Raoul Wallenberg Remembrance Day
Effective Date: Saturday, August 4th, 2012
WHEREAS, Raoul Gustav Wallenberg was born on August 4, 1912 in Lindingö, Sweden into a prominent family of bankers, statesmen, and diplomats, graduated with honors from the University of Michigan in 1935, and worked in South Africa, Palestine, and Europe, improving his natural talent at learning other languages and cultures; and
WHEREAS, Sweden maintained a neutral position throughout the Second World War. United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull requested Sweden’s covert cooperation as a diplomatic link between the United States and Hungary in an effort to save the lives of Hungarian Jews threatened with extermination by the Third Reich; and
WHEREAS, with his gift for languages and diplomacy, Wallenberg was recruited by the United States War Refugee Board to secretly undertake the rescue of Hungarian Jews while acting as a Swedish diplomat to Hungary. He did so with extraordinary courage, intelligence, and complete disregard for his own safety, successfully outmaneuvering Nazi authorities; and
WHEREAS, Wallenberg is credited with saving more lives than any other person in history. Through his noble work, at least 100,000 Hungarian Jews are thought to have been saved from the Nazi death camps; and
WHEREAS, Wallenberg is believed to have lost his own life in a Soviet gulag after the end of the war. Immediately following the liberation of Budapest, Soviet officials ordered Wallenberg’s arrest and imprisonment, in violation of international law and Wallenberg’s right of diplomatic immunity. His final fate was never discovered; and
WHEREAS, a Hungarian Jew saved by Wallenberg, Congressman Tom Lantos, at one time served in the administration of Alaska Senator Mike Gravel and ultimately in the United States Congress, where he always remembered his debt to Wallenberg. At the behest of Congress, President Ronald Reagan conferred the second honorary United States citizenship in history upon Raoul Wallenberg in 1981; and
WHEREAS, were he alive, Raoul Wallenberg would have celebrated his 100th birthday this month. Although his years were cut tragically short, his impact was magnified through the many people he saved, and through his remarkable example of sacrifice, moral courage, and the power of one life.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sean Parnell, Governor of the State of Alaska, do hereby proclaim August 4, 2012 as:
Raoul Wallenberg Remembrance Day
in Alaska, and encourage Alaskans to join with people across the world in honoring the heroism of Raoul Wallenberg.
Dated: August 3, 2012
