RWCFI Launching

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RWCFI Launching

The Inspiration
22 May 2006

Yevgeniy Kesarev, Susan Vater and Sydney Schulman activate the non-profit RWCFI with conversations, planning, and concept development.

The initial idea to create a film sprang from a series of conversations between Dr. Kesarev and Mrs. Sonja Sonnenfeld, retired Secretary of the Official Raoul Wallenberg Committee (RWC) in Stockholm. In these conversations, Mrs. Sonnenfeld, who is Jewish, recounts her experiences growing up in Berlin as a Swedish citizen during the Nazi era and Hitler’s rise to power. Mrs. Sonnenfeld, the self described “witness of the century”, begins her story of more than thirty years experience as a member of the RWC, working tirelessly to find and secure the release of Raoul Wallenberg.

 

The Documentary

Based on these previously untold chronicles, Dr. Kesarev leads us to activate the U.S. RWCFI by connecting Mrs. Sonnenfeld with the other two Board members, Susan Vater and Sydney Schulman.

Together we decided that this story contains a unique opportunity to capture the history and experience of the Nazis in Germany along with the untold story not only of Wallenberg’s capture but of the many daring attempts to rescue him from his unjust fate.

RWCFI activates with its launching project, the documentary film “Rescuing Raoul Wallenberg”.