| Taken Questions Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC October 31, 2003 Taken Question from October 31, 2003 Daily Press Briefing Department Participation in Holocaust Events
QUESTION: ANSWER: Department of State Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Edward B. O'Donnell has been invited to participate in this weekend's commemoration and will represent the Department at the dinner Saturday night for over four-thousand Holocaust survivors. -- In a related event earlier this week, Secretary Powell met with the families of three foreign diplomats who have been honored by the Los Angeles-based Visas for Life Foundation. At the meeting on October 28 in the Department’s Treaty Room, the Foundation presented the Secretary with three medals honoring the diplomats: Carl Lutz, Consul for Switzerland in Budapest 1944-45; Raoul Wallenberg, Secretary of the Swedish Legation in Budapest 1944-45; and Chiune Sugihara, Consul for Japan in Lithuania 1940. The three were honored for their brave efforts to save more than 250,000 Jews from the Holocaust by providing transit visas or through other means. -- The medals were the first three of ten medals to be presented. Created individually by the Israeli State Mint for the Foundation, it is hoped that all ten medals will eventually become a part of the permanent collection at the U.S. Diplomacy Center. Released on October 31, 2003 |
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