Скачать или смотреть USA: WASHINGTON: STATUE OF RAOUL WALLENBERG UNVEILED

(3 Nov 1995) English/Nat

Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who helped Jews escape Nazi persecution during the Second World War, has been immortalised in Washington.

The speaker of the Swedish parliament and prominent members of the US Congress were present at the unveiling of a bronze bust of Wallenberg.

Hundreds crowded the Capitol Rotunda to get a look at the statute of the man responsible for saving so many.

Four generations of those saved by Wallenberg pulled off the shroud to unveil the 20 inch bronze bust sculpted by an Israeli artist.

House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wallenberg's sacrifices for a people whose religion he didn't share served as a shining example.

SOUNDBITE:
"He woke up each morning and in an act of enormous courage he voluntarily risked his life to save people he had never met, people of a religion he did not belong to, but people who as humans he had he felt compelled to reach out to."
SUPER CAPTION: Newt Gingrich - (Republican) Speaker of the House

Senator Tom Daschle said Wallenberg's courage clearly had relevance today.

SOUNDBITE:
"As we are again faced with horrifying international examples of ethnic cruelty, it is most appropriate that we now pay fitting tribute and remembrance to what Raoul Wallenberg stood for and exemplified by his life."
SUPER CAPTION: Tom Daschle - (Democrat) Minority leader

Wallenberg is credited with saving 100-thousand Hungarian Jews during the Second World War.

Based in Budapest, he operated 32 safe houses and secured passports to escort Jews out of Hungary.

Fellow Swedes attending the ceremony joined in the praises and were clearly proud of his achievement.

SOUNDBITE:
"Mankind needs at least a gleam of light such as the one in Budapest in 1944. Raoul Wallenberg and his actions were more than that. He was a burning torch in total darkness."
SUPER CAPTION: Birgitta Dahl, speaker of the Swedish parliament

Wallenberg, the second man to be made an honorary U-S citizen after Winston Churchill, would be 83 if alive today.

He disappeared into the Gulag when Russian forces entered Budapest in 1945.

In 1957, Russia said Wallenberg had died of a heart attack in 1947 but his family refuses to believe that.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...