To whom this may concern:
I am a Holocaust survivor. I was born in Hungary. In 1944, I was taken with my loved ones to Auschwitz. We were liberated from Bergen-Belsen in April 1945.
We are grateful to the Swedish government for being the first to come to our aid in such dreadful time. King Gustav V invited 10,000 of the sick Holocaust survivors and their relatives to come to Sweden. The Swedish supplied them with boats and medical personnel, cared for them, put them up in sanitariums, convalescent homes, hospitals and schools. King Gustav V was surely sent from Heaven to save these remaining Jews, and his reward is great. As it says in Judaic sources, one who saves one life is considered to have saved the whole world. How much more so if he saved so many!
A Raoul Wallenberg office was established in Stockholm. A family friend, Vera Muller, worked there. The office sent 10 krona to all the Hungarian children for their birthday. Every youngster was a recipient…except for one. This little girl was crying and carrying on. ”What’s wrong with me?” she wailed. ”Am I not Hungarian? Why was I left out?” It broke my heart. I wrote a letter to the Raoul Wallenberg office, describing the situation and requesting that they rectify it so that she would not fell orphaned. To this day, I still feel gratitude for their kind cooperation.
My husband, Erno Friedman, was born in Hungary. In 1944, hiding as a Gentile in Budapest, he saw how Raoul Wallenberg traveled all over rescuing Jews. He pulled them from the death march and off cattle cars, supplied them with documents that identified them as Swedish subjects, and established safe houses. We believe he was the only one in the Second World War who risked his life to confront Nazi officials and try to reason with them or threaten to have them hanged as war criminals if they proceeded with their heinous plans.
These are a few of the memories which have stayed with me and my husband for more than six decades.
Respectfully,
Paula and Erno Friedman
Brooklyn, NY
May 1, 2007
