Don't play politics

To the editor:

(re: “Justice for Raoul Wallenberg and Raoul Wallenberg Park,” Jan. 17)

Whenever we see or hear Raoul Wallenberg’s name, it brings to mind the time he saved a cousin of mine and her baby, along with other Budapest Jews.

The “event” happened in 1944 when the infamous Adolf Eichmann’s SS troops in Budapest called for a “roundup of all Jews in the city for transport” to one of the death camps. My cousin Klari Alpar and her 3-year-old daughter Zsuzsa (Susan) were among the last to be boarded onto a railroad car.

Minutes later, Raoul Wallenberg, remarkably, magically appeared with documentation to certify “Swedish citizenship” for a number of those Hungarian Jews who then were off-loaded and were able to go home.

Zsuzsa eventually became a prominent Hungarian child psychologist, and her post-war baby brother became a medical doctor.

Our family reveres Raoul Wallenberg and his memory. Let us honor his name properly, in full, as did the Hungarians by naming a street after him.

We can and should do the Raoul Wallenberg Park, as proposed by Mr. Thomas Bird, and not play politics with Raoul Wallenberg’s memory, which is definitely a blessing.

Ed and Estelle Cohen