PETER KOHN

THE heroism of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved up to 100,000 Jews during the Holocaust, will be honoured on the weekend.

Melbourne survivors will gather at a ceremony at St Kilda Town Hall on Sunday January 17 at 11am to pay tribute to Wallenberg, who disappeared 65 years ago.

The annual event has the backing of B’nai B’rith’s Raoul Wallenberg Unit and the City of Port Philip, with Mayor Frank O’Connor due to address Sunday’s gathering.

Susan Ginesy, who was born in Budapest, was saved from deportation to the death camps when she was placed in one of the protected houses set up by Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat. She has written about her experiences in her memoirs, When I Was There … And Now.

Avraham Zeleznikow, who is a member of Raoul Wallenberg Unit and the elderly citizens committee at the City of Port Philip, said that while “most people are familiar with the story”, Wallenberg’s heroism needs to be commemorated, particularly in St Kilda and surrounding suburbs, where many Holocaust survivors live.

During 1944, Wallenberg, who was posted by his government to Budapest, saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews by thwarting attempts to transport them to Auschwitz.

Working illegally, he issued thousands of protective Swedish passports, and intervened to have Jews pulled off trains heading for Auschwitz.

When the Soviets invaded Budapest in January 1945, Wallenberg was taken into “protective custody”, and was last seen on January 17 of that year.

Some years later, the Soviet Union responded to a growing outcry for Wallenberg’s whereabouts by claiming simply that he had died in custody.

A memorial tree at St Kilda Town Hall is surrounded by a reflective seat, inscribed with the talmudic saying: “Whoever preserves the life of a single human being, it is as if he had preserved an entire world.”