Editor’s Note: The story below was written and published by Redwood Learn on Jan. 17, 2020, the 75th anniversary of Raoul Wallenberg’s disappearance.
Jan. 17, 2020 – Seventy-five years ago today, Raoul Wallenberg was in Budapest, Hungary waiting to greet Soviet Union troops as World War II was coming to an end. Hungarian Jews and all European Jews would finally be free. The Soviet Union was an ally with the United States in the war to defeat Nazi Germany. Wallenberg saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from being deported to concentration camps. On that day, he thought he was meeting with Soviet troops to discuss post war Hungary. Instead, he was taken to Moscow and never heard from again.
His disappearance is still a mystery.
Congressional Gold Medal – 2014
In 2014 at a ceremony to posthumously award him the Congressional Gold Medal, his sister spoke to the dignitaries assembled and asked that the mystery of his disappearance finally be solved. Surely the powerful people in the room could obtain information about her brother’s fate, she told the audience.
Wallenberg grew up in Sweden and came to the United States in 1931 to attend college at the University of Michigan. He graduated in 1935 with a degree in architecture. Also in the class of ’35 was Gerald R. Ford, the future President of the United States who played on the school’s championship football team. It is known that Wallenberg attended football games.
Upon graduation, Wallenberg returned to Sweden. He often did business in Germany and worked with a company led by a Jewish man in Hungary.
Sweden remained neutral during World War II. In July 1944, the United States recruited Wallenberg to go to Hungary as a Swedish diplomat with a mission to save as many Hungarian Jews as possible.
Because he had done business in Germany, he knew German officials were impressed with impressive looking documents. As an architect, he designed a Schutz-Pass, an official looking document that served as a “protection certificate” for Jews. Any person holding that document could not be taken into captivity by the Nazis.
for Hungarian Jews to escape capture and
deportation by Nazis during World War II.
(Photo: Courtesy of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation)
Wallenberg gave thousands of these documents to Hungarian Jews. There were reports that Wallenberg risked his life by giving out these documents to Jews even as they were waiting to be deported to concentration camps.
He also established Swedish safe houses where Jews could live to escape the Nazis.
On Jan. 17, 1945, Soviet troops took Wallenberg into custody claiming he was a United States spy. Years passed with no word about his fate although Swedish and American diplomats tried multiple times. There have been reports that he died in 1947 in a Moscow prison.
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation was established to carry on his legacy of service and sacrifice. It has offices around the world.
In 1990, the Wallenberg Medal and Lecture was established at the University of Michigan to honor Raoul, the brave alumnus who saved so many lives during World War II. It was co-founded by Irene Butter, professor emerita who is a Holocaust survivor. She published her story in 2018 – Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope: My True Story.
Irene Hasenberg was born in 1930 in Germany. Her father moved his family to Amsterdam to escape Nazi Germany. But in May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands to occupy the country. As a Jewish family, life became more and more difficult with each passing month. In 1943, the Hasenbergs were deported to a transit camp and then to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in northern Germany. Her book tells her fascinating story of loss, survival and hope.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. When did World War II take place?
2. Where was Raoul Wallenberg in 1934?
3. What degree did Raoul earn in college?
4. What did Raoul do when he returned to Sweden after college?
5. What was he asked to do in 1944?
6. What happened to Raoul on Jan. 17, 1945?
INQUIRY QUESTIONS
1. How did Raoul’s college degree help him in Hungary when he was sent there in 1944 as a Swedish diplomat?
2. How did Raoul’s job after college help him in Hungary when he was sent there in 1944 as a Swedish diplomat?
3. If the Soviet Union was an ally of the United States during WWII, why did they take Raoul Wallenberg and hold him in Moscow?