Wallenberg at 78: Saved 140,000 Jews in WW2, but disappeared by Soviet communist troops

“I will never be able to go back to Sweden without knowing inside myself that I'd done all a man could do to save as many Jews as possible.” - Raoul Wallenberg, Letter and Dispatches 1924 - 1944 

Raoul Wallenberg (August 4, 1912 - disappeared January 17, 1945)

Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat saved 140,000 Jews in Hungary, according to the World Jewish Congress. He was imprisoned and disappeared by Soviet troops after the war 78 years ago today.

Today is Raoul Wallenberg Day in Canada in honor of his couragous example. Irwin Cotler, a Canadian member of parliament, in an OpEd last year in Haaretz, described the last and most dramatic rescue carried out by Wallenberg:

"As the Nazis advanced on Budapest and threatened to blow up the city’s ghetto and liquidate the remaining Jews, [Wallenberg] put the Nazi generals on notice that they would be held accountable and brought to justice, if not executed, for their war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Nazi generals desisted. Some 70,000 more Jews were saved, thanks to the indomitable courage of one person prepared to confront radical evil."

Nonviolent resistance to the radical evil of the Nazis by courageous Danes and German housewives also worked and saved thousands of Jewish people from the Holocaust.

It is no surprise that it was Soviet Communist troops who disappeared Wallenberg. Six years earlier, in September 1939, the Nazis and the Soviets had been allies in the division and conquest of Poland.  

Please join the @MuseeHolocauste and @TheRWCHR from January 17-19 for a special virtual screening of the documentary Passage to Sweden (@passagetosweden), in honour of #RaoulWallenberg Day.

Register here to watch the #film: https://t.co/sV3tezCeRD https://t.co/Hlv1I9HsVc

— Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (@TheRWCHR) January 16, 2023

Let us honor Raoul Wallenberg for all the lives he saved, and let us also continue to demand justice for him, who had his life taken by Josef Stalin. The Russians refuse to reveal what they did to Wallenberg, and his family has filed a lawsuit against them. In 2016, Sweden declared him dead. 

Each year, on 17 January, we honour the memory of Raoul Wallenberg. The Swedish diplomat saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.

Join us in lighting a candle today for Raoul, his humanitarian deeds and human solidarity! pic.twitter.com/sTyxeGHUu0

— Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (@SweMFA) January 17, 2023