Being in Stockholm I wished to take some photos of the Raoul Wallenberg Square as well as the Wallenberg monument. I also photographed the memorial that was added a few years ago, even if it is controversial as some people find its lying stuatues meaningless.
The monument is a stone globe on the ground, with the same sentence in numerous languages. The memorial, a sculpture group consisting of twelve low black figures, by the Danish artist Kirsten Ortwed, was inaugurated in 2001.
Here are a few lines about Raoul Wallenberg found on Wikipedia:
Raoul Gustav Wallenberg (August 4, 1912 – July 16, 1947?) was a Swedish diplomat. In the later stages of World War II, he worked at great personal risk to save thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust. He was later arrested by the Soviets who suspected him of being an American spy; the circumstances of his death while in their custody are still a matter of controversy.
Wallenberg was assigned as first secretary to the Swedish legation in Budapest, Hungary, on July 9, 1944. Working with Per Anger (1914-2002), he used his diplomatic status to save many Hungarian Jews by issuing them Swedish “protective passports” (German: Schutz-Pass), which identified the bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation. Although not legally valid, these documents looked official and were generally accepted by German and Hungarian authorities, who sometimes were also bribed. Wallenberg also rented houses for Jewish refugees with embassy funds and put up signs such as “The Swedish Library” and “The Swedish Research Institute” on their doors. He also housed refugees in the Swedish legation in Budapest. Wallenberg negotiated with Nazi officials Adolf Eichmann; and General Gerhard Schmidthuber, the commander of the German Army in Hungary, and convinced them to cancel deportations to German concentration camps. He had his fascist ally, Pál Szalay, deliver a note in which Wallenberg threatened to have them prosecuted for war crimes. This was just two days before the Russians arrived. Yad Vashem credits him with saving the lives of “tens of thousands” of Hungarian Jews.
11 Comments
September 17, 2009 at 2:25 am
Wallenberg was something else.
September 17, 2009 at 9:17 pm
You’re quite right.
September 17, 2009 at 11:45 am
Ah yes, I saw a piece on TV about this monument and Raoul Wallenberg a few years ago. There is a monument to him in London (as well as many other places): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Raoul_Wallenberg_memorial_London.jpg
September 17, 2009 at 9:18 pm
There is one in Paris too, at the Swedish Institute.
September 17, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Thank you for the photographs…quite poignant.
The film, Good Evening Mr. Wallenberg, is a poignant and compelling one.
September 17, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I think this is the film I saw about Wallenberg a couple of years ago.
September 17, 2009 at 6:55 pm
a significant piece of history from wwii…thank you for sharing it
chris
Never Again! admin
September 17, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Thanks for visiting my blog.
September 18, 2009 at 7:15 am
[...] Recipes Raoul Wallenbergs Torg [...]
September 18, 2009 at 7:19 am
I’ve always been disturbed by Wallenberg’s disappearance and mysterious death. The absence of a real campaign to get him released, the fear of the Soviets, and the lack of any sort of transparency in their “justice” system made it impossible for him to be celebrated and thanked the way Oskar Schindler was, or live freely and be honored later as Chiune Sugihara was. He was truly righteous.
September 18, 2009 at 11:51 am
Hmm, I can see why people find those lying sculptures a strange way to remember a righteous man. The large sphere is quite striking; that would catch my eye.