Vile Jew hatred has reared its ugly head in Montreal which has endured the most anti-Semitic hate crimes of any city in North America.  Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel, anti-Semitic incidents in Canada have increased by an astounding 670%. Fueled by a progressive leftist agenda, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has done next to nothing to stem the anti-Semitism.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had remarked that ‘in the wake of the Holocaust… firewalls were thrown up, and the bonfires of antisemitism were for a time reduced to flickering embers. But those firewalls, weakened by the passage of time and willful neglect, have been breached. Cloaked in the armour of free speech, fuelled by hate and stoked by the oxygen of the internet and social media, those fires now burn out of control.’

Schools in Montreal have become “cesspools of anti-Jewish harassment.” Like its southern neighbor, Canada has opened its borders to immigrants who hail from countries where hatred of Jews is endemic. 

Clearly these people are indifferent to the Montreal-based statue of Raoul Wallenberg created by Paul Lancz, one of North America’s most famed and illustrious sculptors. His son Peter Lancz is head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign against Jew hatred and asserts that the bronze bust of Wallenberg “represents the quintessential educational tool to combat totalitarianism in all its forms.” 

Lancz emphatically explains that anti-Semitism is “the cancer of the human soul” and to this end, his mission is to fight this scourge.

In the annals of Righteous Gentiles, Raoul Wallenberg stands as a shining example of courage.  However, with the resurgence of anti-Semitism on campuses among the most credentialed and least educated students, it is time to reacquaint them with the meaning of genuine valor.

Consequently it is “not only dead Jews we need to commemorate but we must protect living Jews from a similar fate.” Peter Lancz looks to Dennis Prager who has asserted that “we cannot make a good society without the arduous task of making good individuals. The most uncommon of all good human traits is courage.  But without courage, goodness is not possible.”

Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat and businessman who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II by leading a rescue operation and negotiating with the Nazis. 

In Ingrid Carlberg’s book, one learns about the appointment of Wallenberg as Sweden’s Special Envoy to Budapest in 1944 as the systematic annihilation of Jews was ongoing.

“Wallenberg arrived in the Hungarian capital on 9 July 1944 with a list of Jews whom he was to help and 650 protective passports for Jews who had some connection with Sweden. However, he soon widened the scope of his work and began to issue thousands of protective letters and to purchase houses which he put under the Swedish flag thus making them ex-territorial, and where he housed Jews for extra protection. The protective letter authorized its holder to travel to Sweden or to any of the other countr[ies] Sweden represented. About 4,500 Jews had these papers, which protected them from forced labor and exempted them from wearing the yellow star.

In October 1944, however, the situation in Budapest worsened.

“The fascist ‘Arrow Cross’ seized power and established a reign of terror. Jews were being killed in the streets; others were dragged to the Danube River where they were shot or drowned in the freezing water. The number of Jews with protective papers quickly rose. Wallenberg used unconventional methods, including bribery and blackmail, in order to finance and run his huge rescue operation. He soon employed approximately 340 people in his office. In view of the grave situation, he began to issue protective papers without distinction, and had 32 buildings protected by Sweden, with two hospitals, and a soup kitchen. Wallenberg together with other legations and international organizations set up the international ghetto, protected by the neutral countries.

Adolf Eichmann returned to Budapest on October 17, 1944, and immediately ordered the deportation of the city’s Jews.

Consequently, “the protective letters were declared null and void. Eichmann ordered a ‘death march’ of tens of thousands of persons to the Austrian border. Wallenberg and representatives of other neutral countries followed the marchers in their vehicles, and distributed food, clothing and medications. He was able to extricate many Jews from the death march by claiming that they were his ‘protected’ Jews. He continued to distribute passes even when the Arrow Cross guards threatened him with their guns.”

Wallenberg’s bold methods put him in great danger, but he never thought of stopping.  In fact, “before the Soviets entered the city, he told Per Anger, his colleague in the Swedish legation: ‘I’ve taken on this assignment, and I will never be able to go back to Stockholm without knowing inside myself that I’d done all a man could do to save as many Jews as possible.’”

“When the Soviets entered the city, Wallenberg was taken away by Russian soldiers supposedly to meet with the top Soviet General Malinovsky. This was on 17 January 1945. He must have felt danger, because as he was led to the Russian vehicle he said: ‘I don’t know whether I am being taken as a guest of the Soviets or as their prisoner.’

“Wallenberg, who was 32 years old at the time, was never seen again. In the first years after his disappearance, the Soviets claimed that they had no knowledge of a person named Wallenberg. Nevertheless, people who were incarcerated in Soviet prisons claimed that they had met him in various prisons. In 1956, the Soviets finally stated that he had died in prison in 1947.

Few Swedes have received as much international acclaim and attention as Raoul Wallenberg. Around the world there are monuments, statues, and other works of art that honor Wallenberg. His memory is preserved through books, music, and films, and many buildings, squares, streets, schools and other institutions bear his name.

Raoul Wallenberg is a heroic role model whose bravery stands in stark contrast to the satanic evil of anti-Semitism.

On November 26, 1963, Yad Vashem recognized Raoul Wallenberg as Righteous Among the Nations.

His mother had asked not to receive the honors in his name, believing that her son would one day return.

In fact, “[i]t was only after her death, in 1979, [that] a tree was planted in Wallenberg’s honor in the Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem. In 1987 Wallenberg was awarded honorary Israeli citizenship. He was also awarded honorary American citizenship by the United States Congress. This motion was promoted by Congressman Tom Lantos, whose life was saved by Wallenberg.”

“In his address, delivered by his daughter at the UN Holocaust remembrance events in January 2008, Lantos paid tribute to Wallenberg: ‘During the Nazi occupation, this heroic young diplomat left behind the comfort and safety of Stockholm to rescue his fellow human beings in the hell that was wartime Budapest. He had little in common with them: he was a Lutheran, they were Jewish; he was a Swede, they were Hungarians. And yet with inspired courage and creativity he saved the lives of tens of thousands of men, women and children by placing them under the protection of the Swedish crown.’

So while the Jew haters in Montreal defined by their “ubiquitous Jew hatred” spew their vileness, Wallenberg’s humanitarian achievements are a beacon to decent people worldwide. 

His stance against evil serves as a “continuing reminder that every individual has a responsibility in the fight against racism. They show the importance of personal courage and of taking a stand -- because one individual can make a difference.”

May his name be a blessing for eternity and may the evil ones be irrevocably stopped.

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com

Image: Daderot