Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” together with the “Hesed Menachem” Foundation continues its educational activities within the framework of the "Jewish Heritage" project. On August 8, 2025, another open lecture session was held, which was conducted by the Museum's researcher Dilfuza Hlushchenko. The meeting entitled “And a Warrior in the Field” was dedicated to the Righteous Among the Nations, who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from inevitable death during the Holocaust. His biography is an amazing combination of nobility, manifestations of the best human qualities and a detective story of kidnapping and tragic death.

Raoul Wallenberg was born on August 4, 1912, in Lidingö, Sweden, to one of the wealthiest families in Sweden. He served in the military and graduated with honors from the University of Michigan (1931). On business, Wallenberg traveled to many European countries, where he met Jews who had fled Nazi Germany. These meetings made a deep impression on him, and he was outraged by the Nazis' misanthropic policies. In July 1944, Raoul Wallenberg was appointed first secretary of the Swedish diplomatic mission in Budapest. Using his official position, the young diplomat introduced an innovation – a new type of document for Hungarian Jews, the so-called “protection passport” (Schutzpass), which granted its holders the status of Swedish citizens while awaiting repatriation. Wallenberg managed to obtain permission to issue 4,500 protection passports. However, this quota exceeded three times. In addition to issuing protective passports, Raoul Wallenberg also recruited hundreds of Jews to work in the humanitarian sector of the embassy, ​​providing them with protection. In addition, on his initiative, houses were purchased, the facades of which were placed with the Swedish flag, thereby turning them into a safe area in which Jews were resettled. If all categories are considered, the number of Jews saved by Raoul Wallenberg reaches 100,000 people.

On January 17, 1945, Raoul Wallenberg and his driver were seen accompanied by Soviet officers and soldiers. Since that day, there has been no news of the diplomat. Searches by relatives, friends, and official inquiries by the Swedish authorities for many years have yielded no results. Only on October 31, 2016, did Sweden officially recognize the death of Raoul Wallenberg. You can learn more about the tragic fate of the most famous diplomat-righteous person here https://www.jmhum.org/uk/news-list/1931-ts-ogo-dnya-17-s-chnya-1945-r-zniknennya-raulya-vallenberga

Jewish heritage is multifaceted. Let's learn interesting things together!