Raoul Wallenberg was remembered on January 17th in Budapest in the Holocaust Memorial Center. The event was opened by Dr. Jozsef Sebes, chairman of the Hungarian Raoul Wallenberg Association then the greeting letters written by Larry Pfeffer, chief organizer of International Rescuer Day and Baruch Tenembaum, founder of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, respectively, were read. The speakers of the event were Her Excellency Cecilia Bjorner, Ambassador of Sweden and Dr. Endre Marinovich, President of the Antall Jozsef Society.
Following the speeches, the Raoul Wallenberg Awards were presented by Edit Rauh, Chairperson of the Raoul Wallenberg Award Committee, to Geza Orian, protestant social worker; to Dr. Bela Csillei, director of a secondary school; and to the Jewish monthly “Budai Sofar”.
Orian and Csillei have been working among Gypsy (Roma) teenagers for decades as social worker and teacher, respectively. The Jewish journal “Budai Sofar” was founded ten years ago and is published by one of the most prosperous Jewish community of Budapest. On behalf of the journal, the award was received by its editor, Viktoria Sarosi.
At the same event, winners of the Holocaust-competition for secondary school students organized by the Raoul Wallenberg Association, the Holocaust Memorial Center and the Budapest Institute of Pedagogy, were rewarded.
Following the ceremony, the participants visited the the Wallenberg memorial plaque in the Wallenberg Street, where Dr. Jozsef Sebes, Chairman of the Hungarian RWA, delivered a short speech and read the letters written by Dr. Ferenc Madl and Dr. Laszlo Solyom, former Presidents of Hungary. The ceremony was attended by Ambassadors Cecilia Bjorner (Sweden), Aliza Bin-Noun (Israel), António Augusto Jorge Mendes(Portugal), Mayor Jozsef Toth and Tibor Szanyi, MPs of the 13th district of Budapest, among many others.
