Wallenberg, who rescued thousands of Hungarian Jews in Budapest during the Holocaust, was born 100 years ago. The Hungarian Embassy organised a series of events highlighting the role of Holocaust rescuers during the Wallenberg Centennial Year.
Ambassador György Szapáry told the some 200 guests at Wednesday's event that it had been the first Orbán government that introduced Holocaust Remembrance Day in Hungary and made Holocaust denial punishable by law.
Deputy foreign state secretary Gergely Prőhle said events of the Wallenberg Centennial Year initiated by the Hungarian government were organised with Hungarian-Swedish-American-Israeli cooperation. He said that the presentation of this tragic chapter of history and Wallenberg's outstanding personal example and courage could help to promote the fight against anti-Semitism and racism around the world.
He noted that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had recently stood up to condemn an expression of anti-Semitism in the Hungarian parliament.
Hungarian-American author and journalist Kati Marton, who has written a monograph about Wallenberg, told the panel discussion that Orbán's remarks represented an "important message" from the Hungarian government.
Mike Abramowitz, Director of the Committee on Conscience, which conducts the genocide prevention efforts of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, said Wallenberg's example had contributed to making the protection of endangered ethnic groups an unwritten law internationally at the level of the United Nations.
Douglas Davidson, the US Department of State's Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, said free public media had an important role in the fight against the propaganda of authoritarian regimes, and he briefly expressed his concerns about the situation of the Hungarian media. At the same time, he noted that the first amendment to the US constitution makes it possible for several neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic portals to operate in the US.
Annette Lantos, the widow of former US congressman of Hungarian origin and Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos, said they personally owed their lives to Wallenberg and noted that the family had been trying for years to find where Wallenberg disappeared after his arrest by the Soviets, but to no avail.
