Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, is observed this Thursday, April 24. This week’s columns are about the Holocaust.
Raoul Wallenberg—One of the Thirty-Six?
It is unlikely that we will know how many Hungarian Jews Raoul Wallenberg saved. It is in the tens of thousands and perhaps as many as one hundred thousand. He launched an initiative called “protective” passports, known as the Schutzpass. He also helped to establish “safe houses”, which, under the protection of the Swedish Legation, rescued some fifteen thousand to twenty thousand Jews.
On January 17, 1945, while on his way to visit Soviet military headquarters, Raoul Wallenberg was captured by the Soviets. Soviet sources later claimed he died in Lubyanka prison in July 1947. His cause of death is disputed but one thing we know. He never emerged from the Soviet prison.
The Jewish mystical tradition suggests there are thirty-six righteous people—Lamed-Vav Tazikim, or “Lamedvovkniks”—without whom the world would come to an end. These people are not identified or aware that they are righteous, and they don’t claim to be among the thirty-six.
Those who knew Raoul Wallenberg may very well have been in the presence of one of them.
—Rabbi David Woznica
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