Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947?)

WALLENBERG, RAOUL (19121947?) Swedish diplomat who became a legend through his work to save Hungarian Jewry at the end of World War II. Descended from a long line of bankers and diplomats, he was an architect by profession; in 1936, he spent six months in Haifa, where he studied management at the Holland Bank, and first met with Jewish refugees from Germany. Upon his return to Stockholm, he became the foreign representative of a central European trading company, whose president was a Hungarian Jew, K. Lauer. In July 1944, the Swedish Foreign Ministry, at the request of Jewish organizations, sent him on a rescue mission to Budapest, as an attachM to the Swedish Embassy. By this time, 476,000 Hungarian Jews had already been deported to extermination camps, and deportation had been ordered for Budapest Jewry. Wallenberg's chief operation was the distribution of Swedish certificates of protection ("Wallenberg Passports" or Schutz-Paesse), which were initially granted to Jews who had some link with Sweden. Wallenberg applied pressure on the Hungarian government and gained friends and assistants for his work. His department "Section 3for Humanitarian Aims" employed 300 Jews. When the Arrow Cross seized power in October 1944, Wallenberg initiated the establishment of the "international ghetto." About 33,000 Jews, 7,000 of whom had Swedish protection, thus found refuge in houses flying the flags of neutral countries. In November 1944, thousands of Budapest Jews, including women and children, were forced on a "death march" via the town of Hegyeshalom, to the Austrian border. Wallenberg and Per Anger, the Embassy's secretary, followed after them with a convoy of trucks carrying food and clothing, and he himself distributed medicaments to the dying, and food and clothing to the marchers. By superhuman efforts he managed to free some 500 persons and return them to Budapest. He saved several hundred members of labor detachments who had been put on the deportation train. In Budapest, he organized "International Labor Detachments," and even a "Jewish Guard," consisting of Aryan-looking Jews dressed in S.S. and Arrow Cross uniforms, and established two hospitals and soup kitchens. Eichmann threatened to kill him, referring to him as "Judenhund Wallenberg." Wallenberg formulated a comprehensive plan to restore the Hungarian economy when peace came. During the liberation, he presented himself to Soviet army guards, who were reconnoitering the streets of Budapest. He was last seen on Jan. 17, 1945, when, accompanied by a Russian officer and his driver, he was traveling to Debrecen, in order to report to Soviet army headquarters; thereafter, there was no further trace of him. In 195152, when prisoners-of-war from the Axis countries returned home from the Soviet Union, it was learned that Wallenberg was in a forced labor camp. The Swedish Foreign Ministry sent a note to the Soviet authorities, who, after renewed investigation, announced that Wallenberg had died in his cell on July 17, 1947, of a sudden heart attack. However, no further information was available and the circumstances of his final disappearance were regarded by many as unsolved. (Encyclopedia Judaica)