January 17 marks Raoul Wallenberg commemorative day in remembrance of the Swedish diplomat – Canada’s first honorary citizen and an honorary citizen of the US, Australia, and Israel – who demonstrated that one person with the compassion to care and the courage to act can confront evil, prevail and transform history.
From mid-May to the beginning of July 1944, some 440,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz – the fastest, cruelest, and most efficient killing field in the Holocaust. Wallenberg arrived as a member of the Swedish Legation in Budapest in mid-July 1944. In a remarkable demonstration of ingenuity and inspiration, bluff and bravado, he rescued some 100,000 Jews in the last six months of 1944 and the beginning of 1945, more than any other single government or organization.
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