Faurest, Kristin: Ten spaces - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Szent István park

incongruous rendering of the cerebral-looking, slightly-built Wallenberg, who in spite of his countless daring and heroic acts was known for a gentle, unassuming manner. The story of Wallenberg’s work to save Jews in Budapest during the last months of the Second World War is intrinsically linked to the neighbourhood around the park. Wallenberg arrived in summer 1944 as first secretary of the Swedish diplomatic mission. His mission was to support rescue actions for the Jews of Budapest, at the exact same time that Adolf Eichmann was planning for their total annihilation. Using quite unconventional methods ranging from bribery and blackmail threats to impersonating German officers, he employed several hundred people in his endeavours to keep Jews in safe houses (some of which bore labels such as "Swedish Library" or "Swedish Research Institute") or issuing them false Swedish passports. At one point 15,000 people or more lived in these safe houses. According to his friend and colleague Per Anger, Wallenberg should be credited with the lives of many tens of thousands of Jews.

Although the main Budapest ghetto was in the area around the Great Synagogue in District VII, the Szent István park neighbourhood was also the site of the 'international ghetto’, in which approximately 40,000 Jews with letters of protection stayed in safe houses. Safe houses in the park's immediate area included Swiss protected houses at Szent István park 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 and II. Other safe houses could be found in multiple locations on pretty much every street in the neighbourhood. A nearby street also bears Wallenberg’s name. Wallenberg disappeared at the end of the war, presumably taken to a Soviet prison, but the nature of his death remains cloaked in mystery, so much so that even in recent years stories persisted about his still being alive, a very old man still languishing in a Russian prison or insane asylum.

Back to the statue, whose story is also mysterious but has a happier ending. Although it had been placed in the park in 1949, its presence was opposed by the Soviet authorities, who removed the statue and plinth on the eve of its unveiling in April 1949. Some years later, the statue - minus its original swastika symbols — reappeared in front of a pharmaceutical factory in Debrecen. The memorial there now was erected in 1999, a casting of the Debrecen statue.

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