The Swedish Embassy in Israel will launch a special YouTube channel in memory of Righteous Among the Nations, Raoul Wallenberg. The channel will be launched at a special event to be held at the Swedish Ambassador's residence in Herzliya Pituach next week - the anniversary of Wallenberg's disappearance.
One of the main goals of the project is to perpetuate the memory and activities of Raoul Wallenberg, to disseminate to the general public the stories of the people who were saved thanks to him - and also to remember and preserve the stories for future generations.
In the first phase, four videos will be uploaded to the channel telling the stories of four people who survived the Holocaust thanks to Wallenberg's activities.
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Each of the survivors tells the camera their personal and family story, describes how they survived the Holocaust, and reveals how they were saved thanks to Wallenberg's activities.
In the second phase, the Swedish Embassy in Israel intends to develop the project, with the goal of meeting with additional survivors, hearing their stories, and revealing the content on the special channel.
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who was in Budapest during the Holocaust and helped tens of thousands of Jews escape from Nazi-occupied Hungary.
As part of his rescue operations, he issued thousands of Swedish asylum passports and gave them to Jews, established a network of 'Swedish houses' that were shelters and a safe place for Jews, exerted various pressures on senior Nazi and Hungarian officials to stop the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz, and also confronted SS men and personally stopped the deportation of Jews.
At the end of 2016, Raoul Wallenberg was officially declared dead, after being missing for 71 years.
Swedish Ambassador to Israel Carl Magnus: "The story of Raoul Wallenberg illustrates the strong connection between the Swedish people and the Jewish people. In anticipation of the anniversary of Wallenberg's disappearance, we decided to hold the event in memory of someone who worked hard to save the Jewish people and to launch the special channel in his memory, in order to preserve his special legacy and hear from the survivors how they survived thanks to the activities of Wallenberg, who was also awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
""The testimonies that the survivors reveal in front of the camera are moving and touching for each of us, and we all hope that these rare materials will also be useful for future generations. It is important to remember and not forget. I hope that other Jews who survived the Holocaust thanks to Raoul Wallenberg will contact us and tell their unique story, which will be uploaded to the channel in his memory and will perpetuate his work.".
