Iván Bába, Administrative State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ilan Mor, Ambassador of Israel in Hungary, opened the exhibition „Visa for Life” in the main building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs November 13. The exhibition commemorates diplomats who rescued many persecuted Jews during the Second World War by risking, and even at times sacrificing, their own lives.

The Hungarian State Secretary stated that national interests cannot overwrite general human values. Raoul Wallenberg, Perlasca, Sugihara, and Mendes did not perform traditional diplomatic duties, but their human mission. They not only risked their career but also their lives to help those who were persecuted. They did not receive any reward for that; some of them were discharged after the war, while others, like Wallenberg, ended their life in the Soviet Union.

State Secretary Bába pointed out that we live in a different Europe after Auschwitz, and diplomatic mission gained a new meaning after the lifesaving actions of these diplomats. Thanks to them it is possible to carry on the diplomatic mission even today.

Ambassador Ilan Mor stressed that the diplomats commemorated by the exhibition disobeyed orders because they were not motivated by the rules of the book, but by the rules of humanity. He added that „being a Mensch” was the common denominator for all of them. The Ambassador declared that they showed an example for diplomats, especially for the young, about „how we have to act in order to make a difference.” He recalled that each one of these diplomats was awarded the honorary title “Righteous among the Nations” by the Yad Vashem Instiitute and in its garden, trees were planted to remember them. The exhibition composed by the Jerusalem based Institute is a contribution of Israel to the success of the Wallenberg Year organized by Hungary.

(Prime Minister’s Office)