Attending were:

A number of Raoul Wallenberg Unit members, including the Raoul Wallenberg Unit Co-Presidents, Margaret Heselev and Wendy Waller, travelled to Canberra to attend the

Conferring of Honorary Citizenship of Australia upon Raoul Wallenberg. 

Jim Altman from Sydney represented B’nai B’rith Australia/New Zealand.
The function took place on Monday 6 May 2013 at Government House, Canberra.   
​Australia’s head of state, Governor-General Quentin Bryce said, in an eloquent address, that the certificate naming Raoul Wallenberg as an honorary citizen will be displayed in rotation between the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre in Melbourne and the Sydney Jewish Museum. 
Governor-General Quentin Bryce and Mr Ervin Forrester at Government House, 6 May 2013
 Picture
From left: Mr Ervin Forrester,
Hungarian Ambassador Anna Siko; and 
Swedish Ambassador Sven Olof Peterssen at
Government House, Canberra, 6 May 2013 
From left: Mr Ervin Forrester with the Raoul Wallenberg Schutzpass which saved his life during the Holocaust; and The Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP at Government House, Canberra.  6 May 2013 

The Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP and Judi Schiff at Government House, Canberra.  6 May 2013 - Photo: Dr David Blumenthal







To the right are Jan Anger, son of Per Anger who worked with Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest; and
Peter Forrester, son of Ervin Forrester who was saved by Raoul Wallenberg, at Government House, Canberra, 6 May 2013
In the presence of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, diplomats of the Israeli, Swedish and Hungarian embassies, Jewish community leaders and Holocaust survivors, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said it was “entirely fitting” that “this man of moral courage and heroic example” be named as Australia’s first honorary citizen. The Prime Minister told the Wallenberg story with great perception, empathy and sympathy. Her speech, in which she thanked Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus for his involvement in the lead-up to the change in Honorary Citizenship, is available here, on her web site and on JWire. It is well worth reading. 

Among the guests was Prof Frank Vajda, who faced a firing squad and near-certain death in 1944 when Wallenberg arrived to secure his release. 

Professor Frank Vajda is pictured to the left next to the Certificate of Raoul Wallenberg's Honorary Australian Citizenship

For those of us who have hoped for and worked towards the achievement of a category of Honorary Citizenship being established in Australia specifically for Raoul Wallenberg, Monday morning, the sixth of May, was the realisation of a dream. 


Reported and photographed by Judi Schiff