We were There - The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation

My gratitude to Wallenberg and to Sweden:
After my mother was forced to go on the Eichmann March, I was placed in an orphanage operated by the
Swedish Red Cross. When the orphanage was to be evacuated, I was allowed to leave.
For the final three weeks prior to our liberation in January, 1945, I was hidden by my parents’ friend, Anna
Kertész, and her family in the International Ghetto in a “Swiss protected apartment,” in a building under
Swedish protection at Tátra utca 4 on the Pest side.
One of Wallenberg’s apartments was at Tátra utca 6, from which he and his chauffeur departed at the
request of Marshal Malinovsky.
Wallenberg and other diplomats pressured the German commander to call off the plan to blow up the
Budapest Ghetto, thus saving the life of my Aunt Ágnes - who became my guardian - and about 70,000
other Jews in the Ghetto.
My debt to Wallenberg had lingered in the back of my head for a long time, but I was busy with my work
and my family. One day in January, 1985, I had some business in downtown Miami, near the old central
library. I decided to see if they had any books about Raoul Wallenberg. I found two and began to read
them. Soon, I realized that he was taken by the Soviet military authorities exactly forty years earlier. I was
stunned, but ever since then I have been searching for information and spoken to various groups about
that great man.
Wallenberg’s acts of heroism have inspired me to serve as a volunteer speaker at schools in South Florida
for more than two decades, talking about the Holocaust to teach the students about the necessity to be
tolerant, critical and independent thinkers and if they can’t help others, at least do no harm to anyone.
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