(Vancouver, January 2, 2013) – On Sunday, January 20 the Swedish and Jewish communities will celebrate Raoul Wallenberg Day with a screening of the film “The Budapest Angel” about the heroic Spanish diplomat in Hungary who saved Jews from the Nazis in much the same way as Wallenberg did. The 2011 Spanish movie, (PG) with English subtitles, will be shown at Vancity Theatre at the Vancouver International Film Centre, 1181 Seymour Street, at 1.30 pm. The event is free and everybody is welcome. Refreshments will be served.
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of as many as a hundred thousand people in Hungary condemned to certain death by the Nazis during World War II. He disappeared on January 17, 1945, and was subsequently imprisoned in the Soviet Union. Beyond this, the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, who is an honorary citizen of Canada, USA and Israel, remains in a cloud of mystery. Raoul Wallenberg has been honoured with a plaque in Queen Elizaberth Park, and the City of Vancouver has followed the example of so many places around the world by proclaiming an annual “Raoul Wallenberg Day”.
“The Budapest Angel” focuses on Ángel Sanz Briz, the Spanish Charge d’Affairs in Hungary during World War II who helped to save the lives of thousands of Sephardic Jews from the Holocaust by
lodging them in Spanish safe houses in Budapest. Ángel Sanz Briz was assisted is his efforts by an Italian businessman known as “Ambassador Jorge”. The film includes a romantic storyline involving a Jew who falls in love with the sister of a Hungarian Arrow Cross brute.
