Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, August 11 2022 - The Raoul Wallenberg International Foundation, a non-profit non-governmental organization that searches for Holocaust rescuers and advocates for their recognition, has awarded Milan the title of honorary member.

The president of the Foundation Eduardo Eurnekian, and Baruch Tenembaum, its founder, sent the Municipality of Milan the request to join the Foundation, which the Administration promptly accepted.

An important and significant act for the city and for all the Milanese who contributed to rescuing men, women and children from the horror of the Nazi-Fascist extermination camps. And a further incentive for all those who still today are committed to keeping alive the truth and the memory of people and facts that have marked the history of our country.

The Raoul Wallenberg organization is named after a Swedish diplomat who in 1944 saved tens of thousands of Jews and other persecuted people in Hungary during the Shoah. In Budapest he established a special "humanitarian section" at the Swedish mission with the specific task of saving Hungarian Jews. To do this, Wallenberg invented a new type of document, the Schutzpass: a protective passport that was given to people with close family or business ties to Sweden. The holder of this type of passport did not have to wear the mandatory Star of David and was exempt from having to follow most anti-Semitic laws.

Wallenberg also employed hundreds of Jews in the humanitarian section of the mission to provide them with protection. He is recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.

Raoul Wallenberg Day is celebrated every October 5th in the United States. The purpose of the commemorative day is to promote peace and the values ​​that derive from humanitarianism and personal commitment, just as Raoul Wallenberg did.

The Wallenberg Foundation has the support of over 300 heads of state, royal families, Nobel Prize winners, governors and mayors. Among its honorary members also the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Francis.

Milan helps to keep alive the memory and commitment of many people who with their lives have made a difference compared to the indifferent. The Milan is memory platform, desired by the Municipality of Milan, is the tool for narrating all this.