Raoul Wallenberg Day

Angel Sanz Briz

Today Neil and I went to the Vancouver
Raoul Wallenberg Day at VIFF"S Vancity Theatre, presented by the Consulate of Sweden, the Second Generation Group, and the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.  The program for the event included a City of Vancouver proclamation naming today as Vancouver Raoul Wallenberg Day and a tribute by the Honourary Consul of Sweden.  

The main feature of the day was the viewing of the film "The Budapest Angel", in Spanish with English subtitles which was introduced by a UBC Professor from the Department of French, Italian & Hispanic Studies, because the film is the story of Angel Sanz Briz, a Spanish diplomat posted in Budapest, Hungary during part of WWII.  Angel Sanz Briz is also called the "Spanish Schindler in Budapest" for rescuing so many Jewish orphans from the Holocaust.



Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat also posted in Budapest during WWII and would have been a contemporary of Angel Sanz Briz.  Wallenberg saved the lives of approximately 100,000 Jews by issuing them Swedish diplomatic passports or travel papers so they could escape Hungary. Wallenberg is remembered around January 17 each year, because that is the anniversary of the date of January 17,1945 when he disappeared into Soviet Union custody never to be seen again.  The Soviet Union had pushed the Nazis out of Budapest from the east at that time.

Raoul Wallenberg was made Canada's first "Honourary Citizen" in 1985 and a few days ago Canada Post issued a commemorative stamp in his honour:

Here is the commentary about Raoul Wallenberg from Canada Post's website:

About Raoul Wallenberg

Raoul Wallenberg saved as many as 100,000 Jewish people in Budapest, Hungary during the Second World War. He designed a protective document called the Schutz-Pass featuring the symbols and colours of Sweden, which he handed out indiscriminately, often in dangerous circumstances, to people in the Jewish community. At the end of the war, he disappeared into Soviet custody with no satisfactory explanation of his fate.

Wallenberg became Canada’s first honorary citizen in 1985, and January 17^th, the day of his disappearance, was designated as Raoul Wallenberg Day.

Happy New Year

So we have arrived at January 1, 2013, beginning a new year with hope and expectations for an adventurous and healthy year.  We celebrated New Year's Eve with friends, first by having a wonderful dinner at Minerva's in Kerrisdale.  It specializes in Italian and Green food and wonderful family friendly service.

They were extremely busy but handled all with good grace and smiles of welcome.  Then we went back to our friends condo for fabulous ice cream and good discussion.  Got to bed at midnight, hearing the banging of pots outside.

January 1st we thought would be a quiet day at home, but a phone call from other friends invited us for a walk in Pacific Spirit Park followed by a lunch of Swedish pancakes.  The four of us walked on trails in Pacific Spirit Park immediately south and west of Chancellor Boulevard, mainly the Spanish trail.  This led us to one of the only "bogs" in Vancouver.  In winter, with all the leaves off the deciduous trees, it can have quite an erie feeling, but there are great views of the ponds:

 

 

 

A beaver dam perhaps?

 

All, in all, a good day and beginning to 2013.  Happy New Year to family and friends!