Imagine being a hero of the Holocaust and risking your life for others. Raoul Gustav Wallenberg was even more than a hero of the Holocaust. He risked his life to save over 100,000 Jews. Imagine you could die and never live again. Raoul didn't care he loved people and was willing to risk his life for them!
Wallenberg was born August 4, 1912 in Sweden. He never met his dad, named Oscar Wallenberg, because his dad had died three months before he was born. His mother, named Maj Wising Wallenberg, later remarried Fredrik von Dardel in 1918.

In Sweden the Wallenbergs were very famous. His father was a navy officer before he died. Having come from a line of bankers, his grandfather thought it was destined to be Raoul's career, but Raoul had an interest for architecture and trade. His grandfather was the one who was to plan Raoul's career for him. Raoul didn't exactly want someone to plan his career for him, though.     
Raoul graduated from highschool, in 1930, with some of the highest grades in Russian and drawing. He then traveled to the United states to study architecture at the University of Michigan. It didn't take him but three and a half years to graduate. He was awarded a medal for his high honors and having the most outstanding academic record.
In 1935, he received his bachelor degree in Science of Architecture and returned to Sweden. In Sweden the architecture business was small so he went to Cape Town, South Africa. There he sold building supplies at a Swedish firm. After about six months his grandfather got him a job at a Dutch Bank in Haifa, Palestine. ( now Israel ) There he first met Jews who had escaped from Hitler's Germany. It greatly hurt him being Jewish himself on his grandmother and grandfather's side whose name was Benedict.
In 1936, he left Haifa and went back to his old interest in trade and architecture. In Sweden he formed a partnership with a Hungarian Jew named Koloman Lauer. Lauer worked at a Swedish based export and import company where he was the director. His best field was food and delicacies. Eight months later Raoul became the director and owner of the Mid-European Trading Company. .
On January of 1942, the Wanasee Conference meeting was held. It was a meeting to mark the strategy to carry out the Final Solution. The Final Solution was the plan to kill all the Jews in Europe. At the meeting it was planned to use Zyklon B. It was a crystal that was dropped from the top of the gas chambers and killed people within three to fifteen minutes. Many people didn't even know about the Wanasee Conference meeting and Zyklon B., including Raoul.  

This is a picture of Raoul.

This is the Hungarian Flag.

 In May 1944, two Jewish men escaped from the German gas chambers. They were the first eye witnesses to tell about what was going on in the dreaded gas chambers. They had escaped from the Aushwitz extermination camp. The world finally awoken and realized what was going on in Germany. There were still 700,000 Jews left in Hungary. Were we going to try to save them?   Well, the answer was, "YES!" Raoul was given the opportunity to design a Swedish protective pass. Knowing that Hungarian and German authorities were weak, when it came to symbols, he had them printed in yellow and blue. He even put the coat of arms or the Three Crowns of Sweden in the middle. these passes were the ticket between life or death for the Jews. They were known as a Scutzpass. He was given 1,500 passports by the Hungarian Foreign Ministry. These passes could also be issued by other neutal legations.

This is the Schutzpass that Raoul created.
Roaul arrived in Budapest on July 9, 1944. Already 437,402 woman, men, and children had been deported from Hungary. There was still 230,000 left and if he was going to save any, he had to hurry! So, he soon started making "Swedish Houses" where Jews could seek help. To trick German officers he hung a Swedish flag outside in front of each door to declare it Swedish property. There were soon over 15,000 Jews living in the Swedish houses. Raoul, while setting up Swedish houses, a number of times had confrontations with Adolf Eichmann to try to persuade him to stop demolishing Jews. Adolf Eichmann was the Nazi architect of the "Final Solution." It didn't matter though Eichmann was still going to kill the Jews. Eichmann was even trying to set up a 24-hour blitzkrieg to kill the remaining Jews. Raoul was working hard to try to prevent that from happening. Soon Miklos Horthy, the leader of Hungary, found out about the 24-hour blitzkrieg. Horthy didn't like the idea so he temporarily banished Eichmann.   
In September and October of 1944, Raoul was on his way home to Sweden. He thought that the killings were over because Eichmann was gone.. On October 15,19444, the war was announced over for Budapest by Regent Horthy, but it wasn't supported by military assertion. The Arrow Cross then took over and replaced Hothy with a cross leader named Ferenc Szalasi. Yep, Eichmann returned the next day. Even the first night of Horthy being gone was terrible. Arrested were taken place. The Jewish homes were raided and approximatly 100-200 people were killed!
Raoul soon heard what had happened and came riding back on a women's bike because his car had disappeared. He moved the Jews that were left into safe hiding places. The Arrow Cross was soon looking for him. Jan Larrson, one of his co-workers, urged him to hide or seek shelter because he was taking a major risk of getting himself killed. Raoul said in reply, "To me there's other choice. I've accepted this assignment and I could never return to Stockholm without the knowledge that I'd done everything in human power to save as many Jews as possible." So, he decided he needed to explain to the Soviet commanders his humanitarian work to them. He decided he needed to go and talk to them in Debrecen. Before he went he set up a department for surviving Jews in November 1944. He knew that the Soviets probably would think that he was a secret agent for America, so he went to Debrecen to tell them the truth. He went to Debrecen with a chauffeur named Vilmos Langfelder. They were said to be captured by the vicious Soviet Army. The Soviet Army had put them in jail in Lyblyanka.
On January 16, 1945, the Soviet Foreign Ministry informed the Swedish Ambassador in Moscow, Staffan Soderblom, that Raoul had been taken into Russian forces. Nobody knew if Raoul was alive or dead. Most thought he was alive, but didn't know for sure or not. Then on March 8, 1945,v the Soviets announced that Raoul had been killed on the way to Debrecen. The majority of the people still didn't believe it. Also on July  17, 1947, he was claimed to have died in prison.
A document was discovered on February 6, 1957. It said that " the prisoner Wallenberg, who is know to you, died last night in his cell." It had been dated July 17, 1947, and signed by Smoltson head of Lyublyanka prison infirmary. It is still unclear whether he is dead or alive even today.
Many Jews were saved by Roaul. One of them was Ervin Forrester who was 19 and escaped while being transported to a concentration camp. He was then recaptured and sentenced to death. Raoul saved his life by writing a Schutzpass out for him after checking and seeing his records weren't bad. Forrester was freed within an hour and owed his life to Raoul Wallenberg.

This is the stamp that the U.S. postal service made on April 24, 1997.

Many people described Raoul the same. Tom Lantos, a Jew, said, "Raoul bluffed his was through, he has no official authorisation. His only authority was his own courage. Any officer could of shot him to death. But he feared for himself and committed himself totally. It was as if his courage was enough to protect himself from everything." Gideon Housner, chairman of Yad Vashem, described him by saying, "Here is a man who had the choice of remaining in secure, neutral Sweden when Nazism was ruling Europe. Instead, he left this haven and went to what was then one of the most perilous places in Europe. And for what? To save Jews. He won this battle and I feel that in this age when there is so little to believe in is very little on which our young people can pin their hopes and ideals-he is a person to show the world, which knows so little about him. That is why the story of Raoul Wallenberg should be told..." As you can see they described the same man. He wasn't fake, he truly risked his life to save Jews. For that he was honored. He was honored by Jerusalem, Italy by them planting a tree for him and many others who had died saving Jews. He was also honored by the U.S. postal service by them making a stamp for him on April 24, 1997. There were over ninety-six million prints made. 

As you can see Raoul was a hero! The Soviets were looking for him and he didn't care. He was going to keep on saving Jews even though it meant risking his life. We will always remember Roaul for his determination, courage, and bravery!

This is the last known picture of Raoul Gustav Wallenberg.

 

 

 

 

Skylar Flinn

7th Social Studies

Rossville Jr. High

Holocaust Project

2004

Bibliography