Raoul Wallenberg’s efforts to save Hungarian Jews from deportation in the Second World War are commemorated in a new exhibition at the Canadian War Museum.
An exhibition about a man who saved an estimated 100,000 Jews during the Holocaust has come to the Canadian War Museum, marking the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat based in Nazi-occupied Hungary during the Second World War, rescued huge numbers of Jews from being forcibly shipped to concentration camps.
He used his influence and government connections to build safe houses, bring in food and medicine, and issue fake documents known as “schutz-passes” that gave the Jews diplomatic immunity from deportation.
Many thousands of Jews avoided Nazi death camps because of his work.
“It’s a very powerful story,” says museum historian Jeff Noakes.
“It’s about courage and strength and about helping others, even in the face of great danger.”
The exhibition, “To me there’s no other choice,” was created by the Swedish Institute and the Living History Forum and features three sections made up of photos and text.
Noakes says details from Wallenberg’s childhood, his role as a diplomat in Hungary and finally his influence on the people he saved add a human story to the permanent Second World War displays at the LeBreton Flats museum.
Wallenberg was detained by the Soviet forces in 1945 and disappeared into the notorious gulag prison system.
The exhibition will also include a local story about Ottawa professor and philanthropist Erwin Koranyi.
Before his death in June, Koranyi donated his schutz-pass to the Ottawa Jewish Archives.
A photo of the pass, as well as a short biography, will be presented alongside the Wallenberg display.
The exhibition started in Hungary, travelling to the United States, Russia, Israel, and Germany on its way to Ottawa. After its stop at the Canadian War Museum, it will finish its tour in Toronto.
“I think the exhibition is very touching,” says tour manager Jenny Bergstrӧm. “We’ve met many people who have actually been saved by Raoul Wallenberg.”
Bergstrӧm says the exhibition has received an overwhelmingly positive response around the world.
The goal isn’t just to portray Wallenberg as a hero, she says, but to see how his actions affected people during and after the war.
Rabbi Barry Schlesinger, of Agudath Israel synagogue on Coldrey Avenue, plans to attend the exhibition and says he will encourage his congregation to do the same.
He says he hopes those who see it won’t just look at it as an amazing story.
“Hopefully it will inspire us to stop sitting on fences and be a part of something bigger than ourselves,” he says.
The exhibition is one of several events in Ottawa commemorating the centenary of Wallenberg’s birth, including a tree-planting ceremony earlier this month at Raoul Wallenberg Park in Nepean.
November is Holocaust Education Month.
Holocaust survivor and Ottawa west end resident Vera Gara, 79, attended the tree-planting. She says it’s important that members of the Ottawa community, both Jewish and non-Jewish, attend the exhibition.
“They should know what happened. They should know who Raoul Wallenberg was,” she says.
Bergstrӧm wants those who see the display in Ottawa to take away an important lesson from Wallenberg’s story.
“The message is we can learn from the past, that everyone has a responsibility to react,” she says. “That’s the title of the exhibition. He didn’t have a choice.”
“To me there’s no other choice” will remain on display in the lobby of the Canadian War Museum until Jan. 6.