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64 Friday, October 9, 1981
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Righteous Gentile' Traces Story of Raoul Wallenberg,
His Defiance of Danger, Rescue of Up to 100,000 Jews
"Righteous
Gentile"
lends glory to the greatest of
war heroes of the Nazi era
and provides credence for
the definition chosen for
non-Jews who have rescued
victims of Nazism and came
to the aid of Jews under
most difficult and trying
circumstances.
This title is ascribed to
Raoul Wallenberg in the
Viking volume just off the
press, appearing simul-
taneously with Wallen-
berg's having been voted
honorary U.S. citizenship
by the Congress of the
United States, an action
finalized by the House of
Representatives on Sept.
22, having been previously
adopted, unanimously, by
the U.S. Senate.
The volume is by John
Bierman. The Wallenberg
case has been on the agenda
since his arrest by the Rus-
sians in Budapest on Jan.
17, 1945. He has not been
heard from since. The
Soviet Union has claimed
he died as its prisoner, and
reports that he has been
seen alive revived the de-
mand for his release.
Bierman was a television
correspondent for the
British Broadcasting Cor-
poration in Israel and he
learned about Wallenberg
at that time.
In the two years of his
becoming acquainted
with the story of the great
hero, Bierman produced
a most impressive work.
His "Righteous Gentile"
has more facts about the
personal life of the un-
usual person than any-
thing that had been writ-
ten previously. The delay
in action in behalf of the
man who rescued so
many — Gideon Hausner
who prosecuted Adolf
Eichmann said Wallen-
berg saved 30,000; some
figures run up to 100,000
— should not have been
ignored and history
p therefore robbed of im-
mediacy in treating a
very great occurence.
There was even difficulty
in securing a publisher for
John Bierman's - Righteous
Gentile." In a brief article
about the book's appear-
ance, in the New York
Tines, Sept. 25, added at-
tention was generated in
:he Wallenberg case. Yet, as
Edwin McDowell wrote in
the New York Times, Sept.
25:
"At about the time the
Bierman television
documentary was being
shown in Britain, a manu-
script that discussed Mr.
Wallenberg was submitted
to A. Richard Barber, an
•
••••
‘1.•(:.•
•
Raoul Wallenberg in
his Swedish Army Re-
serve uniform.
editor at Viking. He even-
tually decided against pub-
lishing it, but, he said, 'As a
result of reading it, I got
very much wrapped up in
the Raoul Wallenberg
story.'
"Shortly after, a proposal
for the Bierman book, sub-
mitted by a Swiss literary
agent, showed up at Viking
and was jointly purchased
by the American publisher
and by Penguin, Viking's
corporate parent in Bri-
tain. Mr. Barber. approp-
riately enough, is the editor
of the Bierman book, which
has been bought by CBS
Theatrical Films for a film
to star Jon Voight. -
Bierman will be the
speaker at a Book Fair
session at the Jewish
Community Center, Nov.
19, co-sponsored by the
Jewish National Fund
and the Zionist Organiza-
tion of America-Detroit
District. Thus, the mes-
sage is being properly
broadcast at last.
Bierman's masterful ac-
count of Wallenberg's cour-
age, his unusual personal-
ity, provides a record of
tremendous labors in the
researched story of one of
the most moving chapters of
humanism in history.
There is the full account
of the determination of
Hungary's Regent Miklos
Horthy to prevent the Nazis
from pursuing the task of
transporting the Jews to
their death. By the time
Wallenberg began his re-
scue activities. 600.000
Hungarian Jews had al-
ready been sent to the death
camps. The task was to re-
scue the remaining 400.000.
Not only the Horthy re-
cord but also that of Adolf
Eichmann who directed the
Nazi planned terror is fully
reviewed in the Bierman
story.
For an understanding
of the Wallenberg proce-
dures it is important to
quote survivors who
were aided by the Wal-
lenberg resistance to the
Nazis. His courage and
-how the passports he is-
sued to Jews to provide
them with Swedish re-
scue documents are vital
to an understanding of
the Wallenberg tale-as re-
corded by Bierman. Here
is a vital portion of the
many accounts in the
great book "Righteous
Gentiles":
"Wallenberg himself was
to report to Stockholm on 8
December: 'Up to now Jews
in possession of Swedish
safe-conducts have been
treated leniently in com-
parison with those enjoying
the protection of other neut-
ral powers. As far as can be
ascertained, only 10 Jews
with Swedish safe-conducts
have up to now been shot in
and around Budapest.' In
the same report Wallenberg
also recorded that
'thousands of Jews with
Swiss and Vatican
passports are removed daily
from the (International)
Ghetto and transferred to
the General Ghetto or de-
ported.'
"The role Wallenberg
played is movingly revealed
in the account of Tommy
Lapid, now director-general
of the Israeli Broadcasting
Authority in Jerusalem. In
1944 he was 13-years-old
and one of 900 people
crowded 15 or 20 to a room
in a Swedish-protected
house.
"'We were hungry,
thirsty, and frightened all
the time and we were more
afraid of the Arrow Cross
than of the British, Ameri-
can, and Russian bom-
bardments put together.
Those people had guns and
they thought the least they
could do for the war effort
was to kill a few Jews before
the Russians got there, so
they were entering these
houses, which were unde-
fended, and carrying people
away. We were very close to
the Danube and we heard
them shooting people into
the river all night.
" 'I sometimes think
that the greatest
achievement of the Nazis
was that we just accepted
the fact that we were de-
stined to be killed. My
father was in Mauth-
ausen concentration
camp and perished there.
I, an only child, stayed
with my mother. I kept
asking her for bread. I
was so hungry. (Years la-
ter, if there was no bread
in the house, she would
get out of bed at night and
go down to a cafe and ask
for two slices of bread —
although then a very
well-to-do lady in Tel
Aviv, she had to have
some bread in the house
because of those days
when she couldn't supply
me with any.)
"'One morning, a group
of these Hungarian Fascists
came into the house and
said all the able-bodied
women must go with them.
We' knew what this meant.
My mother kissed me and I
cried and she cried. We
knew we were parting
forever and she left me
there, an orphan for all in-
tents and purposes. Then,
two or three hours later, to
my amazement, my mother
returned with the other
women. It seemed like a
mirage, a miracle. My
mother was there—she was
alive and she was hugging
me and kissing me, and she
said one word: 'Wallenberg.'
"'I knew who she meant
because Wallenberg was a
legend among the Jews. In
the complete and total hell
in which we lived, there was
a savior-angel somewhere,
moving around.. After she
had composed herself, my
mother told me that they
were being taken to the
river when a car arrived and
out stepped Wallenberg —
and they knew immediately
who it was, because there
was only one such person in
the world.
"'He went up to the
Arrow Cross leader and pro-
tested that the women were
under his protection. They
argued with him, but he
must have had incredible
charisma, some great per-
sonal authority, because
there was absolutely noth-
ing behind him, nothing to
back him up. He stood out
there in the street, probably
feeling the loneliest man in
the world, trying to pretend
there was something behind
him. They could have shot
him there and then in the
street and nobody would
have known about it. In-
stead, they relented and let
the women go.' "
Time and again, as in the
testimony of Joni Moser,
Wallenberg'd extraordinary
personal authority and
lonely courage comes
through . . .
"Moser recalls the day
when Wallenberg
learned that 800 Jewish
labor service men were
being marched to
Mauthausen. He and
Wallenberg drove to the
frontier and caught up
with the column. Wallen-
berg asked that those
with Swedish protective
passports should raise
their hands. 'On his or-
der,' Moser says, 'I ran
between the ranks and
told the men to raise their
hands, whether they had
a passport or not- He then
claimed custody of all
who had raised their
hands and such was his
bearing that none of the
Hungarian guards op-
posed him. The extraor-
dinary thing was the
absolutely convincing
power of his behavior. "
The collapse of the
Horthy regime and the
brutalization of Hungary
under the domination of the
Arrow Cross represents a
horrifying chapter in the
history of the Nazi era. It is
fully defined to indicate the
difficulties that were con-
fronted by Wallenberg in
his rescue efforts.
The puzzle regarding
Wallenberg's arrest by the
Russians, the mystery -
transformed - into - tragedy
of his disappearance, are
fully reviewed by Bierman.
It, too, is a story of horror,
and it is traced in detail,
leading up to the current be- .
lief that the hero in the
enormous task of saving
Hungarian Jews is alive
and brings the story up to
the presently revived efforts
to secure his release.
The manner in which the
movement to secure Wal-
lenberg's liberation went
into hibernation, the hesi-
tancy of Swedish
authorities until the entire
case was sensationalized,
receive due attention in the
Bierman book.
The groups that kept
the flame alive in support
of Wallenberg are elabo-
rated upon. Only
spasmodically was the
cruel issue discussed in
the Swedish press. The
reports by those who
brought attention to the
case to indicate that Wal-
lenberg had been seen
alive in a Russian prison
stirred greater action.
The last photograph of
Wallenberg was taken in
Budapest in November
1944. Raoul sent it to his
mother.
It was thanks to Annette
Lantos that the world-wide
campaign demanding Wal-
lenberg's release from the
Soviet prison, contending
he was alive, gained accep-
tance. Then her husband,
California Congressman
Tom Lantos, inspired the
bill passed by both houses of
Congress, granting Wal-
lenberg honorary U.S.
citizenship.
Thus, to Rep. and Mrs.
Lantos goes a major mea-
sure of credit for according
to Wallenberg the all-too-
belated recognition.
The role of Detroiter Sol
King, a classmate of Raoul
Wallenberg at the Univer-
sity of Michigan college of
architecture, who inspired a
lecture series at U-M in
tribute to Wallenberg, is
briefly mentioned.
Bierman's "Righteous
Gentile" has the important
merit of a symbolic refer-
ence to the Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem, as the depos-
itory of the records depict-
ing the Nazi horrors, at the
same time paying due honor
to those whci, -like Raoul
Wallenberg, risked their
own lives to rescue Jews.
Of the many revealing
aspects in the Wallenberg
story, most interesting is
his family background, his
pride in a distant heritage.
Bierman traces Wallen-
berg's ancestry to a Jewish
great-great grandfather,
thus being one-sixteenth
Jewish. He is described as
having been proud of his
Jewish heritage, as Bier-
man states:
"His
great-great-
grandfather on his
mother's side, a Jew
named Benedicks, had
come to Sweden towards
the end of the 18th Cen-
tury, one of the first Jews
to settle there. Bendicks
converted to the Luthe-
ran faith, married a
Christian girl, prospered
rapidly, and within a
year was jeweller to the
court of King Gustav IV
Adolf. He subsequently
became financial adviser
to a later king, Charles
XIV John.
"Benedicks's son was one
of the pioneers of the
Swedish steel industry.
Other descendants showed
great artistic talent, and
they became known as a
highly cultured family —
one member, a singer,
studied under Liszt.
"Raoul was aware of his
one-sixteenth Jewish blood,
and proud of it. Professor
Ingemar Hedenius recalls a
conversation with Raoul
dating back to 1930, when
they were together in an
army hospital during mili-
tary service:
"'We had many long and
intimate conversations. He
was full of ideas and plans
for the future. Although I
was a good deal older — you
could choose when to do
your service — I was enor-
mously impressed by him.
"'He was proud of his
partial Jewish ancestry
and, as I recall, must have
exaggerated it some-
what. I remember him
saying, 'A person like me,
who is both a Wallenberg
and half-Jewish, can
never be defeated.' "
John Bierman's "Right-
eous Gentile" is an inerasa-
ble chapter in modern his-
tory. It supplements the ex-
posure of the Nazi crimes. It
pays due and proper tribute
to a great hero. It is one of
the very great books, excel-
lently and commendably re-
searched, meriting treat-
ment as a study in human
history.