On November 11, 2010, the Ambassador of Israel in Budapest Ms. Aliza Bin-Noun and the Minister of Interior of Hungary Mr. Sandor Pinter thanked 17 Hungarians and their families for rescuing Jewish victims during the Holocaust, and awarded them the Yad Vashem “Righteous among Nations” honorary medal.
Among those who received the honoring were Karolina and Zsuzsanna Reszeli, mother and daughter who saved the lives of Steve Colman and his mother. Mr. Colman, who lives in Australia, attended the moving ceremony organized at the Embassy of Israel in Budapest, Hungary.
It is worth mentioning that two years earlier, on October 27, 2008, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation distinguished Karolina and Zsuzsanna Reszeli in a ceremony organized at the John Wesley Theological College in Budapest. On that occasion two medals were presented to the Reszelis: The Raoul Wallenberg Medal and The Esfira Maiman Women Rescuers Medal accompanied by their respective diplomas. At the same time, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation presented to Yad Vashem a dossier with a full research on the feats accomplished by the Reszelis’ and a strong recommendation to have both women declared Righteous among the Nations.
In his speech at the Embassy of Israel Minister Pinter emphasized the importance of protecting democratic values and fighting against extremist views that are promoting exclusion. Addressing the attendees Ambassador Bin-Noun expressed a concern with the raising number of anti-Semitic incidents all over the world, and underlined that the responsibility for this lays in the activities of the extreme right parties everywhere.
