Infelizmente, “Nunca mais” não serviu de
compromisso suficiente para deter outros genocídios na Bósnia, Ruanda e, em
escala menor, em conflitos étnicos por toda a África e, agora, no Oriente
Médio. Ditadores usam seus exércitos para esmagar revoluções populares
pacíficas. O mundo reagiu na Líbia. Mas teve um pouco mais de trabalho para
lidar com o assassinato de milhares de civis na Síria. Em última análise,
os problemas estratégicos internacionais sempre irão retardar ou evitar que
a comunidade internacional, que opera através das Nações Unidas, se
posicione e confronte os assassinatos em massa. Apesar de que muitas vezes,
também dependa da boa vontade até mesmo de governos democráticos de se
disporem a dedicar verbas gigantescas e vidas, no caso de uma intervenção
no exterior. Dá para entender o desgaste de guerra, digamos, dos Estados
Unidos, após lutar as guerras do Iraque e Afeganistão. No entanto,
moralmente não se pode adotar a posição de que estamos muito cansados para
sair em defesa dos indefesos e apoiar uma mudança pacífica e democrática.
Quando dissemos “Nunca mais”, estávamos falando a verdade! Mas, podemos ser
honestos com nossa consciência quando confrontados com crises difíceis e
onerosas?
Mas, voltemos a Wallenberg. Qual a sua conexão com o Brasil e como me
envolvi no empenho para torná-lo conhecido no País? Fiquei totalmente
arrebatado com sua história quando a li, pela primeira vez, no início da
década de 1980. Sendo neto de imigrantes judeus húngaros aos Estados
Unidos, no início do século 20, fiquei comovido com o destino dos judeus
húngaros durante o Holocausto e o papel de Wallenberg em salvar os que tinham
sobrevivido. Meu interesse também foi impulsionado pela vergonha com a
atitude dos países do Ocidente, que nada fizeram para salvar os judeus na
Europa antes que se formasse o Conselho de Refugiados de Guerra, que
decidiu recrutar Wallenberg. Como diplomata americano, com certo
envolvimento no combate ao fascismo na América Latina – estive envolvido na
Bolívia na captura de Klaus Barbie e na prisão e extradição do terrorista
fascista italiano responsável pela explosão na estação de trem em Bolonha,
Itália, em 1980, também admirava as habilidades diplomáticas de Wallenberg
ao conseguir arrancar os judeus de Budapeste das garras dos carrascos
nazistas Àquela época, antes de ser destacado para quela
A destacado para servir no Brasil
pela segunda vez, em 1985, mantive contato com o Comitê Raoul Wallenberg dos
Estados Unidos, especialmente com sua Diretora Executiva, Rachel
Ostreicher, que me informou que eu poderia contatar um dos antigos colegas
suecos de Wallenberg enquanto servia em Budapeste, que, na ocasião, era o
Cônsul Geral da Suécia no Rio de Janeiro. Eu, na verdade, somente cheguei
ao Rio em 1987, porque inicialmente fui designado para chefiar o Consulado
americano na Bahia. Mas, antes de chegar ao Rio, tinha tido a grande
oportunidade de assistir a uma palestra, em São Paulo, do então
recém-agraciado com o Prêmio Nobel, Elie Wiesel, que me serviu de grande
inspiração. Elie Wiesel enfatizara a importância da memória. Portanto, ao
chegar ao Rio, encontrei-me com Lars Berg, que me deu todas as suas
anotações sobre Wallenberg e eu tomei a decisão de que faria todo o
possível para promover a memória de Wallenberg, que já havia sido declarado
Cidadão Honorário dos Estados Unidos – o único além de Winston Churchill.
Inicialmente, meu envolvimento foi bastante inocente. Quando
um diplomata judeu americano sai em missão no exterior, geralmente é
convidado pela comunidade judaica local para lhes falar sobre algum
assunto. Diante de tal convite, eu respondi que o único assunto que me
interessava discutir era o caso de Raoul Wallenberg e seu inexplicado
desaparecimento. Iniciando com uma palestra para a B’nai B’rith de São Paulo, fui também
convidado para falar para a B’nai B’rith do Rio e para a Ordem dos
Advogados do Brasil. De repente, estava eu falando sobre Wallenberg para
uma estação de rádio e para a televisão.
Até que, minhas conversas com membros da Câmara de Vereadores
do Rio de Janeiro, especialmente com a então Vereadora Neuza Amaral, muito
sensível à causa judaica, levaram à aprovação de uma lei que criou a Praça
Raoul Wallenberg. Mas eu não me iludia, aprovar a lei era uma coisa, mas os
recursos para construir a praça, eram outra. Quis o destino que um dia em
que eu almoçava com o Cônsul Lars Berg no então restaurante Rio’s, no
Aterro do Flamengo, quando o Prefeito da Cidade, Marcello Alencar, se
aproximou. Eu tinha-me tornado bom amigo do Prefeito antes mesmo de sua
eleição e o apresentei a Berg, contando-lhe de quão esperançosos estávamos
de ver a “nossa” Praça Wallenberg ser erguida. Naquele interim, eu tinha
andado procurando o melhor lugar para a tal da praça, e tinha tido a ideia
de falar com o jovem rabino brasileiro e carioca, Nilton Bonder. Este
sugerira um terreno adjunto à sua sinagoga, na Barra da Tijuca, a
Congregação Judaica do Brasil. Entabulamos, então, as negociações com os
vizinhos do terreno, que era usado como um campo de futebol pela garotada
da vizinhança. Sugeri que mantivéssemos a praça como local de esportes e
juventude, desenvolvendo o campo de futebol e montando mesas de xadrez e
equipamentos de ginástica. A ideia foi aceita por todos.
Pouco tempo depois, minha missão no Rio chegava a seu fim.
Tive outro encontro com o Prefeito, no qual ele me disse: “Não se preocupe,
Daniel, vamos construir a sua praça”. Fiquei entusiasmo, mas deixei o
Brasil sem saber o que iria acontecer. Portanto, fiquei muito surpreso e
feliz ao receber um telefonema, um ano depois, em 1992, do Rio, me
informando que a praça ia ser inaugurada dali a algumas semanas. Pediam-me
que redigisse o texto da placa comemorativa, o que fiz com grata
satisfação. Infelizmente não pude ir ao Rio para o evento inaugural, mas
recebi fotos e relatórios e escrevi um breve artigo para a Revista do
Departamento de Estado dos EUA. A placa foi roubada inúmeras vezes apenas
pelo valor do bronze no qual é confeccionada, sendo sempre refeita. A Praça
Wallenberg ainda existe, apesar de provavelmente não ter recebido muita
atenção nestes últimos 20 anos. No entanto, o Rabino Bonder me contou,
recentemente, que a Praça continua intacta e que com a expansão de sua sinagoga,
ficará ainda mais integrada à vida de sua congregação. Seria realmente uma
bênção se seu nome aparecesse nos mapas da cidade, fazendo jus a quem lhe
deu o nome.
Wallenberg continua vivo em outro sentido. Minha mulher e eu
vivemos, hoje, em Norfolk, Virgínia, onde uma comunidade judaica pequena, mas vibrante, mantém
as instituições locais. Nossa própria sinagoga, a Beth El, tem mais de 150
anos, e é uma das oito primeiras sinagogas que fundaram o Movimento
Conservador Americano. A celebração anual do Dia do Holocausto consegue
encher o recinto com os membros locais e os honrosos sobreviventes que
vivem na redondeza e muitos alunos e professores que estudam o Holocausto
como parte de um programa educacional patrocinado pela Comissão do
Holocausto. Este ano, em uma cerimônia realizada em nossa sinagoga, o
principal orador foi Thomas Weisshaus, um dos judeus húngaros salvos ainda
menino por Raoul Wallenberg. Conheci, também, outra mulher jovem cuja
família inteira também foi salva por Wallenberg. Cada uma dessas pessoas,
mundo afora, deve sua existência a Raoul Wallenberg. Que melhor tributo
poderia haver em sua memória?
Daniel Strasser aposentado é diplomata americano .
Foi Cônsul no Rio de Janeiro e Salvador (BA). Atualmente,
Strasser é analista político e expert em governança sob contrato para o
Estado Maior Conjunto das Forças Armadas dos EUA, Diretório de Exercícios e
Treinamento, com sede em Hampton Roads, Virginia.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
The
Centennial of Raoul Wallenberg
A
Commemoration for Humanity
Daniel
A. Strasser
Retired
US diplomat and former consul in Rio de Janeiro
and Salvador da Bahia*
On August 4, the world celebrated the one hundredth
birthday of Holocaust Hero Raoul Wallenberg.
In
reality, the activities to remember this great man have been
rather modest, given his contribution to humanity and
humanitarianism. Yes, a symposium was held in late J
une at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum founded
and a small exhibit, but when I visited the museum in
early July, there was not one book on him in the
bookstore nor signs of any special acknowledgement
of this commemoration. Also, I have had the
distinct sense that while Wallenberg was well known
in the 1980s, particularly after a TV miniseries with
actor Richard Chamberlain was shown, and the
and 90s, when streets, monuments and statues were
dedicated
to him, a good deal public recognition of
unique standing among Holocaust
heros has been
overshadowed by the success of the movie Schindler’s List.
However, Wallenberg must be remembered as the
greatest savior of Jewish lives during the Holocaust,
responsible for saving approximately100,000 Jews
in Budapest during the brief period of six months
from
July 1944 to January 1945 when he was arrested by
the conquering Red Army
as it moved into Budapest
and disappeared behind a wall of silence erected by
the Soviets. What makes Wallenberg’s
role doubly
gripping is not only that he so used every personal and
diplomatic
asset at his disposal to save Jews, but he then
became the victim of a tyranny
equally brutal from
which no power on earth was capable of saving him the
way
he saved others. He went from hero to
victim and
his fate then became a vehicle for thousands of people
whom he
inspired to try to rescue him. Failing
that,
our only possible avenue is to remember and honor him.
Who was Wallenberg and how did he come to be a
rescuer of Jews? Wallenberg was a
Swede from one
of most prominent and wealthy Swedish banking and
industrial families
who lived a privileged early life,
despite the hardship that his father died of
cancer
before he was born. He studied
in Paris and was
able to come to the United States as a student of
architecture
at the University of Michigan, from which
he graduated while using his time to travel extensively
around the US. He
worked in foreign commerce and
banking first in South Africa and then in
*Mr. Strasser is currently a contract political
analyst
and governance expert for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Exercise and
Training Directorate based in Hampton Roads,
Virginia.
Haifa, Israel.
Returning to Sweden in 1936, he worked
in a trading company owned by a
Hungarian Jew,
Kalman Lauer. As
anti-Jewish laws in Hungary prevented
this gentleman from returning there,
Wallenberg
travelled frequently to Budapest on company business and
to help Mr.
Lauer’s family, eventually becoming a co-owner
in the firm.
Persecution of the Hungarian Jews became more dire
when
Germany decided that the pro-Nazi government was
negotiating secretly with
the allies and invaded Hungary
in March 1944, beginning wholesale deportation
of Hungary’s
Jews. Although much of the
Holocaust had been unknown or
ignored until this point,US and Western concern
for the Jews
increased with publication of reports of concentration camps,
and
the War Refugee Board was created by President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The WRB sent an emissary to
Sweden to ask
that neutral government to appoint an individual
to its Embassy in Budapest
whose role would be to save the
remaining Jews of Hungary. Young Wallenberg, nominated
by his business
partner, Lauer, a prominent member of the
Swedish Jewish Community, was the
obvious choice once
Sweden agreed to send him as a consul to Sweden with
diplomatic privileges.
Once in Budapest, Wallenberg lost no time in seeking
to save Jews. Wallenberg issued special
passes to
Jews that declared them under the protection of the
Swedish
government. Although given a limit by the
Hungarian government, he exceeded it
many fold.
He also created apartment houses for Jews that
were under
Swedish protection recognized by the Hungarian governmen
t and later
the Nazi occupiers. He used an ample fund of
dollars provided by the WRB to
“convince” people
to agree with him. Wallenberg went out to save Jews from
being
shipped to the concentration camps, actually going out
to the trains to pull
Jews off the cattle cars. He also pulled
them away from so-called death
marches. One of the most
fascinating
stories of the Wallenberg rescue activities was
that this almost pure
humanitarian was confronted by
one of the most evil possible adversaries in
Budapest:
Adolph Eichmann. Just as
Wallenberg had been sent to
Budapest to save Jews, Eichmann, who a quarter
century
later would be kidnapped by Israel from Argentina and tried
and hanged
for war crimes, was assigned the job of exterminating
them. As a young officer, it was Eichmann who took
the
notes at the infamous Wannsee Conference of Nazi leaders,
at which the
“Final Solution”(extermination) to the “Jewish
Problem” was made official. The two even had a dramatic
dinner together, a
test of their wills to confront and outwit one
another.
The story of Wallenberg carries on because of the strange
manner
in which he disappeared and the failure of Russian authorities to
fully
clear up whether, when or how he died, although one must
assume that he could
not still be alive at 100 under the harsh
conditions of imprisonment in the
Soviet gulag. Nor would it
make sense
for the Russians after the end of the Soviet Union
over 30 years ago to
continue to knowingly hold him. The
most
prominent group advocating for Wallenberg, the Wallenberg
Committee of the
United States, has not only heralded his role
as a hero but been the main
champion along with some
members of the Wallenberg family of efforts to find
him or
information about his whereabouts.
It has never accepted any
of the official explanations of Wallenberg’s
final fate because
these have always been flawed in some way. Early Soviet
explanations of his death in
prison in 1947 were contradicted
by numerous stories of fellow prisoners who
claim to have
met or seen him more recently.
Although the Soviets originally
claimed he had died of a heart attack, in 2000, the new Russian
government
admitted that he had been executed.
Wallenberg’s family, however, never accepted such explanations
without
some documentary evidence, but Russian authorities
say such documents were
destroyed in Stalin’s purges.
What is the meaning of Wallenberg? The fundamental lesson
is that all human
beings have a responsibility to the rest of
humanity. One person can make a difference. The Talmud
says: “Whoever destroys a soul, it
is considered as if he
destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it
is
considered as if he saved an entire world." John
Donne,
the 18th Century English poet wrote “No man is an island
entire
of himself. Each is a part of the
continent. ..
Each man's death diminishes me, for I am
involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, It
tolls for
,” which inspired Ernest
Hemingway’s most popular novel
about the Spanish Civil War. Sir Edmund Burke’s famous
, that “The
only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for
men to do nothing” is
often identified with Wallenberg’s legacy.
Unlike most men or women, Wallenberg was willing to sacrifice
himself to
save others.
The Wallenberg story is deeply linked to
the question of the
Holocaust. How could
such brutal, organized, inhuman mass
murder be carried out by the government of
what had
been considered a “civilized” country, with the support
of many of its
own people and other quislings around Europe?
But one cannot understand the Holocaust without understanding
the
history of the Jewish people and of Anti-Semitism, of ghettos
and restricted
rights. One cannot understand the
importanc
e of the establishment of Israel as a home for the Jews or the history
of Zionism without understanding the history that led up to the
Holocaust which
proved that the Jews could never be safe without
their own home. My recent trip to Israel, the first in forty
years,
provided me with a clear idea of the struggle of the Jews over
of years for their own identity and survival.
However, while the
most shocking and horrible genocide known to
humanity, it also
served as a lesson for the future. It would give rise to the
saying, “Never
again!”
Unfortunately, “Never again” did not
serve as enough of a
commitment to stop other genocides in Bosnia, Rwanda and
on
a smaller scale in ethnic conflicts throughout Africa and now the
Middle
East. Dictators use their armies to
crush popular peaceful
revolutions. The
world responded in Libya. But it has had
a more
difficult time dealing with the murder of thousands of civilians
Syria. Ultimately, international
strategic issues will often delay or
prevent the international community, working
through the United
Nations, to step forward and confront mass murder. Often, though
is also simply the
willingness of even democratic governments to
be ready to commit the enormous
resources and lives required by
foreign intervention. One can understand the war weariness of,
say
the United States, after fighting the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. However, one cannot morally take the
position that
are too tired seek to defend the helpless and support peaceful,
change. we said, “Never
again,” we meant it. But can we be
honest
with ourselves when confronted by difficult, costly crises?
What is the connection between
Wallenberg and Brazil and how did I
become involved in an effort to remember
Wallenberg in Brazil? I
totally
swept up in the Wallenberg story when I first heard and read
about it in the
early 1980s. As a grandchild of
Hungarian Jewish
immigrants to the United States in the early 20th
century, I was moved
by the fate of the Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust and
Wallenberg’s role in saving those that remained. My interest was
driven by the shame that
the countries of the West did nothing to
save Jews in Europe before the War
Refugee Board was formed and
to recruit Wallenberg. As an American diplomat, with some
involvement in fighting fascism in Latin America (I was involved in
in
both the Klaus Barbie capture and the arrest and extradition of
the Italian
fascist terrorist responsible for blowing up the train
station in Bologna,
Italy in 1980), I also admired
diplomatic skills in wrestling the
Jews of Budapest away from
the clutches of the Nazis.
At that time, before being assigned to
Brazil for a second time
in 1985, I maintained contact with the Raoul
Wallenberg Committee
of the US, especially its Executive Director, Rachel Ostreicher,
who
informed me that I could make contact with one of Wallenberg’s
former
Swedish colleages in Budapest, the then current Swedish
Consul General in Rio
de Janeiro, Lars Berg. I actually did
not
arrive in Rio until 1987 because I was initially assigned to
head the US
consulate in Salvador da Bahia. But
before arriving
in Rio, I also had the experience of attending a speech given
by
recently named Nobel Prize winner Elie Weisel in Sao Paulo,
which deeply
inspired me. Elie Weisel emphasized the importance
of memory. So once in Rio, I met with Lars Berg who gave me all
of his
notes on Wallenberg and decided I would do what I could to
promote the memory
of Wallenberg, who had already been named
an honorary US citizen, the only one
besides Winston Churchill.
Initially, my
involvement was quite innocent. When a
Jewish
American diplomat goes abroad, he is often asked by the local
Jewish
community to speak to them on some subject.
When faced
with such an invitation, I said the only subject I was
interested in
discussing was the case of Raoul Wallenberg and his continued
disappearance. Beginning with a speech
to the B’nai B’rith of Sao
Paulo, I was also asked to address the B’nai B’rith
of Rio and the
of Brazilian Lawyers of Brazil. I also found myself invited to
talk about
Wallenberg on radio and TV.
Ultimately, conversations with members
of the City Council of Rio
led to the passage of a law establishing the Raoul
Wallenberg Square
in Rio de Janeiro. But
I knew that a law was one thing, but
having the resources to build such a
square was another. As it happens,
one
day I was having lunch with Lars Berg on the restaurant on Rio’s
Aterro, when
the Mayor of Rio, Marcello Alencar, walked by us. I
become a good friend of the Mayor even
before his election and
introduced him to Berg, telling him about the hope we
had
to see the Wallenberg Square built there.
In the meantime, I set about
trying to find the best place for the
square, and it occurred to me to
to the young Brazilian born rabbi in
Rio, Nilton Bonder. Bonder
suggested the
land right next to his own synagogue in the Barra de
Tijuca. We then entered into a negotiation with the
neighbors of the
land which had been used as a soccer field by local
youths. I
suggested we maintain the
square as a place for sports and youth,
developing the soccer field and setting
up chess tables and gym
equipment. That
was acceptable to them. Shortly before
my assignment
to Rio came to an end, I had another encounter with the
mayor. This
time he said, “Don’t worry
Daniel, we are going to build your square.”
was thrilled, but left Brazil not knowing what would happen. Therefore,
I was very surprised and pleased
to receive a phone call a year later
in 1992 from Rio, telling me the square
would be inaugurated in a
couple of weeks.
I was asked to write the text of the plaque to be
dedicated, which I did
with pleasure. Unfortunately, I could
not go
to Rio for the event, but received photos and reports of it and
wrote
brief article for the State Department magazine. Wallenberg Square
still exists, although it
has probably not received much attention over
he past 20 years. However, Rabbi Bonder has told me recently
that it i
s still in tact and that the expansion of his synagogue will make it
even more integrated into the life of the congregation.
Wallenberg remains alive in one
sense. My wife and I now live
in
Norfolk, Virginia where a small but vibrant Jewish community
keeps up local
institutions. Our own synagogue, Beth
El, is over
150 years old, one of the original eight
synagogues to found
the American Conservative Movement. An annual Holocaust
celebration also
brings a full house of attendance from the local
community including honoring
local survivors and many students
and teachers who study the Holocaust as part
of an educational
program sponsored by the Holocaust Commission. This year at
a ceremony held at our synagogue,
the main speaker was Thomas
Weisshaus, one of the Hungarian
Jews rescued as a young boy
by Wallenberg.
I also met another young woman whose entire
family was saved by
Wallenberg. Every one of these people
around
the world owe their very existence to Wallenberg. What better
tribute could there be to his
memory?
|
|
When I was a diplomat and spent years living abroad, I experienced change in my own country every time I returned for a visit. I even started making lists of new things that I experienced, whether it be new technology, styles or language. The sense of change was very discrete as these new things kind of hit me in the face like bug on the windshield.
.bmp)