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.
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