Raoul Wallenberg
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Raoul Wallenberg (born 1912) in passport photo from June 1944 |
(born
August 4,
1912, exact date of death is unknown) was a
Swedish diplomat and a member of the influential
Wallenberg family. In the later stages of
World War II, he worked tirelessly and at great personal risk to save many thousands of Hungarian Jews from the
Holocaust. He was later arrested by the Soviets who suspected him of being a spy; the circumstances of his death while in their custody are still a matter of great controversy.
He was born in Kappsta,
Sweden to Raoul Oscar Wallenberg (1888-1912), a Swedish naval officer, and Maria "Maj" Sofia Wising (1891-1979), who had some
Jewish ancestors. Raoul senior died of cancer three months before his son was born. His paternal grandfather was also a Swedish diplomat. In 1918, his mother married Fredrik von Dardel. Raoul Wallenberg also had a maternal half-sister, Nina, whose daughter Nane is married to
Kofi Annan.
In 1931, Wallenberg went to study in the
United States and received a
bachelor's degree in architecture from the
University of Michigan in
1935. He also learned Russian. He returned to Sweden, and his grandfather arranged a job for him in
Cape Town, South Africa, where he worked for a Swedish company that sold construction material. In the same year, he went to work at a branch office of a Dutch bank in
Haifa, where he befriended a Hungarian Jew. He returned to Sweden in 1936 and took a job at The Central European Trading Company. The firm was owned by a Jewish man, Lauer, who was barred from visiting certain areas of
Europe, so Wallenberg went instead. There, he learned how the Nazis thought and how best to speak with them.
During the Holocaust, Wallenberg was deeply disturbed by the Nazis' campaign. He was assigned as first secretary to the Swedish legation in
Budapest, Hungary, on
July 9,
1944. He used his diplomatic status to save many Hungarian Jews by issuing them Swedish "protective passports" (German:
Schutz-Pass), which identified the bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation. Although not legally valid, these documents looked impressively official and were generally accepted by the German and Hungarian authorities, occasionally aided by outright bribery. He also rented houses for Jewish refugees with embassy funds and put up fake signs such as "The Swedish Library" and "The Swedish Research Institute" on their doors. He housed other refugees in the Swedish legation in
Budapest. He skillfully negotiated with
Nazi officials such as
Adolf Eichmann and the commander of the
German Army in Hungary, General
Gerhard Schmidthuber and got them to cancel deportations to German concentration camps by having his fascist ally, Pál Szalay, deliver a note in which Wallenberg threatened to have them prosecuted for war crimes. This was just two days before the Russians arrived.
Wallenberg is thought by the Israeli organization
Yad Vashem to have personally saved the lives of many thousands of Hungarian Jews. An apocryphal story credits him with either threatening or persuading a German general to ignore orders from
Adolf Hitler to destroy the ghettos and kill the remaining inhabitants in the last desperate days before Budapest's liberation. If true, the number of people saved by Wallenberg's actions would rise to about 100,000. When the Russians finally took over, they found 97,000 Jews living in Budapest's two ghettos. In total, 120,000 of the pre-war population of about 330,000 Hungarian Jews survived.
Wallenberg was arrested by the Soviet
Red Army on
January 17,
1945 as they entered Budapest, probably on suspicion of being a spy for the
United States. To this day, the U.S. government refuses to either confirm or deny this. He was taken to Lubyanka in Moscow with his driver Langfelder. Wallenberg was then transferred to Lefortovo prison in another part of Moscow for two more years.
On February 6, 1957, under international pressure, the Soviets released a document they claimed to have found in their archives stating that "the prisoner Wallenberg, who is known to you, died last night in his cell." The document was dated July 17, 1947, and was signed by Smoltsov, then head of the
Lubyanka prison infirmary. The note was addressed to
Viktor Abakumov, the Soviet minister of state security. However, the Soviets did not explain why they had not released this information earlier.
There were many reports of sightings long after the official date of his death. Prisoners released from the
Gulag claimed to have seen a foreign inmate answering to Wallenberg's description as late as 1990. A number of testimonies have placed him in Siberian or Russian prisons as late as 1981.
Josyp Terelya, the Ukrainian activist who was imprisoned by the Soviets for refusing to abandon his nationalism and Catholic faith, wrote in his autobiography that he believes he was jailed with Wallenberg. He drew pictures and devoted a significant portion of his autobiography to this man and the influence he had on him.
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Memorial to Wallenberg in Budapest, Hungary |
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USPS Wallenberg Stamp, 1997 |
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Memorial to Raoul Wallenberg in Great Cumberland Place, London |
*Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Park in Budapest commemorates Wallenberg and others who saved many of Budapest's Jews from deportation to extermination camps.
*Raoul Wallenberg was made an
Honorary Citizen of the United States in
1981. The bill was sponsored by Representative
Tom Lantos, a Hungarian Jew who as a teenager found refuge in one of Wallenberg's safe houses. He was later made an
honorary citizen of
Canada in
1985, of
Israel in
1986, and of the city of
Budapest in
2003.
*In
1996, Wallenberg was honored by Israel's
Yad Vashem memorial as one of the
Righteous Among the Nations, recognizing those non-Jews who helped save Jews from the
Holocaust.
*Raoul Wallenberginstitutet, The Raoul Wallenberg Institute, was established in 1984 at Lund University in Sweden. RWI aims to be a leading institution for research, education, and training regarding all aspects of international human rights law.
*Several schools in Sweden have been named after Wallenberg, and there are several streets named Wallenbergsgatan or Raoul Wallenbergsgatan.
*
The Wallenberg Endowment of the
University of Michigan awards the prestigious Wallenberg Medal and Lecture to outstanding humanitarians. The university's
Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning also awards Wallenberg Scholarships to exceptional undergraduate and graduate students, many of which are given to enable students to broaden their study of architecture to include work in distant locations.
*In 2001, a memorial was created in Stockholm to honour Wallenberg. Unveiled by King Carl XVI Gustaf, at a ceremony attended by Kofi Annan and his wife, Wallenberg's niece, is an abstract memorial depicting people rising from the concrete, accompanied by a bronze replica of Wallenberg's signature which saved so many lives. It has garnered a lot of criticism in Sweden because many see it as ugly and unworthy of such a great hero; however, Wallenberg's sister Nina Lagergren expressed her approval.
*Raoul Wallenberg Alternative High School is located in
San Francisco, California and a grammar school (P.S. 194) in
Brooklyn, where Wallenberg's legacy is celebrated every year in December.
*Raoul Wallenberg has streets named after him in the
Israeli cities of
Jerusalem,
Tel Aviv and
Haifa, in Earl Bales Park in
Toronto,
Ontario, Canada, and in
Trenton, New Jersey.
*Raoul Wallenberg Park is located in
Nepean, Ontario, Canada.
*The
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is located on a Washington, DC street named Raoul Wallenberg Place in his honor.
*At the unveiling of the Stockholm monument,
King Carl XVI Gustaf said Wallenberg is 'a great example to those of us who want to live as fellow humans'. UN Sec. Gen.
Kofi Annan said Wallenberg is 'an inspiration for all of us to act when we can and to have the courage to help those who are suffering and in need of help.'
*The famous Irish folk singer Andy Irvine performs a song called 'Raoul Wallenberg' celebrating Wallenberg's life
*Andor Szentivanyi a Hungarian Jew who took refuge in a Wallenberg safehouse later went on to become Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of Medicine at The University of South Florida. He also discovered the Beta Adrenergic Theory of Asthma.
*In 1989 the Soviets returned his personal belongings to his family. His passport, money, daybook, and clothing were returned; his personal papers, however, were not.
*His niece, Nane Maria Annan (née Lagergren) is the wife of current
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
*Lester, Elenore;
New York Times Magazine (1980)
*Berger, Susanne; "Stuck in Neutral: The Reasons behind Sweden's passivity in the Raoul Wallenberg case" (2005); www.raoul-wallenberg.asso.fr
*
Rudolf Kasztner, controversial figure who saved 1,685 Hungarian Jews.
*
Carl Lutz, Swiss consul in
Budapest.
*
Aristides Sousa Mendes, Portuguese consul in
Bordeaux*
Ángel Sanz Britz, Spanish ambassador in
Budapest who saved about 5,000 Hungarian Jews.
*
Oskar Schindler, savior of many Jews from the
Auschwitz concentration camp.
*
Henryk Slawik, Polish diplomat in Budapest.
*
Chiune Sugihara, Japanese vice-consul in Lithuania who issued thousands of exit visas against orders to the contrary.
*
Nicholas Winton, British citizen who saved 669 Jewish Czech children prior to the German occupation.
*
Harald Edelstam, known as the "Raoul Wallenberg of the 1970s".
*
Marvin Makinen, American biochemist and former Soviet prisoner. He extensively researched Wallenberg's whereabouts.
*
Thomas Veres, Wallenberg's personal photographer.
*
International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation*
A Hero Without a Grave*
Members and Honorary Members of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation*
Biography*
Biography of Wallenberg*
Search for Swedish Holocaust hero*
Holocaust Rescuers Bibliography*
Profile of a Leader: The Wallenberg Effect*
"I Was There" essay by
Thomas Veres (Wallenberg's personal photographer).
*
Biography on Jewish Virtual Library*
Open letter exploring the possibility that Wallenberg lived far longer than Soviet authorities stated*
Holocaust Memorial Budapest, testimony from the family Jakobovics in 1947*
Witness: "Karoly Szabo played a determining role among Wallenberg's supporters"
