Liberal Party of Canada statement on Raoul Wallenberg Day

January 17, 2015

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – Liberal Critic for Rights and Freedoms and International Justice, Irwin Cotler, today issued the following statement on Raoul Wallenberg Day:

“Today, Canadians will mark Raoul Wallenberg Day, paying tribute to this Swedish diplomat and hero of the Holocaust who saved more Jews in Hungary during the Second World War than did any single government. Tragically, Wallenberg disappeared into the Soviet Gulag 70 years ago, and his fate remains unknown.

“Wallenberg personally embodied what today we call the Responsibility to Protect, notably rescuing 20,000 Jews by issuing them Schutzpasses conferring diplomatic immunity; establishing diplomatic safe havens through which he saved thousands more; and organizing hospitals, soup kitchens, and child care centers, saving tens of thousands of lives and providing the most vulnerable of victims with a semblance of human dignity. In his last rescue, which was perhaps his most memorable, he warned Nazi generals preparing to liquidate the Budapest ghetto that those responsible would be brought to justice; they desisted, and another 70,000 Jews were saved.

“As the world grapples with heart-wrenching terror in France, and mass atrocity in Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and elsewhere, Wallenberg’s inspirational and shining example reminds us how one person with the compassion to care and the courage to act can confront evil, resist, prevail, and transform history.”