All it takes is the right thinking and courageous
personality to do the right thing.
---
Raoul Wallenberg, a Fearless Man
Nurit
Greenger | August 6, 2013
Today,
August 5th, 2013, a ceremony took place to commemorate the 101st birthday of and
to rededicate the 18-foot sculpture of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish hero who
saved the life of tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. The Raoul
Wallenberg square is at the intersection of Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax
Avenue in Los Angeles. It is the first time an intersection has been named
after an individual.
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The
sculpture, standing for nearly 25 years, which many do not
know exists, today came to be a center of attention. It was created and donated
by the Italian artist Franco Assetto and was first unveiled on December 4th,
1988. Raoul Wallenberg was The Swedish Angel Of Rescue. The statue
features a bronze silhouette of a man with his hand extended, flanked by two
stainless steel wings, symbolizing Wallenberg’s role as an angel of rescue.
The
drive to create the monument was spearheaded by John Brooks, a Hungarian Jew
who was saved by Wallenberg, and Zev
Yaroslavsky, the outgoing Los Angeles County Supervisor.
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish architect, businessman,
diplomat and humanitarian. His memory is celebrated for his successful efforts to
rescue about 100,000 Jews in Nazi occupied Hungary during the
Holocaust from Hungarian Fascists and the Nazis during the later stages of WWII.
While serving as Sweden's special envoy in Budapest, between
July and December 1944, Wallenberg issued Schutz-Passes, meaning protective
passports, and sheltered Jews in buildings designated as Swedish territory and
thus saved tens of thousands of lives of men, women and children.
Raoul Wallenberg was a young man, a son of Sweden, a man
of the world who possessed monumental courage and heroism. He shielded Jews
behind the blue and yellow flag of Sweden in order to rescue them and did not
hesitate to follow Jews on the march to their death with food and water while
defying the Nazis' orders.
Many
Holocaust survivors, Mr. Oliver Pinter, Deputy Consul General of Hungary and a
long list of government and city officials attended the ceremony, emceed by
Terry Friedman, president of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles; the ceremony
took place under the auspices of Jewish Family
Service in Los Angeles, David Segal, the Consul General of Israel, Raoul
Wallenberg Centennial Celebration Committee, Chase Bank, on its property the
statue stands, CBS television, Simon Wiesenthal
Center, Claims Conference on Jewish Material, Los Angeles Museum of the
Holocaust, The Jewish Federation and
Councilmember Paul Koretz. What was missing were the youths, the generation
that must carry on the torch of 'Never Again'.
Much
was written about Raoul Wallenberg and the reader can search for detailed
information of this hero.
What
Raoul Wallenberg did must set the tone of rescue, resistance and world
responsibility. For Mr. Wallenberg the conventional rule did not apply.
For
his heroism Raoul Wallenberg received the American Gold Medal and he is part of
a short list of only 31 non-Americans who received the Medal.
For
Raoul Wallenberg it was always about to do the right thing, no matter what. He fearlessly
challenged the Nazis. He followed the Jewish saying, he who saves a single life
as if he saved the entire world. And Wallenberg personified that by his actions.
It is the Jewish nation's responsibility to enshrine his legacy.
Take a drive to Raoul Wallenberg square, face history and
look it in the eye. Pay homage to a man whose kindness and lack of selfishness
were unstoppable; a righteous man who did not think that there is any other way
but to jump on the trains that carried Jews to their death and try pull, even
if one Jew off the train and save him or her.
Raoul Wallenberg was a young man with courage only few
have. His fate is unknown and his life mission never fully fulfilled. But when
alive he risked it all for the sake of humanity and made the difference like
only few have done.
On
the bank of the Danube River in Budapest there is a monument made of shoes of
Jewish men and women who did not have that luck to be saved by Raoul Wallenberg
and Andrew Stevens (Rebel with a Cause: The Amazing True Stories of an Urban
Partisan in WW II, by Andrew E.
Stevens (Author -
http://www.amazon.com/Rebel-Cause-Amazing-Partisan-INSCRIBED/dp/B00CQ1WHJS) who
used the pen and their craftiness and compassion to save life. Their motto was,
when the stakes are high we have the obligation to
rectify.
It
is not enough to bear witness to the evil of man. One has to take charge and
responsibility and do something to fulfill the 'Never Again'.
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