On the centennial of his birth, Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, the company that manages the airport, and the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation pay tribute to the “Hero without a grave”.

The placement of the bust of Wallenberg in Punta del Este is part of a global campaign that aims to deploy Wallenberg busts in numerous public spaces of major cities worldwide.

During the Holocaust, Wallenberg saved the lives of thousands of people persecuted by the Nazis only to dissapear into the Soviet Gulag on January 1945.

“The lives of those rescued by Wallenberg are the main tribute to his memory. Today we are honored to add this bust to the one which was unveiled last year at the Ezeiza International Airport, in Buenos Aires.” said Eduardo Eurnekian, Chairman of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

The piece is a work of artist Beñat Iglesias Lopez.

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew unveiled the Raoul Wallenberg Congressional Gold Medal.

The medal unveiled Thursday morning at the U.S. Treasury in Washington is inscribed with “hero of heroes” beneath the likeness of the Swedish diplomat who rescued thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.

On the flip side, a depiction of a hand distributing the protective passports that Wallenberg distributed among Hungarian Jews is accompanied by the text, “He lives on forever through those he saved” and “One person makes a difference.”

Lew in his remarks noted that Wallenberg traveled to Hungary as part of an effort initiated by the U.S. War Refugee Board to protect Hungary’s Jews; the board was founded at the behest of Henry Morgenthau, like Lew, a Jewish U.S. treasury secretary.

“It is fitting that we are gathered here at the Treasury Department, just two floors below the very rooms in which the War Refugee Board was established, to pay tribute to Raoul Wallenberg,” Lew said. “A man who chose not to be indifferent to the suffering around him. Who put his own career and life at risk to arrange for the rescue of people he did not know, and whose legacy of courage and self-sacrifice touched not just the men and women that he was able to help, but also future generations.”

Also present at the ceremony were members of Wallenberg’s family and Annette Lantos, the widow of Rep. Tom lantos (D-Calif.), a Holocaust survivor who was saved by Wallenberg and led the effort in 1981 to confer honorary U.S. citizenship on the diplomat.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who with Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.) initiated the legislation that awarded the medal, also spoke at the ceremony.

A broad range of Jewish community groups convened as the Raoul Wallenberg Centennial Celebration Commission voted to advocate for the recognition in 2012, the centenary of Wallenberg’s birth. The commission was spearheaded by the Friedlander Group, a lobbying outfit.

Wallenberg disappeared while being escorted out of Hungary toward the Soviet Union. The Soviets claimed that he died of a heart attack in 1957, but other evidence indicated that he was killed in Lubyanka prison or that he may have lived years longer.

The Congressional Gold Medal has been conferred since the American Revolution to honor “the highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions.” It was first awarded to George Washington.

Medal winners need not be Americans. Past honorees include Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter; Natan and Avital Sharansky, who led activism on behalf of Soviet Jews; the Dalai Lama; and Burmese democracy movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

For the hundreds of inmates inside Moscow’s Lubyanka prison who most likely heard the sounds of the fireworks and explosions — 1,000 cannons shot 1,000 times — this moment no doubt stirred a wide range of emotions. Lubyanka housed many top generals and officials of the defeated Nazi regime, some sharing cells with former resistance fighters, including a 32-year-old Swedish diplomat named Raoul Wallenberg.

Upon learning the news, the young Swede must have felt hopeful that for him the end of the war also signaled  the end of his ordeal. After having saved thousands of Jews from certain death in wartime Budapest, Wallenberg was arrested by the Soviet military counterintelligence in January 1945. Yet many details of his imprisonment and final fate have never been revealed.

Sweden declared 2012, the 100th anniversary of his birth, as the official Wallenberg year, dedicated to celebrating his creativity, stamina and courage in saving Hungarian Jews. But in terms of establishing the full circumstances of Wallenberg’s disappearance in the Soviet Union, the 2012 commemoration was a resounding disappointment.

For a variety of reasons, the Swedish organizers decided to focus attention entirely on highlighting Wallenberg’s legacy, excluding almost completely the question of his fate. As a result, many observers feel that Sweden once again missed a golden opportunity to press the Russian authorities for answers. The approach was also troubling because it signaled that Sweden no longer considers solving the Wallenberg mystery important.

Just as perplexing is that Swedish officials continue to emphasize all the obstacles that  stand in the way of clarifying Wallenberg’s fate instead of energetically pursuing the many options that are available to investigators. Unfortunately, this position plays directly into the hands of President Vladimir Putin, who still shows only a limited willingness to properly reckon with the Soviet past.

As historian Nikita Petrov argued in an April 12  article in Novaya Gazeta, the Kremlin’s  restrictive approach to reviewing the crimes of Stalin’s regime is deeply troubling since it appears closely linked to Putin’s broader political aim of strengthening the state’s power.

According to Petrov, the fact that Russia still refuses to present complete information about sensitive issues, like the Katyn massacre in which thousands of Polish officers were slaughtered in 1940 on Josef Stalin’s orders, raises serious concerns about Russia’s political maturity and its political future.

The official attitude to the Katyn question and similarly complex historical issues, such as the Wallenberg case, serves as an important indicator of the health of Russian civil society overall.

It will be interesting to see if Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt presses his Russian counterparts on the ruling issued recently by the Russian Constitutional Court in another sensitive case, namely to allow Petrov to review collections of the Soviet intelligence operations in post-war Germany from 1948-53.

The Constitutional Court agreed with Petrov’s argument that the term of secrecy for these records has expired. This decision sets an important precedent for similar requests, including those currently pending in the Wallenberg case.

Swedish diplomats say they remain interested in thoroughly investigating all aspects of the Wallenberg question, including reasons for his arrest, but so far they have not lobbied for access to the archives of Soviet security  and intelligence agencies that could shed light on the matter.

They have not firmly protested the fact that Russian archivists have withheld key documentation in the Wallenberg case, such as records from Lubyanka prison from late July 1947 that could verify if Wallenberg was held there as “Prisoner No. 7.”  Similarly, Swedish officials have ignored several false claims made by representatives of the Federal Security Service archives, including the spurious statement that no investigative file was ever created for Wallenberg, which is patently untrue.

Discovering the full  truth about Wallenberg’s disappearance requires bold, carefully targeted action, just like the rescue of the Jews of Budapest. But Sweden can’t seem to muster the same level of courage and determination regarding the Wallenberg file. Unfortunately, both Sweden and Russia consider the current status quo in the Wallenberg investigation acceptable and perhaps even preferable because of the many problematic revelations a complete resolution  of the case could produce.

For instance,  what exactly did Wallenberg’s diplomatic colleagues tell Soviet officials about him in the spring of 1945, when they believed that Wallenberg had died in Budapest? Why were they allowed to return home while Wallenberg was not?

Key questions also remain about Wallenberg’s prominent relatives, the Wallenberg bankers, especially their business relations with Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II and beyond. These ties appear to be connected with the mystery of Wallenberg’s disappearance

The Swedish government and its international partners should find the courage to use the  Wallenberg case as an important test case for democratic values in Russia. The West needs to draw a line in the sand, just as a young  Swede once did in Nazi-controlled Hungary. Such a step would commemorate Wallenberg’s legacy better than any monument or celebration and could lead to an important affirmation of democratic principles for all Russians fighting for civil liberties and human rights in their country today.

THE late Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg will become an honorary Australian citizen for saving tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust in World War II.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who made the announcement on Monday, said it was the first time Australia was bestowing such an honour.

The award of becoming an honorary Australian citizen was a “symbolic recognition of Mr Wallenberg’s tireless devotion to human life during the Holocaust”.

“The lives of those he rescued are Mr Wallenberg’s greatest memorial and Australia is honoured to have survivors he rescued living in Australia today,” Ms Gillard said in a statement.

Mr Wallenberg led a rescue operation in Hungary during World War II, saving tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust by issuing protective passports and providing shelter in diplomatic buildings.

He was arrested by Soviet troops in January 1945 and his fate remains a mystery, although some reports say he died two years after the war ended.

In 1957 the Soviet Union claimed he had died of a heart attack in his cell in July 1947, but several former prisoners from the infamous Gulag prison system say they knew him as Prisoner Seven. Rumours have circulated that the diplomat cooperated with American intelligence agencies and a former KGB general once referred to a Western Diplomat held prisoner at the organisation’s headquarters at the Lubyanka prison for 30 years.

Why he was captured and kept a prisoner by the Soviets remains unknown, despite an admission by Russian authorities in 2000 that he was executed at the Lubyanka in 1947. Last January Swedish authorities announced they were holding a new inquiry into his death.

Mr Wallenberg had previously been recognised as an honorary citizen of the United States, Canada, Hungary and Israel.

Governor-General Quentin Bryce will host a presentation ceremony at Government House in Canberra on Monday, May 6.

A Swedish diplomat who led a rescue operation to save nearly 100,000 Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary has been recognised as the first honorary Australian citizen.

Raoul Wallenberg saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust in 1944 by issuing protective passports and providing shelter in diplomatic buildings.

Mr Wallenberg had already been honoured in Australia through parks and monuments but Governor-General Quentin Bryce said she was proud the country was now going “one step further”.

“I cannot think of a more appropriate and significant figure to welcome to our Australian family,” she told a ceremony in Canberra on Monday.

Mr Wallenberg had tried to save as many Jews as possible, “repeatedly putting his own life at risk,” she said. “Wallenberg’s life is an example to all of us.”

The diplomat was arrested by Soviet troops in January 1945 at the age of 34. The exact date and circumstances of his death are not known.

Frank Vajda, a professor of neurology at Melbourne University, was saved by Mr Wallenberg’s actions as a nine-year old boy in Hungary.

He has since campaigned for honorary citizenship for Mr Wallenberg for decades.

Professor Vajda and his mother were lined up in front of a machine gun for not wearing the yellow Star of David in 1944. Mr Wallenberg persuaded members of the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party to release their group.

“I owe everything to Australia, but I owe my life to Raoul Wallenberg,” he said, describing the diplomat as an “ordinary but very fine man.”

Monday’s ceremony at Government House was also attended by George Farkas, the son of John Farkas – a resistance fighter who was the last known person to see Mr Wallenberg alive.

“I think it’s a recognition that some people can do unbelievable good in the face of reprehensible evil,” he said of the award.

Mr Farkas said there had been sightings of the diplomat up into the 1980s in Russian prisons and psychiatric hospitals.

“Can you imagine what Wallenberg must have thought … that the world had forgotten him?” he said. Mr Wallenberg has already been recognised as an honorary citizen of the United States of America, Israel, Hungary and Canada.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that Mr Wallenberg would be similarly honoured by Australia last week, in recognition of his “tireless devotion to human life during the Holocaust”.

The move was supported by the Coalition. On Monday, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said it would have been “so easy to look the other way”.

“Of all the examples of resistance to Nazi tyranny, Raoul Wallenberg’s is perhaps the most flagrant,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Ms Gillard said that the Prime Minister gave ‘‘long and careful consideration’’ to the most appropriate form of recognition for Mr Wallenberg, including consulting with the ministers for Immigration and Foreign Affairs, before making a recommendation to the Governor-General.

As the first honorary Australian, Mr Wallenberg’s memory gains the ‘‘unique recognition associated with that status,’’ but the award does not give any status or entitlements to Mr Wallenberg’s descendants, the spokeswoman said.

The Gillard government is not currently contemplating honorary citizenship for any other individuals.

The foundation is named after Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat in Budapest who saved thousands of European Jews during World War II and mysteriously disappeared in 1945 after being arrested by Russian police. The IRWF is offering a reward of up to US$ 500,000 to anyone who provides relevant information about Wallenbergs last days and the possible place of his remains.)

The two IRWF leaders visited Bratislava and were accompanied by the representatives of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Slovakia to a meeting with Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič. Tenembaum and Eurnekian presented Slovak head of state with the Centennial Raoul Wallenberg Medal, mark the anniversary of Raoul Wallenberg’s birth. The medal was given in symbolic recognition of Slovaks who during World War II helped to save their Jewish neighbors from the Holocaust.

The Wallenberg Centennial Medal pays tribute to the Slovak Holocaust Rescuers who helped save the lives of persecuted people during one of the most tragic chapters of modern history. Messrs. Eduardo Eurnekian and Baruch Tenembaum, Chairman and Founder of the IRWF, respectively, attended the ceremony.

“This distinction is a feeble attempt to emphasize the courage of more than 500 Slovak men and women who, at great personal risk, remained true to their high standard of personal morals, stretching a caring hand to those in need, sharing with them their struggle, their passion and their tragedy.”, stated Eurnekian.

The mission of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is to develop educational programs and public awareness campaigns based on the values of solidarity and civic courage, ethical cornerstones of the Saviors of the Holocaust.

“The guiding example of the Rescuers remains an everlasting beacon of hope that teaches us that individuals can make a difference, even in the most stressing and dangerous situations.”, Tenembaum said.

The President of the Jewish Communities of Slovakia, Igor Rintel, and Israel Ambassador, Alexander Ben-Zvi, were among the attendants.

The year 2012 marked the centenary of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who helped save the lives of thousands of persecuted people during the Holocaust.

Wallenberg disappeared after being arrested by the Soviet army in January 1945. In tribute to his heroic legacy the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation has carried out numerous activities around the world with the support of more than 300 heads of state.

The Wallenberg Foundation announced a reward of 500.000 dollars for any person or entity that can provide solid verifiable information on the whereabouts of Wallenberg and his chauffeur, Vilmos Langfelder. The announcement was made at a meeting with UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.

As part of the celebrations President Barack Obama became the first US President to issue a televised address devoted entirely to Raoul Wallenberg.

Watch the video of the Ceremony by clicking above.

One evening last fall in the Parliament Hill office of a Canadian senator, a group of influential Canadians met with a controversial Russian oligarch bearing an intriguing offer: to help reveal the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat hailed as a hero for saving tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, before he disappeared in Soviet custody.

Two bodyguards stood outside Conservative Senator Linda Frum’s office watching over Vitaly Malkin, founder of a private national bank, once listed as one of the world’s wealthiest people and a member of the Russian senate.

Inside, Mr. Malkin and Ms. Frum were joined by Liberal MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler, who brought with him Mr. Wallenberg’s niece, Louise von Dardel. Charles Wagner, Mr. Malkin’s Toronto lawyer, and Moshe Ronen, vice-president of the World Jewish Congress, were also there, all of them looking to Mr. Malkin to pry the Wallenberg secret from KGB archives.

Despite a whiff of Hollywood thriller about the after-hours gathering, it likely seemed entirely normal to Mr. Malkin, whose life is writ against a backdrop of international intrigue, precipitous geopolitics, high-level access and massive financial deals.

For 20 years, Mr. Malkin has eyed Canada, applying to live here and seek citizenship, investing millions in Toronto real estate.

Immigration rejection, RCMP probes, secret notations about him with Canada’s spy agency, accusations of organized crime ties, court battles with the government and lawsuits with former business partners have been his reward.

His November visit can be seen as something of a triumph, as it meant overcoming a 19-year ban on entering Canada for alleged involvement in organized crime, an accusation he steadfastly fought as unfair and baseless. Mr. Malkin, never charged with a crime, says he is a victim of Western prejudice against Russia’s business elites, with an assumption that their wealth comes from mobsters or corruption.

However, Mr. Malkin also found that not everything about his past was forgotten when he again crossed the Canadian border.

This summer he raised international ire when he led a delegation to Washington to defend Moscow against accusations of human-rights abuses in the 2009 death of Russian accountant Sergei Magnitsky, which has become a global cause célèbre and a source of significant diplomatic friction between the U.S. and the Kremlin.

It all left Mr. Cotler and Ms. Frum telling the National Post they regret the meeting with Mr. Malkin, with Mr. Cotler now wondering if, by offering help on the Wallenberg mystery, Mr. Malkin: “felt this was a way to perhaps sanitize his reputation.”

On Nov. 21, 2012, Mr. Cotler was hosting Ms. von Dardel, Mr. Wallenberg’s niece, during her visit to Ottawa. They shared a stage that evening with Jason Kenney, the immigration minister, at the opening of a Wallenberg exhibit at the Canadian War Museum. Wallenberg — who issued bogus Swedish passports to protect an estimated 100,000 Jews in Hungary from Nazi death camps — was arrested in 1945 by the invading Red Army and disappeared. He is presumed to have died in Soviet custody; how, when and why remains a mystery, but his legacy is celebrated as much in Canada as anywhere: He was named Canada’s first honorary citizen in 1985 and, in January, Canada Post issued a commemorative stamp in his honour.

“I don’t really know very much about him,” Ms. Frum said, when asked about the meeting with Mr. Malkin. “I simply took at face value that he was a member of the Russian legislature and therefore potentially somebody of influence and potentially somebody who could help solve this important Jewish mystery, this moral mystery that is of great emotional significance.”

Added Mr. Cotler: “[Mr. Malkin] said that sometimes people go through official channels and don’t get anywhere but he had — quote — ‘informal’ channels that he could go through and that he believed that he could, in fact, get us some information with respect to Wallenberg.”

For his part, Mr. Malkin declined to divulge details about the meeting. “I did indeed have a discussion about Raoul Wallenberg — but the sensitive nature of the case precludes me from offering any additional details,” Mr. Malkin said in an e-mail interview.

It wasn’t until afterwards that Mr. Cotler and Ms. Frum learned more about the friendly Russian senator, they both said.

Mr. Cotler said it became clear that “I didn’t want to have anything further to do with him.” Ms. Frum said it was “wrong to seek help down this avenue.” Mr. Ronen said he is just looking to solve the Wallenberg mystery and has no involvement in political concerns. Mr. Wagner declined to discuss it. Later, Ms. Frum added: “If Russia were an exemplary democracy, these files would have been opened long ago. But those of us who want truth in the Wallenberg matter must deal with Russia as it is, not as we would like it to be.”

Honorary Consul of the Carolinas Mr Magnus Natt och Dag welcomed the quests and captured some of the historical milestones in the life of Raoul Wallenberg. He thanked the sponsors and introduced the special guests.

Mr Edward O Woolner survived the incomprehensible events in Budapest and survived due to the actions taken by Raoul Wallenberg. Mr Peter Aranyi represented his mother, who also survived and shared her story with us. These presentations touched our hearts deeply and made us proud to honor someone who despite the dangers did everything humanly possible to protect as many lives as he could. Sweden houses will forever be in our memories.

As a result of the event, a significant contribution was made to the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

In the Conference, organized with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation – Rome, the most relevant aspects and events in the history of the twentieth century will be discussed from historic, philosophical and sociological point of views.

In particular the discussion will be focused on the story of two diplomatic officials in Hungary which, during the Second World War, devoted their efforts to rescue from the Nazi violence as many people as they could, even putting at risk their own lives and careers and by acting beyond the limits of legality.

In a conference held in 2011, the stories of the Spanish Consul de Romero Adigale and of the Italian Consul Guelfo Zamboni were outlined, briefly describing their efforts in favour of the Jewish in Greece.

Knowledge of such events is extremely important nowadays both to keep alive the collective memory about the Shoah and to sensitize the young generations on such matters.

This “Memorial Day 2013″ also aims to encourage people to perform concrete actions so that “never again” will be a real engagement and not a mere wish.

During the day an exhibit devoted to the “Founding Fathers” of the united Europe, will be shown, to remember of those people who, in front of the material devastations and the spiritual lacerations of the Second World War, understood the fundamental need to tear down the wall of hate which was raised between the European populations, thus starting a concrete project of collaboration that gave us a long age of freedom, union and peace.

Time schedule

Morning – from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm: workshop for students of secondary school

Afternoon – from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm: Conference