SWEDEN POST (PostNord Sverige) on 10 May 2012 issued a first day cover minisheet that honored Raoul Wallenberg on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
The stamp included two portrait photographs of Raoul Wallenberg from different periods of his life. The stamp was part of a minisheet that also includes a view of Budapest, one of the protective passports issued at the end of the war by the Swedish Legation in the Hungarian capital and Raoul Wallenberg’s signature.
The designer was Gustav Mårtensson, the engraver was Lars Sjööblom and the stamp was printed in a combination of recess and offset at Sweden Post’s stamp printing works in Kista. The denomination was SEK 12, International letters and greetings.
This was the second time that Sweden Post issued a stamp depicting Raoul Wallenberg. In 1987, he was celebrated together with Dag Hammarskjöld and Folke Bernadotte in the In the Service of Humanity issue. Additionally, the United States, Canada, Australia, Hungary and Israel have issued commemorative stamps of Wallenberg.
Raoul Wallenberg (1912 - 1947?) was a Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat, and humanitarian. He is widely recognised for having saved thousands of Jews in German-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust from German Nazis and Hungarian Arrow Cross perpetrators during the later stages of World War II. As an envoy to the Swedish Embassy in Hungary, he issued protective passports and sheltered Jews in buildings designated as Swedish territory, thus saving thousands of lives.
On 17 January 1945, during the Siege of Budapest by the Red Army, Wallenberg was detained by SMERSH on suspicion of espionage and subsequently disappeared. He was later reported to have died on 17 July 1947 while imprisoned in the Lubyanka, the prison at the headquarters of the KGB secret police in Moscow. The motives behind Wallenberg's arrest and imprisonment by the Soviet government, along with questions surrounding the circumstances of his death and his ties to U.S. intelligence, remained mysterious and were the subject of continued speculation.
In May 1996, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released thousands of previously classified documents regarding Raoul Wallenberg, in response to requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents, along with an investigation conducted by the news magazine U.S. News and World Report, appeared to confirm the long-held suspicion that Wallenberg was an American intelligence asset during his time in Hungary.
His humanitarian role has been honoured in many ways and continues to be so. He was the second person to be granted honorary citizenship of the United States of America (after Winston Churchill), and the first one to be granted this right posthumously. He was also granted honorary citizenships in Canada, Australia, Hungary, and Israel.
The designer was Gustav Mårtensson, the engraver was Lars Sjööblom and the stamp was printed in a combination of recess and offset at Sweden Post’s stamp printing works in Kista. The denomination was SEK 12, International letters and greetings.
This was the second time that Sweden Post issued a stamp depicting Raoul Wallenberg. In 1987, he was celebrated together with Dag Hammarskjöld and Folke Bernadotte in the In the Service of Humanity issue. Additionally, the United States, Canada, Australia, Hungary and Israel have issued commemorative stamps of Wallenberg.
Raoul Wallenberg (1912 - 1947?) was a Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat, and humanitarian. He is widely recognised for having saved thousands of Jews in German-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust from German Nazis and Hungarian Arrow Cross perpetrators during the later stages of World War II. As an envoy to the Swedish Embassy in Hungary, he issued protective passports and sheltered Jews in buildings designated as Swedish territory, thus saving thousands of lives.
On 17 January 1945, during the Siege of Budapest by the Red Army, Wallenberg was detained by SMERSH on suspicion of espionage and subsequently disappeared. He was later reported to have died on 17 July 1947 while imprisoned in the Lubyanka, the prison at the headquarters of the KGB secret police in Moscow. The motives behind Wallenberg's arrest and imprisonment by the Soviet government, along with questions surrounding the circumstances of his death and his ties to U.S. intelligence, remained mysterious and were the subject of continued speculation.
In May 1996, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released thousands of previously classified documents regarding Raoul Wallenberg, in response to requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents, along with an investigation conducted by the news magazine U.S. News and World Report, appeared to confirm the long-held suspicion that Wallenberg was an American intelligence asset during his time in Hungary.
His humanitarian role has been honoured in many ways and continues to be so. He was the second person to be granted honorary citizenship of the United States of America (after Winston Churchill), and the first one to be granted this right posthumously. He was also granted honorary citizenships in Canada, Australia, Hungary, and Israel.
Source: Wikipedia and Kofi Annan Foundation
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