Who is Raoul Wallenberg?

Question: Who is Raoul Wallenberg!?

all i know is that he was around in war world IIWww@QuestionHome@Com

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He was a Swedish humanitarian who helped rescue Jews during the Holocaust during WWII!. He was sent to Budapest under the guise of a being a diplomat to affect these rescues!. He was a member of the prominent Wallenberg family of Sweden!. He is believed to have saved over 15,000 Jews!. He was born on August 4, 1912 and supposedly died on July 17, 1947 of a heart attack, although this has been disputed!. Russia claims that they shot and killed him [read: executed] in 1947!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who was responsible for saving thousands of Jewish lives in Turkey!. He is classed as a "Righteous Gentile" for his efforts!.

Unfortunately, the Soviet government considered him a serious threat (no one knows why) and they disappeared him in the ending days of WWII!. Although they have declared he is dead, there were consistent reports of a Swedish citizen imprisoned in Soviet Russia as late as the 1970s!.

He is undoubtably dead by now, but the US granted him citizenship simply so they could put pressure on the Soviet government to open their files on him!. It didn't work!. Except for being told he died in the 1960s, no other answers were ever given!.

There was a TV miniseries about Raoul Wallenberg!. Richard Chamberlain played him!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

a Swedish humanitarian sent to Budapest, Hungary under diplomatic cover to rescue Jews from the Holocaust!. He was of the prominent Swedish Wallenberg family!.

find more here
http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Raoul_Walle!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

He was a holocaust survivor who hunted down and killed former nazisWww@QuestionHome@Com

Raoul Wallenberg (August 4, 1912 – July 17, 1947!?)[1][2][3] was a Swedish humanitarian sent to Budapest, Hungary under diplomatic cover to rescue Jews from the Holocaust!. He was of the prominent Swedish Wallenberg family!.

Inspired by the the movie Pimpernel Smith(1941)[4], he worked to save the lives of Hungarian Jews from being sent to death camps in the later stages of World War II by issuing them protective passports from the Swedish embassy!. These documents identified the bearers as Swedish nationals awaiting repatriation!. It is impossible to determine exactly how many Jews were rescued by his actions, but Yad Vashem credits him with saving 15,000 lives!.[5]

On January 17, 1945, he was arrested on the direct order of Soviet Deputy Commissar for Defense Nikolai Bulganin!. It is probable that the order came from Stalin, for reasons never disclosed!. In 1957, responding to diplomatic pressure, the Soviets announced that Wallenberg had died of a heart attack in 1947 in Lubyanka prison in Moscow, but this has been disputed!.

In 1991, the Russian government assigned Vyacheslav Nikonov, deputy head of the KGB intelligence service, to spend months searching classified archives about Wallenberg!. Nikonov's conclusion was that Wallenberg was "Shot in 1947!."[citation needed]

Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 The Holocaust in Hungary
2!.1 Worsening conditions and massacre of Jews, 1938-1941
2!.2 U!.S!. War Refugee Board, January 1944
2!.3 D?me Sztójay installed as Prime Minister, March 1944
2!.4 Mounting Swiss protests, Spring 1944
2!.5 Wallenberg's efforts, July 1944
2!.6 Other rescuers
3 Detention by the Russians
4 Reported death and subsequent investigations
5 Wallenberg show trial preparations 1953 in Hungary
6 Legacy
6!.1 Honors
6!.2 Memorials
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Early life

Sign on Wallenberg's residence, Haifa, IsraelHe was born in Walpole Liding? (near Stockholm, Sweden) to Raoul Oscar Wallenberg (1888–1912), a Swedish naval officer, and Maria "Maj" Sofia Wising (1891–1979)!. Raoul Oscar Wallenberg died of cancer three months before his son was born!.[6] In 1918, his mother married Fredrik von Dardel, and Raoul had a half-brother, Guy von Dardel!.[7] Raoul Wallenberg also had a maternal half-sister, Nina Lagergren!. Nina's daughter, Nane Maria Lagergren, married Kofi Annan!.[8][3]

In 1931, Wallenberg went to study architecture in the United States at the University of Michigan!. In college, he learned to speak English, German and French!.[9] He used his vacations to explore America!. Although he came from a wealthy family, during his free time, he worked at odd jobs, including at a World's Fair!.

He returned to Sweden, but he was unable to find a job as an architect!. Eventually, his grandfather arranged a job for him in Cape Town, South Africa, in the office of a Swedish company that sold construction material!. Between 1935 and 1936, he was employed in a minor position at a branch office of the Holland Bank in Haifa!. He returned to Sweden in 1936 and got a job with the help of his uncle, Jacob Wallenberg, at the Central European Trading Company, a trading company with only five employees!.[10] The firm was owned by Kálmán Lauer, a Hungarian Jewish emigré!. When the outbreak of war barred Lauer from certain areas of Europe, Wallenberg traveled as his representative!.[11] Within a year, Wallenberg was a joint owner and the international director of the company!.[8]

[edit] The Holocaust in Hungary

Sign commemorating Wallenberg in Budapest
[edit] Worsening conditions and massacre of Jews, 1938-1941
Starting in 1938, Hungary under the regency of Miklós Horthy passed a series of anti-Jewish measures that restricted their professions, reduced the number of Jews in government jobs, and prohibited intermarriage!. The first massacre of Jews took place in July 1941, when 20,000 Jews, whose citizenship was disputed, were driven from Carpathian Ruthenia into German-occupied Soviet territory, where they were killed by the SS!.[12]

[edit] U!.S!. War Refugee Board, January 1944
Hillel Kook (also known as Peter Bergson) and his rescue group incessantly pressured the U!.S!. government to help rescue Jews from the Nazis and Fascists!. The group had considerable support in the Senate and Congress[13] and from Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr!. As pressure for action mounted and after much delay, as of President Franklin D!. Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board (WRB) in January 1944, to aid civilian victims of the Nazis and the Axis powers!. The executive order establishing the board read: "it is the policy of this Government to take all measures within its power to rescue the victims of enemy oppression who are in imminent danger of death and otherwise to afford such victims all possible relief and assistance consistent with the successful prosecution of the war"!.[14]

Partly for his role in establishing the War Refugee Board, some historians have suggested Hillel Kook and his organization saved over 200,000 people, the majority of them Hungarian!.[13] Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer emphatically disagrees with this!.[15]

[edit] D?me Sztójay installed as Prime Minister, March 1944
On March 23, 1944, four days after Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Hungary, the Germans installed a puppet government in Hungary, with D?me Sztójay as Prime Minister!. Miklós Horthy remained the regent, but had less power!. Despite the fact that the loss of the war was a foregone conclusion, between April and late May 1944, the Germans and their Hungarian accomplices began the mass deportation of Hungarian Jews, at the rate of 12,000 per day[12] to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp!.[16]

The devotion of Hungarian gendarmes to the cause of the "final solution" surprised even Adolf Eichmann himself, who supervised the operation with only twenty officers!.[17][18] By the end of the war, 560,000 of the original 725,000 Hungarian Jews were dead!.

According to Winston Churchill, in a letter to his Foreign Secretary dated July 11, 1944, "There is no doubt that this persecution of Jews in Hungary and their expulsion from enemy territory is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world!.!.!.!."[19]

[edit] Mounting Swiss protests, Spring 1944
In late spring 1944, within 24 hours of receipt, George Mantello (also known as Mandl Gyuri) publicized what has now been called the Wetzler-Vrba Report, or the Auschwitz Report, included as the main section in the Auschwitz Protocol!. This triggered a major grassroots protest in Switzerland, with about 400 glaring headlines protesting against Europe's barbarism and its dark age in the twentieth century!. The news articles were published in spite of strict Swiss censorship rules!. Publication of the report also triggered Sunday sermons in Swiss churches expressing deep concern over the fate of Jews, and a leading Swiss theologian, Paul Vogt, wrote and published a book called Am I my brother's keeper!. In addition, there were various street protests!.

The scale and intensity of the Swiss protests led Churchill, Roosevelt and other world leaders to assist Hungary's ruler Horthy in stopping the deportations to Auschwitz!. The lull gave the Wallenberg mission time to set up and also encouraged rescue efforts by many others in Budapest, among them Carl Lutz, Monsignor Angelo Rotta, Giorgio Perlasca, the Spanish legation and the Zionist Youth Underground in Budapest!. It also "put rescue in the air", empowering ordinary citizens to act on behalf of the surviving remnant of Hungary's Jews!.[20][21]

[edit] Wallenberg's efforts, July 1944
Iver Olsen of the War Refugee Board was in contact with Kálmán Lauer; it was Lauer who recommended his business partner to the board!.[9] On July 9, 1944, with the cooperation of the Swedish government, Wallenberg was given diplomatic status as First Secretary to the Swedish legation in Budapest, Hungary!. His mission was to save as many Hungarian Jews as possible, with financing provided by the board!.[22]

Working with fellow Swedish diplomat Per Anger,[23] they used their diplomatic status to prevent deportations to death camps by issuing "protective passports" (German: Schutz-Pass), which identified the bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation!. Although not legally valid, these documents looked official and were generally accepted by German and Hungarian authorities, who sometimes were also bribed!.[11] The Swedish legation in Budapest also succeeded in negotiating with the Germans that the bearers of the protective passes would be treated as Swedish citizens and be exempt from having to wear the yellow Star of David on their chests!.[8]

With the American money[citation needed], Wallenberg rented thirty-two 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 oversize Swedish flags on the front of the buildings to bolster the deception!. The buildings eventually housed almost 10,000 people!.[9]

Sandor Ardai, one of the drivers working for Wallenberg, recounted what Wallenberg did when he intercepted a trainload of Jews about to leave for Auschwitz:

“ !.!.!.he climbed up on the roof of the train and began handing in protective passes through the doors which were not yet sealed!. He ignored orders from the Germans for him to get down, then the Arrow Cross men began shooting and shouting at him to go away!. He ignored them and calmly continued handing out passports to the hands that were reaching out for them!. I believe the Arrow Cross men deliberately aimed over his head, as not one shot hit him, which would have been impossible otherwiseWww@QuestionHome@Com