Professor Dinh Thi Van Chi Vice-Rector, Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Thank you very much for coming to this meeting today. I am convinced that Raoul Wallenberg’s story - whose life is intertwined with the fate of three nations, and whose memory compelled us to gather here today - is worthy of our attention.
Dear Friends,
From the Jewish holy book the Talmud comes a saying: "Who saves a single life has saved the world.” Well, when Raoul Wallenberg worked in Budapest as a Swedish diplomat, one of the bloodiest wars in human history was devastating the world.
Hungary, our country, had also lost her freedom: a foreign power invaded her and forced its will upon her. That will foresaw the physical destruction of the Hungarian Jewry. They were people who lived with us: with whom our grandparents went to school, with whom our grandfathers had fought together for the country, who scored sensational victories at the Olympic Games wearing Hungarian colours, who wrote poems and novels in Hungarian language and scientists who won the Nobel prize or people who excelled in various areas of civil and social life.
On account of an inhuman command, from one day to another, their property was taken away and they were deported to be destroyed in death camps scattered all over Central and Eastern Europe under the control of Nazi Germany. Over a period of a year, 600,000 people were deported from Hungary - most of them never returned. They were all one of us.
We do not forget the Hungarian State’s responsibility. As Mr János Áder, President of Hungary said during the Wallenberg commemoration held in the Knesset: "Hundreds of thousands of them were Hungarian citizens, Jewish countrymen, and it is still a lingering pain that the Hungarian government did not protect them."
We do not forget the heroes either, the heroes who did not look away when others suffered, but they did what they could. Those who rescued lives. Those who raised their voices at a time when such a deed posed a real risk to their own lives. Those who wittingly took the risk because they knew that their actions were not just good – it was the only possible human behaviour. Thanks to them, many, many lives – or with the word of the Talmud - many, many worlds were rescued.
Amongst these, one of the most dramatic stories is Raoul Wallenberg's story.
The film you are going to see is about a brave man who willingly made use of his possibilities to save people from death. Human history is written by those dedicated people who can well seize their opportunities, no matter how seemingly small opportunities they would be. Human history is written by those dedicated people who are willing to work persistently, and if it is needed, to fight for life, for peace.
The personality, the fate, all the works of this Swedish diplomat who rescued so many Jews in Budapest binds Hungary forever to Israel and Sweden.
Thank you for accepting our invitation for this event. Now I invite you to learn more about the story of Raoul Wallenberg.