“Freedom” Karoly Veress 2000

Freedom was cast from a mold made from a plaster model created by Veress in his Niagara-on-the-Lake studio. It is located on the front lawn of Augustana’s Denkmann Memorial Building which houses the lecture and performance hall named in honor of the Wallenberg family. The location is noteworthy because Veress says Freedom was inspired by Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish humanitarian credited with saving as many as 100,000 Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust. Although Veress fled Hungary as a result of Soviet intervention in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he remembers Wallenberg’s heroism and says the new sculpture responds to his legacy of freedom. "In this design I symbolize freedom in wings, partly protecting, and sheltering, but foremost enabling us to rise above the daily confusions. These wings sometimes lift us up out of the monstrous historic context into a state where all that remains is just one commitment: to human values, to the dignity of all human beings." "Freedom" was dedicated September 21, 2000.

The 10-foot bronze sculpture, created by Hungarian-born artist Karoly Veress, is a gift of Mrs. Isador Katz, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Harris, and Mr. and Mrs. Zeivel Harris. The sculptor, who resides in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, has works in many international collections including those of the Dutch and German governments, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, as well as the Quad City Botanical Center.