Raoul Wallenberg's passport photo, June 1944. Photo courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The young Swedish businessman Raoul Wallenberg arrived in Budapest on July 9, 1944. As an envoy of the Swedish government, supported by the U.S. War Refugee Board, his mission was to save Jews. The new Swedish embassy secretary succeeded in fulfilling this mission: he organized far-reaching efforts to rescue people from deportation and death, and inspired many other non-Jews to intensify their own rescue work.

Following Germany’s defeat at Stalingrad in February 1943, which put the German army on the defensive, Hungary reconsidered its loyalty to the Axis alliance and tried to negotiate an armistice with the Allies.  Germany wanted to prevent this from happening and also wanted to annihilate the 760,000-780,000 Jews of Hungary, the last large Jewish community left in Nazi-dominated Europe. German forces occupied the country on March 19, 1944. The collaborating Hungarian authorities plundered and ghettoized the Hungarian Jews quickly and efficiently. Between May 15 and July 9, approximately 440,000 Jews from the countryside were deported predominantly to Auschwitz, where most of them were killed immediately upon arrival. Caving under international protest and a deteriorating military situation, Regent Miklós Horthy, the head of the Hungarian government, halted the deportations in early July 1944. The Jews of Budapest were spared, at least temporarily. Swedish diplomats stationed in Budapest had begun to issue provisional passports to Jews in the spring of 1944.  With these documents, Jews were treated like citizens of Sweden, a neutral country.  At the urging of the War Refugee Board and Swedish officials in Budapest, the Swedish government agreed to redouble its efforts.  Wallenberg was sent to Budapest in July 1944 where he created a new document called a Schutzpass (protective passport), which protected the holder from deportation by declaring that he or she was under protection of the Swedish government. The Schutzpass differed from the provisional passport because the Schutzpass was Wallenberg's creation and did not yet automatically grant the holder with Swedish citizenship rights. Wallenberg and his colleagues handed out thousands of Schutzpasses and employed hundreds of Jews to help with the operation. In October 1944, the Germans orchestrated Horthy’s overthrow and put the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross movement in power. The Arrow Cross launched a reign of terror on the streets of Budapest and recommenced the deportations. Wallenberg continued to issue thousands of protective passports and set up safe houses to which the Jews could move.  He worked with diplomats from other neutral embassies, including Switzerland, Spain, and the Vatican, to establish an “international ghetto” that came to house tens of thousands of Jews holding real or fake protective documents. From November-December 1944, approximately 50,000 Jews were deported to Germany; many of them were forced to march on foot. Many were shot along the way.  Wallenberg followed the columns of Jews in his car and managed to secure the release of hundreds, providing trucks to bring them back to Budapest.  He also organized checkpoints along the roads out of Budapest and at the border crossing.  He enlisted members of his staff to demand the release of those carrying protective passports.  Some colleagues even handed out passports secretly on the spot.  Hungarian and German officials warned Wallenberg to stop his rescue activities, but he continued relentlessly until January 1945, when Soviet forces liberated Budapest.  On January 17, 1945, Wallenberg set out to meet with Soviet officials east of Budapest.  He hoped to return in a week with food and medicine for the more than 100,000 surviving Jews.  But he was never seen again and likely died or was killed in a Soviet prison.  During the six months he spent in Budapest, Raoul Wallenberg and his colleagues rescued tens of thousands of Jews. The JFR Poster Set on Rescue: Traits that Transcend features Wallenberg as a rescuer who exemplified the character trait of moral leadership during his life.  Moral leadership, the capacity to influence others to accomplish a mission or goal arising from conscience, is one of eight traits the poster set describes as essential to guide or sustain rescuers’ actions.  Teaching our students about the subject of rescue during the Holocaust provides us with the unique opportunity to empower them with an array of stories of ethical prowess.  The fact that rescuers came from different backgrounds and overcame different obstacles demonstrates to our students that they are always free to make their own decisions and that their background does not necessarily dictate their choices or actions.  Through preserving the legacy of rescuers we show our students that these men and women are not heroes from the past, but role models for the present.