Today, January 17, is Raoul Wallenberg Day in Canada. To commemorate Wallenberg’s heroic acts to save countless Jews during the Second World War, Canada Post is issuing a stamp in his likeness. The $1.65 international stamp, pictured below, is available from CanadaPost.ca.
Raoul Wallenberg saved as many as 100,000 Jewish people in Budapest, Hungary during the Second World War. He designed a protective document called the Schutz-Pass featuring the symbols and colours of Sweden, which he handed out indiscriminately, often in dangerous circumstances, to people in the Jewish community. At the end of the war, he disappeared into Soviet custody with no satisfactory explanation of his fate.
Wallenberg became Canada’s first honorary citizen in 1985, and January 17th, the day of his disappearance, was designated as Raoul Wallenberg Day.
As I blogged last October, the city of Montreal made Wallenberg an honorary citizen at that time.
DCMontreal 