Toggle navigation menu.
Helsinki Default Banner

Helsinki Commission Members Call on Russia to Renew Search for Missing Holocaust Hero

WASHINGTON – United States Helsinki Commission Chairman Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), Ranking Member Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) and other Members are calling on Russian officials to renew the search for Raoul Wallenberg, a missing Holocaust hero who was granted honorary American citizenship 19 years ago on October 5, 1981. Wallenberg risked his life to save thousands of Jews targeted for extermination.

“In 1944, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg – with backing from the U.S. War Refugee Board – went to Budapest, armed with nothing more than the courage of his convictions,” Chairman Smith said. “There, he outwitted Nazi and Iron Guards officials, obtaining the release of tens of thousands of Jews bound for Hitler’s death camps.”

“It was an extraordinary feat of heroism and he is credited with saving as many as 100,000 Hungarian Jews from deportation and death,” Smith continued. “Tragically and inexplicably, Mr. Wallenberg was arrested by Soviet forces on January 17, 1945. To this day, his fate remains shrouded in mystery.”

Rep. Hoyer added his sentiments on Mr. Wallenberg’s case. “There has simply never been anything that comes close to a full or credible account of what happened to Raoul Wallenberg after he was arrested by the Soviets in Budapest.”

“The recent release of a Hungarian Prisoner of War – held for more than 55 years in Soviet and Russian prisons – must surely intensify the longing of the Wallenberg family and the thousands whom Mr. Wallenberg saved to know what has happened to the hero of Budapest. For decades, they have been left not knowing whether Raoul Wallenberg is alive or dead,” Hoyer added.

“Today, we will send a letter to Russian Ambassador Yury Ushakov,” Chairman Smith added. “We are asking the Russian Government to provide a complete accounting of Mr. Wallenberg’s fate to his family, to the people whose lives he saved, and to the world which has benefitted so profoundly from his courage, integrity and initiative. Justice demands no less.”

Joining Chairman Smith and Commissioner Hoyer in the letter to Ambassador Ushakov are Commissioners Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI), Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Rep. Joseph R. Pitts (R-PA), Rep. Michael P. Forbes (D-NY), House International Relations Committee Ranking Member Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-CT) and International Relations Subcommittee Chair Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).

Media contact

Category
Country
Issue
Date
Filter Topics Open Close
Articles

Helsinki Commission Advances Human Rights, Demands f...

Oct 19, 2023

By Shannon Simrell, Senior Policy Advisor Between October 2-13, 11 Helsinki Commission staff joined approximately 1,400 representatives of OSCE participating States (pS) and civil society representatives in Warsaw, Poland in an annual review of the human rights records of OSCE States. U.S. leadership highlighted demands for accountability from Russia and Belarus for their human rights […]

screen-reader-text
Articles

United States Demonstrates Global Leadership on Ukra...

Jul 14, 2023

The Helsinki Commission’s four senior leaders helmed the United States’ bicameral, bipartisan delegation to the 30th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly last week in Vancouver, Canada. Co-Chairman Senator Ben Cardin (MD), serving as Head of Delegation, was joined by Chairman Joe Wilson (SC-02) as Deputy Head of Delegation as well as Ranking Members […]

screen-reader-text
Helsinki_Default
Hearings

The Alarming Rise in Antisemitism and Its Threat to ...

Dec 13, 2022

In response to a rise in antisemitism in the United States and abroad, the Helsinki Commission held a hearing on December 13, 2022, featuring experts on preventing and combatting it. Witnesses testified about current development and how best to respond, as well as reinforced the important role of multilateral cooperation. In an increasingly global world […]

screen-reader-text
Press Releases

CO-CHAIRMAN COHEN APPOINTED AS OSCE PARLIAMENTARY AS...

Jul 21, 2022

WASHINGTON—Margareta Cederfelt, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA), has appointed Helsinki Commission Co-Chairman Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09) as the first-ever OSCE PA Special Representative on Political Prisoners. “I welcome the chance to serve as the voice of political prisoners across the OSCE region,” said Co-Chairman Cohen. “Every day, we witness more political arrests of […]

screen-reader-text
Digests

Helsinki Commission Digital Digest May 2022

Jun 01, 2022

screen-reader-text
Press Releases

Co-Chairman Cohen Condemns Lavrov’s Antisemitic Comm...

May 03, 2022

WASHINGTON—In response to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s recent antisemitic comments regarding Ukraine’s president and the people of Ukraine more generally, Helsinki Commission Co-Chairman Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09) issued the following statement: “In a despicable attempt to justify Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine, including well-documented indiscriminate murders of civilians, including children; torture; and rape of […]

screen-reader-text
Articles

Following in the Footsteps of Tsar Nicholas II

Apr 27, 2022

As Vladimir Putin attempts to turn back the clock to the Russian Empire of the pre-Soviet era, he also adopts a tool of political manipulation used in Imperial Russia—fostering violent extremist organizations as a means to a political end. Tsar Nicholas II used this technique with terrorist organizations like the Union of the Russian People […]

screen-reader-text
Articles

Debunking “Denazification”

Apr 21, 2022

By Worth Talley, Max Kampelman Fellow​ On February 24, 2022, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” to “demilitarize and denazify” Ukraine—in reality, a Russian invasion designed to subjugate the democratic, peaceful people of Ukraine. When the news broke, Helsinki Commission Co-Chairman Rep. Steve Cohen immediately decried the statement. “Like Mr. Zelensky, I […]

screen-reader-text
In the News

Lawmakers strike bipartisan note to condemn Putin, c...

Feb 24, 2022

In a show of unity, Republican and Democratic lawmakers swiftly condemned Russia’s military attack against Ukraine and vowed to inflict economic pain on President Vladimir Putin by imposing a torrent of punishing new sanctions. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said she wants Russia cut off from the SWIFT international banking system. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called on international law enforcement […]

screen-reader-text
Articles

Chairman Cardin, OSCE participating States Commit to...

Feb 15, 2022

By Ryn Hintz, Paulina Kanburiyan, and Worth Talley, Max Kampelman Fellows, and Shannon Simrell, Representative of the Helsinki Commission to the U.S. Mission to the OSCE On February 7 – 8, 2022, the OSCE’s Polish Chair-in-Office organized a high-level conference in Warsaw on Combating Anti-Semitism in the OSCE Region with the support of OSCE’s Office […]

screen-reader-text
helsinki commission logo 368x331
Digests

Helsinki Commission Digital Digest January 2022

Jan 31, 2022

screen-reader-text
Press Releases

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Cardin a...

Jan 27, 2022

WASHINGTON—On the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau in Nazi-occupied Poland, which is designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, U.S. Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Ben Cardin (MD) and Co-Chairman Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09) issued the following statement on the recent spate of antisemitic activity across the United States: “We are extremely alarmed by […]

screen-reader-text