Tribute to Raoul Wallenberg at the Raoul Wallenberg School in New York Wallenberg’s aid to speak to the students, portrait by Mossad Agent will be donated to the school. Agnes Adachi, who aided WWII hero Raoul Wallenberg, will speak for the first time to students at the Raoul Wallenberg School in New York on January 24th. Adachi, 87, will join members of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation in a unique commemoration of Wallenberg, who was captured by the Soviets on January 1945. The event will take place on January 24th at 9:30 am at the Raoul Wallenberg School, located at 3117 Avenue W in Brooklyn. A portrait of Wallenberg, painted by renowned Mossad Agent Peter Malkin, the man who captured Eichmann, will be donated to the school. Malkin, who died in 2005, wrote, ”The hands that caught Eichmann, the same hands drew Wallenberg,” in the dedication of the painting to the Wallenberg Foundation. During the event, children of the school will read poetry and sing chorus in memory of Raoul Wallenberg.
Raoul Wallenberg is known for his courageous efforts in the rescue aid of over 100,000 lives during the Second World War in Budapest, Hungary. After completing his triumphant feat, he was arrested by the Soviets and never to be heard from again. This week is dedicated to his deeds. Agnes Adachi is a Hungarian Jewish woman who lived in Budapest during the Second World War. Not only was she able to meet and be saved by Raoul Wallenberg, but she also aided him in the rescue of so many of the lives that he had saved. In her personal accounts written in her book, Child of the Winds, she states, ”The radio made a new announcement that all the young women between the ages of 15 and 25 had to be in the sports palace the next morning by seven o’ clock to work, cleaning up rubble. But we knew better. This was a way to the trains and the gas chambers. Raoul asked all of us to come and write passes for all the young women we knew, while he was again on the road pulling people from the Death Marches. I delivered 500, including one each to [my friends] Anita and Lydia, and to a couple of other friends.”
Her bravery as well as that of Raoul Wallenberg will be commended during the event. Other events and commemorations have been taking place throughout the country. In Boardman, Ohio, a commemoration held at Ohev-Tzedek, Rabbi Joel Berman made a congregation of Sha’arei Torah. Shalom Israel, a radio program in Miami, Florida, had a commemoration hour, featuring Mr. Glanz and Jose Weiss, a Holocaust survivor saved by Raoul Wallenberg. And in New York, two commemoration ceremonies have commenced: the first was at the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue lead by Rabbi Elie Abadie, M.D.; and the second was at the Village Temple, congregation B’nai Israel lead by Rabbi Chava Koster. The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is known for their prestigious efforts towards Holocaust awareness. Their current task is called the ‘Signature Campaign’ which is a petition asking for 100,000 signatures (one for each of the lives that Wallenberg saved). In turn, those signatures will be presented to the United Nations and the President of Russia demanding that the truth behind Wallenberg’s mysterious disappearance be revealed. The Foundation currently bears 21,795 signatures on their petition.- Press release by Adriana Karagozian
