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.

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.

Back in 2005, the IRWF initiated a campaign aimed at obtaining official proclamations of “Wallenberg Days” across the United States. The State of New Jersey is proclaiming Raoul Wallenberg Day for the fourth time and in the official proclamation Governor Chris Christie declares, “Raoul Wallenberg is recognized as an incomparable example and inspiration for all who fight for justice.”

This commemorative date is celebrated every year in the State of New York and this year will be observed in the States of Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, Utah and West Virginia. “Wallenberg Days” are internationally recognized and are commemorated in various countries including Canada and Argentina.

On this day we remember Raoul Wallenberg and all other brave Rescuers during the Holocaust, but our wish for this day is also expressed in words of the New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez “[Raoul Wallenberg Day] provides us with an opportunity to address intolerance issues in our society, become better informed, and take action against such problems;”

Therefore, we encourage all schools from the participating States to dedicate a class during the month of October to Raoul Wallenberg and other brave Rescuers, and to discuss with their students the values that Rescuers represent, such as: civic courage, human dignity, liberty, justice, and equality.

Read more about our Raoul Wallenberg Days.

Read more about our Educational Programs.

Following the initiative of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) Governor Paul R. LePage has proclaimed October 5th, 2012 as Raoul Wallenberg day in the State of Maine. This is the fourth time that the State of Maine is honoring the memory of Raoul Wallenberg by proclaiming his day, for which we are truly grateful.

For the past five years, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) has been collecting stories such as Ester’s as part of its “Documenting Wallenberg: An Archival of Testimonials” initiative with this goal in mind.

Today, as the world celebrates what would have been the 99th birthday of this great hero, the IRWF releases a selection of these interviews on an E-book format with the hopes that their availability to libraries, archives, schools and the general public,
will inspire future generations to follow Raoul Wallenberg’s
humanitarian example.

“Documenting Wallenberg – A Compilation of Interviews
with Survivors Rescued by Raoul Wallenberg”
is available for download on our website.

The IRWF is indebted to the many Wallenberg Survivors who opened their homes and their hearts to share their inspirational stories with us. Their testimonies serve as a constant inspiration for our work and will ensure that the legacy and heroism of Raoul Wallenberg will never be forgotten.

As “Documenting Wallenberg” is an ongoing project, the IRWF welcomes new testimonies. If you or someone you know was rescued by Raoul Wallenberg or survived the Holocaust in Budapest please contact us at irwf@irwf.org or 212-737-3275.

We kindly ask you to distribute this E-book to anyone interested in the subject.

To read the E-book please click here.

In Budapest, Hungarian Raoul Wallenberg Association organized a special event at the Holocaust Memorial Center. The event was opened by chairman Dr. Jozsef Sebes, followed by the reading of the greeting letters written by Larry Pfeffer, chief organizer of International Rescuer Day and Baruch Tenembaum, founder of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. The speakers of the event were Her Excellency Cecilia Bjorner, Ambassador of Sweden and Dr. Endre Marinovich, President of the Antall Jozsef Society. Following the ceremony, the participants visited the Wallenberg memorial plaque in the Wallenberg Street, Budapest.

The Honorable Jason Kenney, Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism issued a statement commemorating January 17 which is celebrated annually as the Raoul Wallenberg Day in Canada.

“Raoul Wallenberg Day is an opportunity to remember the Holocaust and to pay tribute, not only to its victims, but to one of its heroes. By remembering the actions of Raoul Wallenberg, we reaffirm our commitment to fight against the evils of racism, and anti-Semitism.”

To mark the occasion Sweden’s Minister for EU Affairs Birgitta Ohlsson will be visiting Budapest to place flowers at Swedish Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg’s memorial on Thursday, January 20, 2011.

“In Europe today we are seeing increasing anti-Semitism, oppression of Roma and discrimination of minorities, all of which is contrary to the EU’s value of liberty. It therefore feels especially important to honor Raoul Wallenberg here this year, when Hungary, in its role of holder of the Presidency of the EU, has chosen to tackle a number of challenges concerning human rights. Not least when it comes to the situation of the Roma,” Birgitta Ohlsson said in her statement.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) commemorate the day of Wallenberg’s disappearance at the Wallenberg Award Ceremony organized on January 16, at the Shoah Museum in Paris, France, when the 2010 Raoul Wallenberg Award was bestowed upon Beate and Serge Klarsfeld in recognition of their devotion to document the Holocaust and their relentless commitment to educate the young generations.  In her speech Pastor Annemarie Werner, a representative of the IRWF who presented the award, expressed the importance of remembering January 17 and the great hero from Sweden, but also other heroes such us Beate and Serge Klarsfeld whose civic courage and determination  made a difference in the lives of all those who thanks to them have seen their persecutors being brought to justice.

The IRWF also created a special visual presentation that commemorates January 17 using parts from its “Documenting Wallenberg” project.

Following the speeches, the Raoul Wallenberg Awards were presented by Edit Rauh, Chairperson of the Raoul Wallenberg Award Committee, to Geza Orian, protestant social worker; to Dr. Bela Csillei, director of a secondary school; and to the Jewish monthly “Budai Sofar”.

Orian and Csillei have been working among Gypsy (Roma) teenagers for decades as social worker and teacher, respectively. The Jewish journal “Budai Sofar” was founded ten years ago and is published by one of the most prosperous Jewish community of Budapest. On behalf of the journal, the award was received by its editor, Viktoria Sarosi.

At the same event, winners of the Holocaust-competition for secondary school students organized by the Raoul Wallenberg Association, the Holocaust Memorial Center and the Budapest Institute of Pedagogy, were rewarded.

Following the ceremony, the participants visited the the Wallenberg memorial plaque in the Wallenberg Street, where Dr. Jozsef  Sebes, Chairman of the Hungarian RWA, delivered a short speech and read the letters written by Dr. Ferenc Madl and Dr. Laszlo Solyom, former Presidents of Hungary. The ceremony was attended by Ambassadors Cecilia Bjorner (Sweden), Aliza Bin-Noun (Israel), António Augusto Jorge Mendes(Portugal), Mayor Jozsef Toth and Tibor Szanyi, MPs of the 13th district of Budapest, among many others.

In honor of the bravery, heroism and courage of Raoul Wallenberg Senators Ron Ramsey and Andy Berke have officially declared October 5th, 2010, as Raoul Wallenberg Day in the State of Tennessee following a campaign launched by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF). “Tennessee joins with our sister states and moral and compassionate people across the globe in recognizing October 5, 2010, as Raoul Wallenberg Day in memory of this selfless humanitarian and his bountiful life of courage and commitment.” states the official proclamation.

This is the first time that the State of Tennessee is joining our initiative and we couldn’t be more grateful. Our sincere thanks go out to the Tennessee Holocaust Commission who supported our initiative as the in-state sponsor.