SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Raoul Wallenberg Cen-
tennial Celebration Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) Raoul Wallenberg was born in Europe on 
August 4, 1912, to Swedish Christian parents. 
(2) In 1935, he graduated from the University 
of Michigan in Ann Arbor, completing a five-year 
program in three-and-a-half years. 
(3) In a letter to his grandfather, Wallenberg 
wrote of his time in America: ‘‘I feel so at home in 
my little Ann Arbor that I’m beginning to sink down 
roots here and have a hard time imagining my leav-
ing it. . . . Every now and then I feel strange when 
I think about how tiny my own country is and how 
large and wonderful America is.’’. 
(4) Raoul returned to Sweden, where he began 
a career as a businessman, and afterwards, a Swed-
ish diplomat. 
(5) In 1936, Raoul’s grandfather arranged a 
position for him at the Holland Bank in Haifa, Pal-
estine. There Raoul began to meet young Jews who 
had already been forced to flee from Nazi persecu-
tion in Germany. Their stories affected him deeply.
(6) He was greatly troubled by the fate of Jews 
in Europe, confiding to actress Viveca Lindfors the 
horrific plight of Jews under Nazi Europe. 
(7) Under the direction of President Franklin 
D. Roosevelt, the War Refugee Board was estab-
lished in January 1944 to aid civilians that fell vic-
tim to the Nazi and Axis powers in Europe. 
(8) One of War Refugee Board’s top priorities 
was protection of the 750,000 Hungarian Jews still 
alive. 
(9) It was decided that Raoul Wallenberg, aged 
31 at the time, would be most effective in protecting 
Jews and victims of the Nazis in Hungary under the 
War Refugee Board. He was recruited by Iver 
Olsen, an agent for the Office of Strategic Services 
and sent to Budapest, Hungary, under his official 
profession as a Swedish diplomat. He was instructed 
to use passports and other creative means to save as 
many lives as possible. 
(10) Wallenberg created a new Swedish pass-
port, the Schutzpass, which looked more imposing 
and official than the actual Swedish passport. He re-
portedly put up huge place cards of it throughout 
Budapest to make the Nazis familiar with it. He 
unilaterally announced that it granted the holder im-
munity from the death camps. The Schutzpasses 
alone are credited with saving 20,000 Jewish lives. 
(11) In one example of his heroism, Wallenberg 
was told of a Nazi plot to round up several thousand 
Jewish women and acted swiftly to save them. 
Former Wallenberg staffer, Agnes Adachi, recalls 
the time when she and other staff, spent the whole 
night making around 2,000 Schutzpasses before 6 
a.m. They were all completed and personally deliv-
ered to the women in time to save their lives. 
(12) Using the money the United States put 
into the War Refugee Board, Wallenberg was able to 
purchase about thirty buildings, which he used as 
hospitals, schools, soup kitchens, and safe houses for 
over 8,000 children whose parents have already been 
deported or killed. 
(13) Tommy Lapid, a young boy who was stay-
ing with his mother in a Swedish safe house (his fa-
ther was already dead), gave an eyewitness account 
of how his family was helped by Wallenberg and the 
War Refugee Board: ‘‘One morning, a group of 
Hungarian Fascists came into the house and said 
that all the able-bodied women must go with them. 
We knew what this meant. My mother kissed me 
and I cried and she cried. We knew we were parting
forever and she left me there, an orphan to all in-
tents and purposes. Then two or three hours later, 
to my amazement, my mother returned with the 
other women. It seemed like a mirage, a miracle. My 
mother was there—she was alive and she was hug-
ging me and kissing me, and she said one word: 
Wallenberg.’’. 
(14) Even as the war was coming to a close, 
Wallenberg remained vigilant and attentive to the 
people under his care. Adolf Eichmann, the SS colo-
nel charged with the extermination of Jews in East-
ern Europe, was determined to exterminate the 
70,000 Jews kept as prisoners in a guarded ghetto 
in Budapest. As soon as Wallenberg heard of the 
plot, he sent Pal Szalay, an Arrow-Crossman senior 
official, who defected and turned to Wallenberg. 
Szalay was sent to speak to General Schmidthuber, 
who was ordered to spearhead the ghetto extermi-
nation in Budapest. Szalay informed Schmidthuber 
that, seeing as the war was coming to an end, if the 
planned massacre took place, Wallenberg would see 
to it personally that Schmidthuber would be pros-
ecuted as a war criminal and hanged. The plans 
were ultimately abandoned and considered Wallen-
berg’s last big victory.
(15) Of the 120,000 Hungarian Jews that sur-
vived, Raoul Wallenberg, acting under the War Ref-
ugee Board, is credited with saving an estimated 
100,000 of them in a six-month period. 
(16) Raoul Wallenberg’s fate remains a mys-
tery. In January 13, 1945, he contacted the Rus-
sians in an effort to secure food for the Jews under 
his protection—as he was still working hard to pro-
tect them. 
(17) In 1981, President Ronald Reagan made 
Raoul Wallenberg an honorary citizen of the United 
States, an honor only previously extended to Win-
ston Churchill. 
(18) These findings show that Raoul Wallen-
berg showed exceptional heroism and bravery with 
his actions during the holocaust. Working with the 
War Refugee Board, a United State’s agency, he 
was able to save about 100,000 Hungarian Jews, 
many of which were later able to immigrate to the 
United States. 
(19) Indeed, hundreds of thousands of Amer-
ican Jews can directly or indirectly attribute their 
own lives to Raoul Wallenberg’s actions during 
World War II. Many of the people Wallenberg saved 
have been influential citizens contributing to Amer-
ican institutions and culture, including Congressman 
Tom Lantos (February 1, 1928–February 11, 
2008), Annette Lantos, and the Liska Rebbe, Rabbi 
Yoizef (Joseph) Friedlander, who carried forth the 
Liska Hassidic dynasty from Hungary to the United 
States after being saved by Raoul Wallenberg. 
(20) His actions and character make him an ex-
cellent contender for a Congressional Gold Medal in 
time for the centennial of his birth, to celebrate his 
achievements and humanitarian accomplishments. 
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 
(a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 
the House of Representatives and the President pro tem-
pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 
for the presentation, on behalf of the Congress, of a gold 
medal of appropriate design to the next of kin or personal 
representative of Raoul Wallenberg, in recognition of his 
achievements and heroic actions during the Holocaust. 
(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purpose of the 
presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary 
of the Treasury shall strike a gold medal with suitable em-
blems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the 
Secretary.
deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise 
Fund. 
Passed the House of Representatives April 16, 2012. 
Attest: 
Clerk.
112TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 3001 
AN ACT 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Raoul 
Wallenberg, in recognition of his achievements 
and heroic actions during the Holocaust.