The event will take place on Friday, 15 October 2010 at 10:00 at the British Embassy.

British Ambassador Greg Dorey will deliver a welcome speech at the commemoration alongside Ms Cecilia Björner Ambassador of Sweden and Mr Gábor Forgács on behalf of the Raoul Wallenberg Association. After unveiling the memorial plaque, which is the work of the sculptor Mr Antal Czinder, flowers of remembrance can be placed under the plaque. The ceremony will be followed by refreshments in the Embassy.

Please register for the event through Daniel Faber by clicking here or call (1) 429 6298

Raoul Walenberg was born into a wealthy Swedish family. He had trained in the United States as an architect, though went into business at home and joined the Central European Trade Company. He first arrived in Budapest aged 32 to attempt the rescue of the relatives of his colleague Kálmán Lauer. However, his mission soon expanded. At that time he helped thousands of Hungarian Jews avoid deportation to concentration camps. After his arrest in 1945 by Soviet authorities, nothing certain is known of him. The Soviet authorities claimed that he died in 1947, but survivors of Soviet prisons reported that he may have been alive as late as the 1970s.

Hazai Bank did try to help its Jewish customers to save their valuables from total confiscation by the authorities. It was also able to make a wider gesture towards Hungary's threatened Jewish community. Raoul Wallenberg was looking for safe houses in which he could shelter Jews and where he could work. In November 1944 the Bank leased the third floor of the building to the Swedish Legation.

The Raoul Wallenberg Association Hungary was established on 17 December 1988 in Budapest. The Association was set up to defend the rights of various minority groups. Its founders included college and university students, sociologists, economists and journalists. They considered it a key issue in evolving democracy in Hungary to assure the same rights to minorities of all sorts (national, ethnic, religious, political, cultural, and other) as those enjoyed by Hungarian society in general. The Association fosters relations with several Wallenberg memorial organizations in other countries, including the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. More information: www.wallenbergegyesulet.hu

On 15 October 1944 the crisis deepened in Hungary. This is the date of the armistice radio announcement of Horthy, after which the hunt for Hungarian Jews began with the control of Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi.

The  British Embassy in Budapest cooperates with partners to promote tolerance, of which the work of Raoul Wallenberg is an excellent example."

Source: British Embassy in Budapest