80: Raoul Wallenberg

 

80 years ago (January 17-18, 1945) Raoul Wallenberg was arrested by the Soviets and never heard from again.

Raoul Wallenberg was born on August 4, 1912 in Sweden (his Father, a Naval Officer in the Swedish Navy, died 3 months before he was born from Cancer.)

After High School he completed his 8 months of Mandatory Military Service in the Swedish Military.

Raoul Wallenberg was good at Languages and besides his Native Swedish he spoke: French, German, Russian, Hungarian and English.

He then went to study in Paris, France and then in 1931 to the University of Michigan in the United States for Architecture where he graduated in 1935.

Back in Sweden he found his American Degree did not qualify him to be an Architect in Sweden so he went to South Africa and then to Palestine (Israel) to work returning to Sweden and working at the Central European Trading Company, an Export-Import Company trading between Stockholm and Central Europe, owned by Kálmán Lauer, a Hungarian Jew.

In 1940 Hungary became an Ally of Nazi Germany and adapted their own Racial Laws (similar to the Nurenberg Laws.) Because of that Raoul Wallenberg took over as Kálmán Lauer’s Personal Representative in Hungary.

Since Sweden was Neutral during World War 2, Raoul Wallenberg, could travel from Sweden throughout German-Occupied Europe and back with ease.

In March 1944 Germany invaded Hungary after it’s Regent, Miklós Horthy, tried to make a Peace Treaty with the US and the UK.

They Germans worked with the Hungarian Arrow Cross Fascist Party Hungarian: (Nyilaskeresztes Párt) to carry-out the Holocaust.

There were 825,000 Jewish Men, Women and Children living in Hungary when the Germans invaded in 1944.

Between May 15 and July 9, 1944 434,000 of these Jews were deported from Hungary to the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland where 80% of them were gassed immediately upon arrival.

Raoul Wallenberg saw what was happening in Hungary and tried to help.

He worked with the War Refugee Board of the United States and Raoul Wallenberg was posted at the Swedish Legation in Budapest, Hungary in July 1944.

(A Swedish Protective Pass)

He created the "Protective Passport" (German: Schutz-Pass), which identified the Bearers as Swedish Subjects awaiting Repatriation and thus prevented their Deportation.

Although not legal, these Documents looked Official and were generally accepted by German and Hungarian Authorities, who sometimes were also bribed.

Switzerland was allowed to issue 7,800 Schutzpasses. Sweden 4,500, the Vatican, and Portugal and Spain 3,300 combined.

At the height of the Rescue Program around 350, including Raoul Wallenberg, were involved in helping the Jews in Budapest.

2 Ghettos were set up inside Budapest by the Germans and the Hungarian Arrow Cross.

The Small “International Ghetto” consisted of those with Special Protective Passes from the Neutral Countries.

With the money mostly raised for the War Refugee Board by American Jews, Raoul Wallenberg rented 32 buildings in Budapest and declared them to be Extraterritorial, protected by Diplomatic Immunity.

 He put up signs such as "The Swedish Library" and "The Swedish Research Institute" on their doors and hung oversized Swedish Flags on the front of the buildings to bolster the deception.

(In Hungary)

The Big Ghetto had 70,000 People crammed inside.

Hungarian Arrow Cross and the Germans regularly ended the Big Ghetto and murdered Men, Women and Children inside or marched them to the banks of the Danube River and shot them (sometimes tying several People together, shooting 1 Person in the Group and drowning the others.

15,000 Jews were shot at the Danube.

Shortly before the Soviets liberated Budapest (during the Siege of Budapest from December 29, 1944 to January 13, 1945) Raoul Wallenberg fought and bribed the Germans and the Hungarians not to massacre the Jews living in the Big Ghetto.

When the Soviets entered Budapest there were 119,000 Jews (25,000 in the Small “International Ghetto”, 69,000 in the Big Ghetto and 25,000 Hiding with False Papers throughout the city.)

Raoul Wallenberg is credited with saving 100,000 Men, Women and Children in Hungary (4,500 with his Protective Passes and the rest in the Big Ghetto and from the Deportation Trains -  by bribing and other means of the Germans and Hungarians.

Tom Lantos, who later became a Politician in the US House of Representatives from 1981 until 2008, was saved by a Protective Pass issued by Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest, Hungary.

Soviet Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, under Orders from Moscow, arrested Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest, Hungary on January 17-18, 1945.

He was then transported by train to Moscow and transferred to the Lubyanka Prison on January 21, 1945.

(In Sweden)

After January 21, 1945 there is no conclusive evidence as to what the Soviets did to Raoul Wallenberg.

In February 1957 the Soviets said he had died of a Heart Attack in July 1947. It was believed to be Cold War Propaganda by the West.

In 1989, Wallenberg's Personal Belongings were returned to his Family, including his Passport and cigarette case.

Soviet Officials said they found the materials when they were upgrading the shelves in a store room.

In 1991 the Soviet Government opened an investigation into the death of Raoul Wallenberg and found that he was either executed in 1947 or died as part of the C-2 Poison (carbylamine-choline-chloride) tested at the Poison Laboratory of the Soviet Secret Services.

Several Former Foreign Prisoners claim to have met Raoul Wallenberg after his supposed death in 1947 – well into the 1980s in various Soviet Prisons.

Raoul Wallenberg received the Illis quorum (Illis quorum meruere labores  or "For Those Whose Labors Have Deserved It") it is a Gold Medal awarded for outstanding contributions to Swedish Culture, Science or Society in 1952.

(In Israel)

Raoul Wallenberg became an Honorary US Citizen (the second given the title after Winston Churchill) in 1981.

Raoul Wallenberg became an Honorary Citizen of Canada in 1985.

Raoul Wallenberg became an Honorary Citizen of Israel in 1986.

Raoul Wallenberg became a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel in 1986.

Raoul Wallenberg became an Honorary Citizen of Hungary in 2003.

Raoul Wallenberg became an Honorary Citizen of Australia in 2013.

In 2016 the Swedish Tax Agency legally declared Raoul Wallenberg dead in absentia backdated to the date July 13, 1952.

Raoul Wallenberg was the subject of the 1985 Made-for-Television Movie “Wallenberg: A Hero's Story”, starring Richard Chamberlain, and the 1990 Swedish Movie “Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg”, featuring Stellan Skarsgård.