To me there´s no other choice
Raoul Wallenberg is one of the most famous and admired Swedes in the world. Working at the Swedish Legation in Budapest, he led the operation to rescue Jews from the Holocaust at the end of World War II.
During 2012 Sweden will honor Raoul Wallenberg by highlighting his deeds and his fate. As part of the program, the exhibition "To me there´s no other choice – Raoul Wallenberg 1912–2012" will be toured internationally by the Swedish Institute. It was inaugurated at the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest on 17 January, the date when Raoul Wallenberg disappeared in 1945. The exhibition is a platform for dialogue on issues about tolerance, democracy and personal courage. It has been produced by the Swedish Institute on behalf of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and in collaboration with the Living History Forum.
After Budapest, the tour continues to New York, Washington DC, Moscow, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Ottawa and Toronto.
As a businessman, Raoul Wallenberg had made a number of wartime visits to Hungary. The American War Refugee Board, whose task was to save Jews and other groups from Nazi persecution, appointed him to launch a rescue operation in Budapest, then occupied by Germany.
In the space of a few months – from July 1944 to January 1945 – he managed to save tens of thousands of Jews. By issuing Swedish protective passports and renting buildings, ‘Swedish houses’, where Jews could seek shelter, Wallenberg saved many from deportation. Although he was not the heroic type in the ordinary sense, he was a fearless, skilled negotiator and organizer, according to the diplomat Per Anger, who was also stationed at the Swedish Legation during the war.
On 17 January 1945, Raoul Wallenberg and his chauffeur Vilmos Langfelder left the city with a Soviet escort for a meeting at the Soviet HQ outside Budapest – a meeting from which they never returned. Ever since, Raoul Wallenberg’s family have sought in vain to find out what happened to him. The Russians for their part claim that he died in Lubyanka Prison on 17 July 1947. This claim, however, has never been substantiated, nor has it been generally accepted in Sweden.
The year 2012 is the centenary of Raoul Wallenberg´s birth. His humanitarian achievements live on today, a lasting reminder that every individual has a responsibility to oppose racism and other human rights violations. They show the importance of personal courage and of taking a stand – and that a single individual can indeed make a difference.
For more information contact:
Jenny Bergström, Tour and program manager, 
, +46 73 231 85 26
Inger Envall, Exhibition manager, 
, +46 73 684 20 06