Mr. Speaker, January 17, 1995 will be the 50th anniversary of the arrest of Raoul Wallenberg by the Soviet army.
In 1944 Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat and businessman, persuaded his government to send him to Budapest where he rescued thousands of Jews by sheltering them in protected homes, flying the flags of Sweden and other neutral countries.
After his arrest Wallenberg disappeared in the Soviet prison system. Over the years various human rights groups have acted on his behalf and tried to get from the KGB information about his whereabouts.
No one knows definitively whether he is alive or dead. The Government of Canada should persist in its efforts to obtain from the Russians the real truth about what happened to Raoul Wallenberg and a pubic acknowledgement of his contribution to humanity.
As Elie Wiesel has written, Wallenberg will forever testify for man's need to remain human and his ability to succeed.