armenians from eastern Anatolia in 1915 and received much attention in the United States. It stood as a warning against future acts of mass murder and won lasting respect from Armenian communities throughout the world.
NEW IRWF’S E-BOOKS
The IRWF has added three new titles in Spanish to its E-book collection. Those are:
- Memoria de un Medico (Memories of a Doctor) by Alberto Kaplan
- La mira en Andrómeda (Eyes over Andromeda), by Alberto Kaplan
- Camino de Buenos Aires (Road to Buenos Aires), by Alberto Kaplan
To read more, click here (In Spanish)
Sweden reopens the investigation into the fate of the diplomat who saved 100,000 Jews
Born 100 years ago, Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish Angel, saved tens of thousands of Jews from certain death in Nazi-occupied Hungary thanks to his courage, cunning and diplomatic skills. Many people today still regret not knowing the fate of the diplomat, whose supposed death at the hands of the Soviets is still shrouded in mystery.
To read more, click here (In Spanish)
Letter from the Editors
02/04/2012
To the director:
The Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg gave an emotional speech on the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust on 27th of January. The premier expressed his “deep regret” for the Norwegian participation in arrests and deportations of Jews in Nazi-occupied Norway during World War II.
“The murders were committed, no doubt, by the Nazis. But they were Norwegians who carried out the arrests. Norwegians who were driving trucks. It happened in Norway, ” he said.
In 2009 Norway celebrated with great pomp the 150th birthday of writer Knut Hamsun (1859-1952). Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920, Hamsun was an ardent supporter of Adolf Hitler. In 1940 he welcomed the Nazi invasion, and in 1943 he dedicated his Nobel Prize to Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister of the Third Reich. In May 1945 he signed a laudatory obituary of Adolf Hitler, in which he described Hitler as “a warrior for mankind.”
The Norwegian royal family attended the inauguration of the celebration, which was accompanied by brass bands and a musical. A memorial statue of the writer was also inaugurated, and it was announced that the construction of a museum dedicated to his memory would begin. Also, an announcement was made that an honorary postage stamp was issued in the writer’s honor. All of this happened while Norway was President of the International Working Group for Cooperation and Education, Remembrance, and Research of the Holocaust .
Mr. Stoltenberg has been Prime Minister of Norway since 2005. We wonder if his words allude to Knut Hamsun, or if we have to wait seven decades to say.
Eduardo Eurnekian
President
Baruch Tenenbaum
Founder
Remembering Raoul Wallenberg: A necessary example of tolerance
The last time Raoul Wallenberg was seen alive by his friends and colleagues was on January 17th 1945. He left his safe house in Budapest to meet the commanders of the Red Army, which was besieging the city. Wallenberg and his driver, Vilmos Langfelder, were arrested, and then they disappeared into the maw of the Gulag.
To read more, click here.
