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| Affiliation | Nonpartisan |
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| Name | Raoul Wallenberg |
| Address |
, , Sweden |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
August 04, 1912
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| Died | July 17, 1947
(34 years)
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| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | Thomas Walker
Apr 15, 2009 02:17pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Businessman and diplomat
Wallenberg was nominated for his efforts to rescue Hungarian Jews during World War II. In 1944 he established "protected houses" flying the flags of neutral countries, where Jews could be protected from deportation to concentration camps. He also distributed food and clothing to Jewish prisoners and tried to provide some of them with papers and money so that they could escape from the Nazis. Wallenberg advocated peace and humanitarianism through his work for Jewish refugees.
Wallenberg was arrested by Soviet authorities in Hungary in Januray 1945. He was sent to a prison in the Soviet Union, and it is assumed that he died in prison in 1947. The nominator emphasized that the Nobel Peace Prize could contribute to hasten his release.
Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg’s Early Life
Raoul Gustav Wallenberg was born August 4th, 1912 to one of Sweden’s most prominent families, the large and well-known Wallenberg family.
By the time of Raoul Wallenberg’s birth, the Wallenberg’s had produced several generations of Swedish bankers, diplomats, scientists and politicians. The early plan was for Wallenberg to take up a career in banking, but he was much more taken with architecture and trade.
Wallenberg’s father, Raoul Oscar Wallenberg, died of cancer while still in his early twenties, just three months before Wallenberg was born. His mother married a man named Frederick von Dardel, and produced a son, Guy von Dardel. Wallenberg also had a half-sister named Nina Lagergren, whose daughter later married the former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Anan.
Raoul Wallenberg—College & Early Business Career
Raoul Wallenberg finished his early studies in 1930, graduating with top marks in Russian and drawing. He served in the Swedish army and enrolled in the architecture program at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He began his architecture studies in 1931, and finished in just 3 years, graduating in 1935, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture. Raoul Wallenberg graduated with honors, and won a University prize for his fine academic record.
Due to the small demand for architects in Sweden at that time, he arranged through his grandfather to travel to Cape Town, where he began work for a small construction supply company. Six months later, he traveled to Haifa in what was then Palestine, where, again with the assistance of his grandfather’s connections, he assumed a position at a Dutch bank.
It was in Palestine that Wallenberg first became familiar with the plight of the Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany. He was deeply affected by the stories he heard
Wallenberg was undoubtedly conscious of the fact that there was a small amount of Jewish heritage within his own family, as his grandmother’s grandfather was a Jew with the family name of Benedicks, who had migrated to Sweden near the end of the 18th century. Wallenberg returned to Sweden from Haifa in 1936, where he began to take up his interest in business.
Once again, his grandfather Jacob’s excellent business connections served Raoul well, as he was able to begin an association with a Jewish-Hungarian businessman named Kalaman Lauer. Lauer directed the Swedish-based Mid-European Trading Company, an import-export firm that focused on food and other delicacies.
Wallenberg was a gifted linguist and was fluent in Swedish, English, German, and Russian. Aided by his excellent language skills, and his ability as a Swede to move freely about Europe,
Wallenberg proved to be an excellent business partner. Wallenberg was so good, in fact, that in less than a year, he was made a joint-owner and International Director for the firm.
His business travels took him through Nazi-occupied France and Germany, where he soon discerned the ins and outs of the German bureaucracy. His travels also took him to Budapest and to Hungary, which was then a relatively safe place amidst the increasingly dangerous climate then enveloping Europe.
By early 1944, the truth of the Nazi policies toward the Jews had become increasingly clear and more difficult for Wallenberg to ignore. By May of that year, the first eyewitness reports began to emerge from Jews who had managed to escape the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz.
By then, Hitler’s plans to exterminate Europe’s Jews were finally out in the open. Since 1941, Hungary had been allied with Germany in their battle against the Soviet Union. In 1944, Hungary was still home to many Jews.
With a Soviet victory in the battle of Stalingrad in 1943, Hungary had sought to sow a separate peace with the Soviets. Hitler had other plans, and in March of 1944, the German army successfully invaded Hungary. Very shortly afterward, the Germans began to deport Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was a death sentence for nearly all concerned.
At first, the German program involved deporting the Jews who resided in the countryside, but the urban Jews of Budapest knew that they would soon suffer the same fate.
For help, they turned to the embassies of several neutral countries. For Jews with connections to these countries, escape was possible, and many were issued special passes and followed this path to safety.
The Swedish government had successfully negotiated a special arrangement with the German government that allowed Jews with such Swedish-issued special passes to be treated as Swedish citizens, and exempted from donning the yellow Star of David markers that designated their Jewish counterparts.
Per Anger, a young Swedish diplomat at the Swedish embassy in Budapest was the first to initiate the program for issuing these protective passes. Anger was later honored as “righteous among nations” by the Israeli government for his efforts on behalf of Hungarian Jews.
In a very short span of time, the Swedes issued over 700 special passes, though many times more than this faced serious danger from the Nazis. The Swedes soon sent a request to Stockholm for extra staff members to help bolster their efforts.
At this time, a U.S. government supported organization in America, the War Refugee Board (WRB), had been convened to help provide assistance to European Jews.
The Swedish efforts on behalf of the Hungarian Jews were soon made known to the Board. The WRB had a representative in Sweden who convened meetings of prominent Swedish Jews to assist in determining the best people to lead the Swedish mission to help the Hungarian Jews. Among the Swedish participants of the WRB’s meetings was Kalaman Lauer, who was enlisted as an expert on the Hungarian situation.
The Swede’s first choice was Folke Bernadotte, head of the Swedish Red Cross, and a member of the Swedish royal family. However, the Hungarians disapproved of Bernadotte, and efforts to find a suitable leader quickly turned to Lauer’s business partner, Raoul Wallenberg. Initially dismissed as too young and inexperienced, Lauer pressed hard for Wallenberg. He emphasized Wallenberg’s familiarity with Hungary, his quick mind, high energy, courage and compassion. The fact that Wallenberg came from a prominent family with a good name was also in his favor.
Wallenberg was approved, and in June, 1944, he was named first secretary of the Swedish mission in Budapest, with instructions to lead rescue efforts on behalf of the Hungary’s Jews.
Wallenberg was eager to take up his mission, and keen to avoid the restrictions of protocol and red tape that accompanied most diplomatic endeavors. He sought carte blanche to assist whomsoever he saw fit without the approval of the Swedish ambassador. He also sought to employ diplomatic couriers outside of their normal arenas.
So unique was Wallenberg’s request that it traveled all the way to Swedish Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson, who sought approval from Sweden’s king before giving Wallenberg the okay.
Wallenberg in Hungary
From May to July 1944, when Wallenberg arrived in Budapest, nearly a half a million Jews were rounded up and shipped to concentration camps, victims of Nazi efforts led by the notorious SS officer Adolf Eichmann. Just under a quarter of a million Jews remained in Hungary.
By that time, Eichmann was spearheading an SS plan to eliminate the entire Jewish population of Budapest in a single day. In fact, he had sent a secret cable to Berlin indicating that he was just days away from finalizing his efforts.
Eichmann’s success would have meant the nullification of Wallenberg’s efforts. Worse, it would have meant the near complete extermination of Hungarian Jews. Swedish King, Gustav V, sent a communiqué to the
Hungarian head-of-state Miklos Horthy requesting an end to the Jewish deportations. Horthy responded with a pledge that he would do everything in his power to “ensure that the principals of humanity and justice would be respected.” True to his word, Horthy cancelled the German deportations. At one point, a train carrying 1,600 Jews was turned back from the German border and returned to Budapest.
Strangely, the German officials did not oppose the cancellation of the deportations. One possibility that has been proposed for this stance was that top Nazi figure Heinrich Himmler was quietly working on efforts to reach a peace agreement with Western allies before the Soviets rolled in. The argument goes that Himmler felt he’d have a greater chance for success if he softened German efforts to destroy the Jews.
Whatever the reason, the discontinuation of the deportations effectively stalled Eichmann’s efforts, giving Wallenberg and his Swedish counterparts just the opening they needed to mount their efforts.
Even before Wallenberg’s arrival, individuals and institutions had begun to lay the framework for helping to shelter Jews. The Red Cross, under the leadership of Valdemar Langlet lent a hand by arranging to rent buildings in the name of the Red Cross and to place signage on them such as “Swedish Library,” or “Swedish Research Institute,”
During this period, the Swedish legation was under the supervision of Carl Invar Danielsson, whose top assistant was Per Anger, the originator of the practice of issuing protective passes to Jews.
Wallenberg’s methods were a serious departure from the conventional and often-protracted methods associated with diplomacy. He used bribes and threats of extortion to achieve his ends. Initially shocked by his efforts, the Swedish diplomats soon rallied to full support when they saw how successful he was at achieving his aims.
One of Wallenberg’s first tasks was to craft some kind of pass or paperwork that would help to protect Jews. His earlier interactions with both German and Hungarian officials had taught him that they had a weakness for fancy, official-looking paperwork that was heavy on symbols, stamps and signatures. Accordingly, Wallenberg ordered yellow passes with the coat of arms of the Swedish Crown printed in blue and adorned with the proper official stamps and signatures of the Swedish embassy officials. Officially, the passes weren’t worth the paper on which they were printed. Practically, however, they were effective in protecting their bearers from being forced to wear the humiliating and potentially dangerous yellow patch of the Star of David that marked all Jews within the German sphere of influence.
Initially, Wallenberg was officially authorized to offer only 1,500 passes, which he saw upped to 2,500, and eventually to 4,500 through as series of negotiations, promises and even threats to the Hungarian foreign ministry. However, in reality, he issued nearly 15,000 protective passes to Hungarian Jews.
When Miklos Horthy sacked the pro-German Prime Minister in favor of a more anti-German successor, one General Lakatos, the Jews of Hungary saw considerable improvement in their lot. So much so, that Wallenberg anticipated the closure of the mission and a return to Sweden.
This improvement was short-lived. In mid-October, German troops mounted a coup against Miklos Horthy and installed the head of the Hungarian Fascists, one Ferenc Szalasi, who, as the head of a group known as the Arrow Cross, was responsible for directing numerous brutalities against the Hungarian Jewry, and was every bit as feared as the Germans. The coup also saw the return of Wallenberg’s nemesis Adolf Eichmann, and placed Eichmann, once again, in the position of implementing the ‘Final Solution’ against the Jews of Hungary.
At this point, there was very little Wallenberg could do that carried any official weight. The Hungarian foreign ministry was in the hands of the SS, which was focused on destroying the Jewish population of Budapest and all of Europe.
Often, Wallenberg relied solely on cunning and fearless, decisive action to shield Jews from Nazi hands. One very inspired action was to use available funds to create a network of houses that flew the Swedish flag, and which were designated as “official” Swedish territory, and which offered Jews a sanctuary in which they could find protection. At their height, these houses sheltered over 15,000 Jews from near certain death at the hands of the Nazis.
Wallenberg’s practice of issuing protective passes to Jews was not wholly unique, and similar policies had in fact been adopted by the staff of embassies of other neutral countries, and a number of diplomats also began to operate safe houses for Jews.
As the war neared its end in 1945, and the environment dissolved into chaos, Wallenberg created an abbreviated version of his protective pass that amounted to a single mimeographed page that bore his signature alone. In the confusion that proceeded the arrival of the Russians and the allies, that was also effective in saving Jewish lives.
Even when the Hungarian Nazi-led government declared all such passes to be null and void, Wallenberg was able to secure the assistance of Baroness Elizabeth Kemeny, the wife of the new foreign minister in getting the passes honored.
By the end of 1944, Eichmann had instituted a plan to carry out what came to be known as the ‘death marches.’ The plan involved forcibly marching Hungarian Jews out of Hungary. Conditions along the 120-mile long road from Budapest to Austria were so miserable that even the German soldiers complained.
When thousands of half-starved, injured, tortured Jews filed along the road, Wallenberg was on hand providing both food and medicine. He cajoled, threatened and bribed guards until was able to free numerous people with the Swedish passes he himself had usually furnished.
As Eichmann employed trains to move Jews out of Hungary, Wallenberg’s tactics grew bolder and more intense. He was seen climbing atop railcars and shoving handfuls of protective passes to the occupants. German soldiers ordered to shoot him are on record as being so overwhelmed by his actions and his force of will that they held their fire. Those that did fire aimed high and Wallenberg carried out his escapades unharmed by the Germans.
By then, Wallenberg’s Swedish mission had grown to employ nearly 350 people, with over 700 living within their protective houses.
Near the end of 1944, Wallenberg took up residence across the Danube in Pest, which was home to both of the city’s Jewish Ghettos. By that time, what little law had reigned there had fully disintegrated and power rested in the hands of various local members of the Arrow Cross, police and the German army. In fact, it was difficult for Wallenberg to even locate appropriate officials whom he could bribe in order to continue his efforts on behalf of the local Jews.
Eventually he forged a working relationship with Pa’l Szalay, who was both a policeman of high rank and a member of the Arrow Cross. This arrangement was beneficial for both men, and in fact, Sazaly’s efforts on behalf of Wallenberg actually saved his skin, as he was the only Arrow Cross member to escape execution after the war.
In mid-January 1945, Wallenberg got word that Eichmann was arranging to conduct a massacre at the largest ghetto. The sole individual with authority to prevent the operation was the commander-in-chief of the German army in Hungary, one August Schmidthuber.
Wallenberg prevailed upon his associate Szalay to covey a message to the General that declared that he would bear sole responsibility for any such action and that he would be hanged as a war criminal once hostilities had ceased. The General crumbled and the massacre was averted at the last hour due to Wallenberg’s act.
Just a few days after averting massacre in the ghettos, Russian tanks rolled into Budapest. The Russians found nearly 100,000 Jews living in the two Jewish ghettos. In the final tally, about 120,000 Jews cheated death at the hands of the Nazis. Per Anger estimates that Wallenberg had a direct role in saving a minimum of 100,000 Jews.
Just a few days later, the first Russian troops advanced on the area by foot, and Wallenberg met them in front of one of the Swedish houses. He explained that he was the head of the Swedish delegation and requested to meet with the Russian officers in charge.
On January 17th, he was permitted to travel under Soviet escort to Debrecen, east of Budapest, where the Soviet army had their headquarters, where he planned to meet with the Soviet leaders.
As he departed Budapest with his driver, Wallenberg made the rounds at the Swedish houses and bid farewell to the members at the delegation.
Wallenberg confided to one of those people, one Erno Peto, that he was uncertain whether the Russians wanted him for a guest or for a prisoner. He indicated that he would be back in about week, but never returned.
From Debrecen, the Russians transported Wallenberg by train to Romania and then on to Moscow. It is thought that the Russians might have been hoping to use Wallenberg as a bargaining chip in exchange for Russian prisoners then held in Europe.
On January 21st, 1945, Wallenberg was taken to Lubyanka prison, where he occupied cell number 123. At that time, he had a cellmate Gustav Richter, who was a police attaché at the German embassy in Romania. According to Richter’s 1955 testimony, the Russians interviewed Wallenberg for about ninety minutes in February. By March, Richter was transferred from cell 123 and never saw Wallenberg again after that time.
On March 8th of 1945, reports on Soviet-controlled Hungarian radio stated that Wallenberg had been killed by either Hungarian or German agents on his way to the meeting in Debrecen. The Swedes received this news with a measure of seriousness and appear to have taken it at face value, even though most of the other governments gave the message no credence and treated it as inaccurate, or misinformation.
This account seems to have little basis in fact, and little evidence to support it. In April 1945, the U.S. State Department offered their services in determining what happened to Wallenberg, though the Swedes declined the offer. The Swedish ambassador to the Soviet Union, Staffan Soderblom, met with Vyacheslav Molotov, but ignored an offer to include Wallenberg in an exchange for Russian prisoners held in Sweden.
Wallenberg’s exact fate was clouded in mystery. In fact, there was great uncertainty for many decades as to whether he was alive or dead. The Russians claim that he was arrested and taken to a prison in the Soviet Union, where he died of a heart attack in mid-July of 1947.
However, testimony from a number of witnesses indicates that Wallenberg was indeed alive beyond that date, and that he may in fact have been alive for many decades, and in theory might possibly still be alive.
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