Righteous Gentile

 No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

John 15:13  (NRSV)

I had no idea that January 17th was Raoul Wallenberg Day, nor that he was the first honorary Canadian citizen (1985). And yet there was Prime Minister Trudeau acknowledging Wallenberg last week:

Today, we pay tribute to Raoul Wallenberg, a hero and humanitarian whose work saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.

A Swedish diplomat in Budapest, Mr. Wallenberg put his own life on the line to protect people from deportation and death. He issued ‘protective passports,’ known as Schutz-Passes, to thousands of Hungarian Jews. These Swedish documents shielded their bearers from deportation to the death camps of the Nazi regime. Mr. Wallenberg went to great lengths to distribute these. One witness recounts that he once climbed onto the roof of a train departing for the death camps and handed out passports indiscriminately, allowing their holders off the train.

Mr. Wallenberg also established safe havens to shelter Jewish people across the city, under the protection of the Swedish flag. This network of safehouses, soup kitchens, hospitals, and child care centres protected thousands more from deportation. Within months, Mr. Wallenberg saved more Jews from the Holocaust than any other individual, group, or government. His efforts also inspired other diplomats from neutral countries to do what was in their power to protect Budapest’s Jews.

This portion of the statement gives a fine summary of Wallenberg's courageous advocacy for persecuted Jews. It goes on to note that it was the Russians rather than the Germans who were responsible for his death.


It is thirty years or more since I first visited Israel and walked along the Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem, the solemn Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. I discovered that it was in 1963 that he Wallenberg was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. His mother asked not to receive the honours in his name, believing that her son would one day return. Only after her death, in 1979, was a tree was planted in Wallenberg’s memory in the Avenue.

I read a biography of Wallenberg and wondered whether I could be brave enough to take such risks for people of another faith and country. The honest answer if probably "no" even though I don't like the thought that I would choose personal safety over sacrifice in similar circumstances.