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Marton said she was very happy that the book had been translated into Hungarian, because it was a Hungarian story and Wallenberg was in reality a Hungarian hero.
?We remember him today because he rescued Hungarians in Budapest,? she said.
Marton said Wallenberg?s example is still relevant today as hate, racism and nationalism has not disappeared in the world. She called the diplomat?s story ?a lesson in what happens if hate, which starts with speech and progresses into acts, is not stopped?.
Marton said she made some unexpected discoveries while writing the book.
?When I was doing research for the book, a woman whom Wallenberg rescued told me Wallenberg had arrived too late to rescue her grandparents, who were deported from Miskolc with the first transports. That was when I knew that I am of Jewish lineage. Since then, I realised that among my people are many such Hungarians whose parents or grandparents were killed in the course of the Holocaust and whose parents cold never talk about it because they were affected by such as serious trauma,? she said.
?I think it is our responsibility to talk about what happened in Budapest in 1944, because a lot of Hungarians took part in the persecution of the Jews,? she said, explaining that it would have been impossible for the Nazis to send hundreds of thousands ? among them grandparents -- to their deaths without getting Hungarian support.
Marton?s book Wallenberg: Missing Hero was published in Hungarian by Corvina.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
