During the spring 1943 the world woke up and started too realized what Hitler’s quote “the final solution” meant. I May 1944, the West got the first reliable eyewitness stories about what happens at the extermination camp, Auschwitz. The story came from 5 Jews that managed to flew Auschwitz and the German gas chambers.
Hungary that was allied with Germany in the war agains Soviet 1941. Wanted to seek a separate peace when Germany, 1943 lost the battle of Stalingrad. Therefore Hitler met with the head of state in Hungary, Miklós Horthy. He demanded Miklós to stay united with Germany. Miklós rejected Hitler’s demands, and on March 19th the invasion of Hungary started. Soon after the invasion began the deportation of the approximately 700 000 Jews who were in Hungary. They were sent to Auschwitz, Poland, and a certain death. The deportation began on the countryside, and when the Jewish inhabitants of Budapest knew that their time would come soon, they desperately searched for help from the neutral countries’ embassies, which were giving out temporary passports to Jews with special ties to that country. The Swedish legation in Budapest, managed to get permission to those who wore the temporary passport, would be treated as a Swedish citizen, and they were not forced to wear the yellow Star of David.
Wallenberg start his “work”
It was the young diplomat, Per Anger that gave out the first Swedish temporary passports. He was awarded a prize for his heroic effort when saving Jews during the war. On a short time over 700 passports were issued. But that was just a drop in the ocean in comparison on the big amount of Jews that were threatened. In USA an organization with the name “War Refugee Board” (WRB) was started. De had a meeting in Stockholm at the same time as the Swedish embassy in Hungary asked the Ministry for Foreign Affairs about more staff. WRB could see that Sweden really tried to save Jews and other people that were sitting in refugee camps. WRB put together a committee with rich and prominent Swedish Jews to discuss persons that was suitable to lead a rescue operation in Budapest. A member of the committee was Kolman Lauer, Raoul’s old business partner. He was there as an Hungarian expert. The first proposal to lead the operation was Folke Bernadotte, A chairman in the Red Cross and relative to the Swedish King. But the Hungarian government did not like him. Then Lauer suggested Raoul Wallenberg for the committee. He said that he believed that Raoul’s was the perfect man for the work and he also had a good surname. A majority in the committee had the opinion that he was too young and to fresh. But Lauer was the man who decided. Raoul got the work and were really eager to travel to Hungary.
He began by writing to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and requested permission to contract with whomever he want, without any needs to contact the embassy, he also wanted to avoid bureaucracy and paperwork, and be allowed to take “shortcuts”, when sending important material to special people. The letter was so unusual that it was sent up to the Prime Minister PerAlbin Hansson, who consulted the king before he agreed to requirements.
WALLENBERG GIVE OUT PASSPORTS
During the same time that Raoul came to Hungary in July 1944, had the Germans under the leadership of Adolf Eichmann, dispatched more than 400 000 men, women and children. Head of the Red Cross in Hungary, Valdemar Langlet, helped the Swedes. He rented a cheap housing in the Red Cross and put up signs with such "Swedish Library" and "Swedish Research Institute". Where they hide thousands of Jews to the Germans. Wallenberg designed a Swedish temporary passport because he knew that the German and Hungarian authorities had trouble with strong colours. The passport got the Swedish Coat of Arms on the front side and was painted in yellow and blue. Also the three Swedish crowns were pressed on special places in the passport. The Protection passports had no value under international laws, but they developed respect. To begin with, he had only the right to a passport in 1500, but managed to negotiate for 1000 more passports and through promises and empty threats to the Hungarian Foreign Minister, he reached a quote of 4500 protective passports. In reality, he issued three times as many, thanks to his hundreds of assistants. Raoul built several so-called Swedish house, in about 30 houses lived 15 000 Jews. He made several passes and sometimes climbed up on the train carriages full of Jews who were deported, and threw in protective passports for them. The German soldiers had orders to open fire on Wallenberg, but they were so impressed by his courage that they missed on purpose.
In the middle of January, Raul found out that the Nazis planned a massacre against the biggest ghetto in Budapest. The only guy who could stop it was August Schmidthuber, because he was the Commander in chief. Taoul threatened that he would be personally liable and hanged as a war in criminal after the war if he did not stop this massacre. The massacre was stopped and about 97 000 Jews were saved. In total around 120 000 Hungarian Jews were saved during the war.
January 1944-1945; The Nazis defeat approached and Raoul was looking forward to soon come back to Stockholm and Sweden. People were walking happy and freely in the centrum of Budapest, all together they helped each other to repair the damage after the Nazi occupation. Wallenberg was thinking about one last mission, how he could help all surviving Jews now that the war was almost over. All the “Swedish” facilities were demolished and the number of poor and hungry Jews in the streets was high. He decided to ask Soviet for help. And that he would get. He arranged a meeting with Marshal ViascheslavMalinovski in his headquarters about 20 miles outside Budapest, Raoul was promised to get help with food, medicine and everything that were necessary. When he got into the car which would lead him to the meeting with Malinovski, he just disappeared. No one really knows what had happened to him. One thing is sure, Raoul Wallenberg never returned again.
The 17th January 1945, Raoul Wallenberg was official captured by Soviet. They accused him for being an American spy. The testimony stated that he sat in the Russian prison for a long time in on the 50’s.
DISCUSSION
After that I have been reading the Swedish investigation (Ettdiplomatisktmisslyckande: Fallet Raoul Wallenbergoch den svenskautrikesledningen, 2001) about Raoul Wallenberg, my view in the case about Raoul Wallenberg’s disappearing has not been clearer, more in the other direction. I have more questions than ever before, and I did not manage to figure out the questions I was searching for. To be able to in some way get an explanation, we need to think outside the box. It’s so many theories about his disappearing. One interesting theory I saw in the document was that Raoul Wallenberg, planned to disappear. Maybe he lost his mind after everything that happened and wanted to start over? Maybe Soviet helped him? Maybe he is still alive; it’s not impossible but rarely truly. Another theory is that a Co-worker to Raoul, at same time a close friend, gave away false information to Russia about Raoul. If that was case, he probably was jealous about all the great publicity Raoul got. Unfortunately, we will probably never know what happened to our Swedish hero. Atleast one thing is sure, we will never forget the guy who saved over 90 000 Jews by him self.
SUMMARY
Raoul Wallenberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden August 12th 1912. After a degree in architecture at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Raoul was working in Sweden, South Africa and Palestine before he was dedicated the work as a Swedish diplomat in work for the American Government. During the time Raoul spend in Budapest, Hungary he managed to save around 97 000 Jews, almost by himself, but we cannot forget his co-workers that dedicated their life to this event. In January 1945, Raul was captured by Soviet, and from that day all we know is rumors with different reliability.
ADDITONAL FACTS
Right now, Raoul Wallenberg has an Honorary Citizenship in USA (1981), Canada (1985), and Israel (1986). From 2003 he is an honorary citizen of Budapest. Also Monuments, Streets, Buildings and Schools have been named after him around the world. He has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize(1948 and 1949).
←Memorial of Raoul Wallenberg in Great Cumberland Place, London.
Monument named Köszönöm(“thank you” in English) at University of Michigan. →
SOURCES
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(documentary about Raoul Wallenberg, from 2008) (2011-05-11)
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(Ett diplomatiskt misslyckande: Fallet Raoul wallenberg och den svenska utrikesledningen, Investigation by Swedish Government from 2003) (2011-05-11)
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(Lundgren, Thomas, Enskilda avdelningen vid Riskarkivet, publicerad 2001) (2011-05-11)
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(2011-05-09)
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(2011-05-10)
- Oral Source: Arpád Koós, pensionär, fled from Hungary 1956. (2011-05-06)
- Oral Source: Edíth Koós, pensionär, fled from Hungary 1969.(2011-05-06)
by
antonjerntved (student)
