The annual Raoul Wallenberg Day Jan. 15 at the Vancity Theatre is special this year as it marks the 100th anniversary of the Swede's birth. Wallenberg was a diplomat who saved the lives of about 100,000 people in Hungary who were condemned to die by the Nazis during the Second World War. He disappeared Jan. 17, 1945, and was subsequently imprisoned in the Soviet Union. Beyond this, the fate of Wallenberg is a mystery. This year, the Japanese and Lithuanian communities join with the Swedish and Jewish communities for the screening of The Visas that Saved Lives, about the "Japanese Schindler," Consul General Chiune Sugihara who came to the aid of Jews fleeing the Nazis in Lithuania. Sugihara sacrificed his career, but saved as many as 6,000 Jews. For more information, go to vhec.org.
