Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 95.djvu/997

 PUBLIC LAW 97-54—OCT. 5, 1981

95 STAT. 971

Public Law 97-54 97th Congress Joint Resolution Proclaiming Raoul Wallenberg to be an honorary citizen of the United States, and requesting the President to ascertain from the Soviet Union the whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg and to secure his return to freedom.

Whereas the United States has conferred honorary citizenship on only one occasion in its more than two hundred years, and honorary citizenship is and should remain an extraordinary honor not lightly conferred nor frequently granted; Whereas during World War II the United States was at war with Hungary,'and had no diplomatic relations with that country; Whereas in 1944 the United States Government through Secretary of State Cordell Hull requested the cooperation of Sweden, as a neutral nation, in protecting the lives of Hungarian Jews facing extermination at the hands of the Nazis; Whereas Raoul Wallenberg agreed to act at the behest of the United States in Hungary, and went to Hungary in the summer of 1944 as Secretary of the Swedish Legation; Whereas Raoul Wallenberg, with extraordinary courage and with total disregard for the constant danger to himself, saved the lives of almost one hundred thousand innocent men, women, and children; Whereas Raoul Wallenberg, with funds and directives supplied by the United States, provided food, shelter, and medical care to those whom he had rescued; Whereas the Soviet Union, in violation of Wallenberg's Swedish diplomatic immunity and of international law, seized him on January 17, 1945, with no explanation ever given for his detention and subsequent imprisonment; Whereas Raoul Wallenberg has been a prisoner in the Soviet Union since 1945; Whereas reports from former prisoners in the Soviet Union, as recent as January 1981, suggest that Raoul Wallenberg is alive; Whereas history has revealed that heroic acts of salvation were tragically rare during the massacre of millions of innocent human beings during World War II; and Whereas the significance of this symbol of man's concern for his fellow man has been tainted by the wall of silence that surrounds the fate of Wallenberg: Now, therefore, be it

Oct. 5, 1981 [S.J. Res. 65]

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