By Carlos Haag (FSWC Educator)

Every year on January 17, Canada honours Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947?), the Swedish diplomat whose courage in 1944 saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis. His story is not only about heroism, it’s about the responsibility of individuals, institutions and nations to act when hatred turns into persecution.

Wallenberg arrived in Budapest after nearly 440,000 Hungarian Jews had already been deported to Auschwitz. Instead of accepting the situation as hopeless, he used every tool available, legal, diplomatic and creative, to disrupt the machinery of the Holocaust. He issued protective passports, sheltered families in “safe houses,” confronted Nazi and Arrow Cross (Hungary’s fascist movement) officers and leveraged the authority of his diplomatic status to help people.

His actions remind students that history-making intervention does not always come from armies or international organizations. Sometimes it comes from a single person willing to stretch the limits of his/her role to protect others. Wallenberg showed that bureaucracy, when used courageously, can become a barrier to brutality rather than a facilitator of it.

Canada was the first country to establish a national day in his honour. This reflects not only admiration for his courage but an acknowledgment that his legacy speaks directly to our civic values: human rights, moral leadership and standing against antisemitism.

Wallenberg’s disappearance after being taken by Soviet forces in January 1945 remains one of the most troubling unresolved cases of the postwar era. The Soviet Union claimed he died in prison in1947, but no reliable evidence was ever produced. Simon Wiesenthal devoted years to investigating his fate, gathering testimonies from former prisoners and pressing governments to demand answers. His efforts kept international attention on Wallenberg long after the case risked being forgotten.

Wallenberg’s example is a reminder that even in the darkest moments, moral actions can save lives.

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