Raoul Wallenberg’s Centenary
The Embassy of Israel in Romania, the Embassy of Sweden, the "Elie Wiesel" National Institute for the Study of Holocaust in Romania, and the National School of Political Science and Public Administration (SNSPA) will host the conference entitled "Between Salvation and Extermination during World War II" on October 12, 2012, at 10:00.
This year is marked by the centenary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg. The Swedish diplomat and businessman born in 1912 in Kappsta, outside Stockholm, made a unique contribution during the World War II by saving tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest from the Holocaust. While serving as Sweden’s special envoy in Budapest, Wallenberg issued temporary Swedish passports, also called ‚protective passports’ (Schutz-pass) to Jews in Budapest to be able to leave for Sweden.
On January 17, 1945, at the age of 32, he was arrested by the NKVD (the later KGB) with no one knowing what had happened to him until 1957, when the Soviet authorities reported that Raoul Wallenberg was found dead on July 17, 1947 while imprisoned in the Lubyanka prison, in Moscow.
The conference will be held at SNSPA, lecture hall no.12 and will be divided into two themed sessions. In the first session, History or Topicality with Raoul Wallenberg, the keynote speakers are Hedi Fried, survivor of the Holocaust and Marie Tuma, director of Raoul Wallenberg Institute from Lund, Sweden, and Eli Yosef from Israel, the initiator of the Raul Wallenberg in Schools project. In the second session, the researchers Lya Benjamin and Ottmar Traşcă and Andreea Ghiţă, the descendant of a survivor helped by Raoul Wallenberg, will be invited to speak on the topic of Romanians who Saved Jews.