President Barack Obama today honored Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg in commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day.

This year marks 100 years since Raoul Wallenberg was born. He became an American honorary citizen in 1981.

Wallenberg saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews in the last months of World War II, but was captured in January 1945 by advancing Soviet troops and died in a Soviet prison a couple of years later.

President Obama:

“We remember and revere this courageous man whose efforts saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust. Wallenberg paid with his life for his commitment to basic values. And we all have the obligation to ponder the full measure of Wallenberg’s personal sacrifice and tragedy.”

The Holocaust Memorial Day was commemorated in the U.S. Congress and with a seminar and an exhibition about the Swedish diplomat at the House of Sweden in Washington, DC.