Raoul Wallenberg Stops Genocide
The Nazis Attempt to Exterminate Jews Halted by a Courageous Hero
- Oct 28, 2008
- Michael Streich
- Raoul Wallenberg Saves Hungarian Jews - Swedish Government Photo Image
As the Second World War drew to a close, an enigmatic Swede fought against time to save the last large Jewish community from the Nazi death camps. Eclipsing Oskar Schindler, whose similar efforts were immortalized by Steven Spielberg, Raoul Wallenberg rescued more than 100,000 Hungarian Jews. Wallenberg disappeared when Budapest fell to the Soviet Army in January 1945. Despite inquiries at the highest diplomatic levels, his disappearance has never been adequately explained.
Raoul Wallenberg's Call to Sacrifice in Budapest, Hungary
Raoul Wallenberg was born into a prominent Swedish family. Well educated, Wallenberg graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, returning to Sweden to be groomed for a banking career by his diplomat grandfather. Even before the outbreak of war in 1939, Wallenberg was told of the growing persecution of Jews in Hitler’s Germany. These impressions led to his determination to play a part in stopping the madness. He resolved to confront evil face to face and save as many Jews as possible. In July, 1944, he traveled to Budapest.
Sweden was a neutral nation during the war. Working at the Swedish legation, Wallenberg began issuing schutzpasses, official documents, to desperate Jews. The passes effectively put their bearers under Swedish protection. Wallenberg personally visited Admiral Horthy, the Nazi puppet ruler, pressing him to stop deportations. Finally, he enlisted the support of the other neutral legations in Budapest. Wallenberg purchased empty buildings in Budapest to use as safe houses and established an intricate intelligence network within the Jewish community.
Confronting the Face of Evil in Nazi Occupied Hungary
As the Soviet Army drew closer to Budapest, the Nazis increased their efforts to exterminate the Jews, using their local surrogate force, the Arrow Cross, to do much of the killing. Agnes Mandl, whose description of events is listed with the National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, credits Wallenberg with saving many lives. Her account details the Arrow Cross leading bound Jews to the Danube River, shooting one and then dumping the group into the cold December waters to drown. She, along with Wallenberg and others, rescued fifty people by jumping into the waters to save the drowning people.
Raoul Wallenberg Meets Adolph Eichmann
Wallenberg eventually confronted Adolph Eichmann, who had returned to Budapest to complete the Final Solution in Hungary. Wallenberg was unsuccessful in his attempt to reason with the man responsible for the Third Reich’s railroad network devoted to transporting hundreds of thousands to Auschwitz, Sobibor, and other extermination camps. Eichmann was tried for war crimes in Israel in 1961-62 and executed for what historian Hannah Arendt called, “the banality of evil” in her 1962 book, Eichmann in Jerusalem.
Final Days in Budapest as Wallenberg Saves Thousands of Jews from Nazi Genocide.
Two days before the Soviets liberated Nazi death camps, Wallenberg threatened to have SS General August Schmidthuber tried for war crimes once the war ended if the planned massacre of the remaining Jews in Budapest was not stopped. The pogrom was cancelled at the last minute, although Schmidthuber was eventually executed for atrocities committed in Yugoslavia.
Raoul Wallenberg, in an attempt to make contact with the Russian commander, was taken by the Soviets and never seen again. Budapest was “liberated” by the Red Army. The Budapest Jews would not be exterminated. But the great hero whose passion was to confront and stop evil, disappeared. No adequate explanation has ever been offered by the Soviet government despite reports of sighting Wallenberg in the Russian Gulag. It is one of modern history’s mysteries.
Sources
http://www.ushmm.org (National Holocaust Museum)
Linnea, Sharon. Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Stopped Death (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1993).
Terror House Museum, Budapest (visited by author, December 2006)