In Honor of Raoul Wallenberg

A brief ceremony at Raoul Wallenberg Plaza, N.Y., Friday to commemorate the Swedish Hero. 

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  Members of the Wallenberg and Lantos families with Swedish officials and visiting Swedish politicians... Photography: Hanna Aqvilin.

• Members of the Wallenberg family visiting from Sweden along with members of the Lantos family* joined a large group of Swedish officials and politicians to observe this the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Swedish born diplomat.

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  Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, Per Westerberg, the eight Parliament leaders of Sweden’s political parties, Sweden’s Ambassador to the U.S. Jonas Hafström, Sweden’s Ambassador to the U.N. Mårten Grunditz, Honorary Consul General David E. R. Dangoor.

• If you haven't watched the brief 4-minute film from the U.S. Opening of the Raoul Wallenberg exhibition, see it now: U.S. opening of the Raoul Wallenberg exhibition

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  "Hope," the monument on the corner of First Avenue and 47th street was unveiled in 1998 to honor the Swedish WWII hero diplomat.

• Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish businessman and diplomat in charge of a rescue operation of the jewish population of Budapest in 1994. Wallenberg heroically saved tens of thousands of jews, later to succumb to another evil in the form of the occupying Russian troops. More on the fate of Raoul Wallenberg: 'One man can make a difference'

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  Olle Wästberg, former Consul General of Sweden in New York and coordinator for the Swedish Government’s Raoul Wallenberg Centennial, delivered a brief address followed by a moment of silence.

• Raoul Wallenberg Plaza, First Avenue and 47th Street, 3:30 pm. Photographed by Hanna Aqvilin.

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  Flowers were placed at the Raoul Wallenberg Monument on First Avenue, New York.

• *Tom Lantos (1928-2008) was a member of the United States House of Representatives (D), who was saved by the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and the only Holocaust survivor to have served in the United States Congress. Lantos gained a reputation for fighting for human rights and against oppression in every form and shape. U2 lead singer Bono called him a “prizefighter,” with stamina to make him go “any amount of rounds, with anyone, anywhere, to protect human rights and common decency." After Lantos's death, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which he founded in 1983, was renamed the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.