A Humanitarian amid Inhumanity
Exhibition text
Ms Nina Lagergren´s speech at the opening of the exhibition It is indeed a great honour for me that I can be here in your midst and see how Hungary is endeavouring to deal with the horrendous tragedy of 1944-1945. I should like to talk about my brother – we all loved him. He was born after the death of his father. His mother was 21 at the time of their wedding, his father an extremely charming 22 year-old naval officer, who became incurably ill within three months, soon to pass away. Despite his mother´s youthfulness, she brought up her son with a great sense of responsibility and experience, and he in turn was very close to her. Subsequently his paternal grandfather took charge of his education – in the role of a surrogate father; he decided to give him a uniquely international education. His aim was to mould a character which was imbued with humanitarianism. Already as a child he had a command of several languages. On top of it, he was blessed with the providential talent of mimicry – this was to be of considerable help to him in Budapest, since he could convincingly adopt different roles. He had contact with numerous Nazi functionaries and officers and, although he must have been hard put to do so, his talent for mimicry helped him to negotiate with them successfully. Ever since my early years he was to me the big brother, the grown-up boy – I always admired him. Later, although he was ten years my senior, we became close friends, so much so that as a 20 year-old I even worked in his office for a while. Ever since his birth everyone thought that he was very special and that he would accomplish something out of the ordinary. He was filled with a zest for life, and was a passionate observer of world affairs. What is more, he wanted to participate in everything and he was very conscientious. We saw a film during the war, Pimpernel Smith, many of you probably know it: It is about a mild-mannered Oxford professor – Leslie Howard – who doubles as a Scarlet Pimpernel-like hero helping his German colleagues to escape the Nazis. We were able to see the film only in Stockholm, because thank God, the Nazis were not in charge there. After the movie Raoul said: ˝See? This is the type of thing I would like to do.˝ And he certainly had all the attributes necessary for his assignment. He decided that he would fulfil his task and wouldn´t come home if he felt that he couldn´t carry out what he had undertaken: to save the persecuted. |
A temporary exhibition, entitled A Humanitarian amid Inhumanity, has opened in the temporary exhibition hall of the House of Terror Museum to honour the memory of Raoul Wallenberg. The exhibition was officially opened by Mária Schmidt, Director-General of the House of Terror Museum. Wallenberg´s sister, Ms Nina Lagergren gave the opening address. The function was honoured by the presence of the Ambassador of Sweden in Budapest, His Excellency Bengt Lundborg, and Gábor Demszky, Lord Mayor of Budapest.
