Raoul WallenbergPrint Page

The garden commemorates the Swedish World War Two diplomat and humanist who during 1944 and 1945 saved thousands of lives in Hungary. A sculpture by Anna Cohn was erected in the garden in 1985. 

One of the most significant rescues of Jews during the Holocaust was mounted by a young Swedish aristocrat named Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg`s family were involved in banking and he had once worked in the Haifa (Palestine) branch, getting to know many Jews there. He also had a Hungarian Jewish business partner back in Sweden. For these reasons, Wallenberg was chosen to head a Swedish diplomatic mission to rescue the Jews of Hungary.

Based in Budapest, he set up a department which issued local Jews with important-looking certificates, emblazoned with a yellow and blue flag and Sweden`s crown. The holders of these "Wallenberg passports" were protected from the Nazi bureaucracy and thereby avoided being deported to Auschwitz. This protection lasted for three months, during which time 10 000 other Hungarian Jews were deported there every day. Raoul Wallenberg disappeared into Soviet custody in 1945. At one time the Soviets claimed that he had died in custody in 1947, but it may never be know what happened to him.

In 2013, Raoul Wallenberg was made Australia`s first honorary citizen by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

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