On 4 December 2012, the exhibition “Man Amidst Inhumanity” organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary was launched at the Tolerance Centre of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. Professor Ulf Zander of Lund University, Sweden, delivered the lecture “Raoul Wallenberg as a Historical Cultural Symbol”. During the opening of the exhibition a short documentary about the life of Wallenberg (1912 –C 1947), Swedish diplomat and a Righteous Among the Nations, was also shown.

During World War II, Wallenberg risked his life hundreds of times saying that his life was only one man’s life, while this was the issue of saving many lives. He succeeded in saving about 20 000 people. In 1945 Wallenberg was arrested by the Russian secret police, the  NKVD. The exact date of the diplomat’s death is not known; it is believed that he died in one of Russia’s prisons in C 1947. Raoul Wallenberg is an honorary citizen of Sweden, Hungary, Canada, the USA, and Israel; Israel also designated Wallenberg one of the Righteous Among the Nations. 

The exhibition “Man Amidst Inhumanity” was arranged and the documentary that was shown during the time the exhibition was on, was produced by the House of Terror Museum, Hungary, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary.

The 4 December event was initiated by the embassies of Hungary and Sweden in Lithuania, Israeli Embassy to Latvia and Lithuania, and the Tolerance Centre of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum  in order to mark the centenary of Wallenberg’s birth. Those present were welcomed by the director of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, Markas Zingeris, the Swedish Ambassador Cecilia Ruthstrom-Ruin, and Hungarian Ambassador Zoltan Peche. The welcoming address by the Israeli Ambassador to Latvia and Lithuania, Hagit Ben-Yaakov, was read. The Norwegian Ambassador Leif Arne Ulland, the counsellor at the French Embassy and deputy head of the mission, Antoine Peblois, Danish Ambassador Jorgen Molde, Turkish Ambassador Akin Algan, Austrian Ambassador Helmut Koller, and the first secretary of the Polish Embassy, Michal Grodsky were present.

The violinist Borisas Kirzneris played at the opening of the exhibition.