Wallenberg, Raoul

(1912–?)

   A Swedish diplomat who was responsible for saving the lives of tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest, Hungary, on the eve of the Nazi deportations in 1944. Recruited by the Swedish government upon the recommendation of the War Refugee Board, Wallenberg had a task to help protect the 200,000 Jews residing in Budapest from deportation to the death camps. The strategy devised by the Swedish embassy was to issue provisional Swedish “protective passports” to Hungarian Jews. As the Swedish legation attache, Wallenberg over a period of three months issued thousands of these passports to Jews that the Hungarian and German officials reluctantly honored. He also exhibited courage in his response to the death marches, whereby thousands of Jews were being force-marched to the Austrian border. Wallenberg followed the convoy and was able to secure the release of those Jews with protective passports.

   Wallenberg was also instrumental in setting up special hostels that came under the protection of the foreign embassies in Budapest. Some 15,000 Jews found their way into the 31 protected houses, which formed an “international ghetto.” Wallenberg also established a number of centers for children under the protection of the International Committee of the Red Cross, thereby saving the lives of about 8,000 Jewish children. Following the Soviet liberation of Hungary in January 1945, Wallenberg was arrested and accused of being an American agent, and was never heard from again.

   See also Righteous Gentiles.