This moving sculpture is a memorial to Roaul Wallenberg.
The engravings proclaim
"One Person can make a difference"
and
"Koszonow Raoul Wallenberg"
The first plaques reads:
"A Memorial to Raoul Wallenburg '35
given in memory of Sol King, '34
Classmates firends and humanitarians"
The second plaque reads:
"During WWII from July 1944 to January 1946 Raoul Wallenberg served as a Swedish diplomat in Budapest, Hungary. There he saved over one humdred thousand Jewish men, women and children from execution by the Nazi regime. He offered them "instant" Swedish citizenship, a Swedish passport known as a "Shutzpase" and snactuary in "safe houses" which provided Swedish diplomatic immunity.
On January 17, 1945, Raoul Wallenberg left Budapest to meet with a Putetan commander to obtain food for refugees. On the way he was taken into protective custody by the Soviet Sectet Police and sent to Lubienka Prison Moscow. This was the last time Roaul Wallenberg was seen as a free man".
One plaque isn't enough to tell the story of Raoul Wallenberg, please click through the Supporting link to the story of the man.
Per (
visit link) and (
visit link) we learn the story of this sculpture.
"On October 26, 1995, sixty years after Raoul Wallenberg's graduation from the University of Michigan College of Architecture, a sculpture entitled "Koszonom Raoul Wallenberg" was dedicated to him by Swedish Ambassador Per Anger, who had worked with him in Budapest. The sculpture, a memorial to Raoul Wallenberg, is located at the west front entrance of the Art and Architecture Building in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The sculpture poetically addresses the man and his deeds. Raoul Wallenberg (Class of 1935, Architecture) is a distinguished alumnus and humanitarian, credited with saving the lives of 100,000 Hungarian Jews during World War II. After the war, while attempting to obtain food for those in Swedish "safe-houses," he was arrested by the Soviets and never released. In this sculpture, monumental fragments of stone sitting on a triangular brick base, evoke the chaos of war. Some stones are erect, others are fallen. On one stone the words "One Person Can Make A Difference" are inscribed. On another is inscribed "Koszonom Raoul Wallenberg" (Koszonom is Hungarian for thank you). Arising from the sculpture's base is an architectonic stainless steel structure which defines a space suggesting the sanctuary Wallenberg created for those he saved. Visitors to the sculpture can walk through it and experience how little it takes to define sanctuary and in an instant the mind can transform the space defined by the steel into the boundaries of Wallenberg's prison walls. A bronze plaque at the site chronicles Raoul Wallenberg's deeds and describes his capture and imprisonment by the Soviets after the war. Wallenberg was recognized as a "Righteous Gentile" by the government of Israel in 1981, and has been granted honorary U.S. citizenship (only the second person ever to be so honored; the other being Winston Churchill). On May 1, 1999, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his wife Nane visited the University of Michigan Wallenberg Memorial (see bottom photo). Mrs. Annan is the niece of Raoul Wallenberg. The sculpture was a gift of the family of Sol King, and the sculptor, Jon Rush. Sol King (class of 1934) was a classmate of Raoul Wallenberg's at the College of Architecture. King led the effort to establish a Wallenberg Lecture at the College. A professor of art the the U-M School of Art and Design from 1962-2006, Rush is also the sculptor of Sunstructure, located at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, Onus on North Campus, and Convergence on Central Campus."