Wallenberg, Raoul, 1912-1947

Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat in Nazi-occupied Hungary who led an extensive and successful mission to save the lives of nearly 100,000 Hungarian Jews. Though his efforts to save Jews from the Holocaust is one of the most treasured aspects of that time, his fate and ultimate death is unknown still to this day.

Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg (born 4 August 1912, death date unknown)[note 1][1] was a Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat, and humanitarian. He is widely celebrated for saving tens of thousands[2] of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust from German Nazis and Hungarian Fascists during the later stages of World War II. While serving as Sweden's special envoy in Budapest between July and December 1944, Wallenberg issued protective passports and sheltered Jews in buildings designated as Swedish territory.[2]

On 17 January 1945, during the Siege of Budapest by the Red Army, Wallenberg was detained by SMERSH on suspicion of espionage and subsequently disappeared.[3] He was later reported to have died on 17 July 1947 while imprisoned by the KGB secret police in the Lubyanka, the KGB headquarters and affiliated prison in Moscow. The motives behind Wallenberg's arrest and imprisonment by the Soviet government, along with questions surrounding the circumstances of his death and his ties to US intelligence, remain mysterious and are the subject of continued speculation.[4]

Due to his courageous actions on behalf of the Hungarian Jews, Raoul Wallenberg has been the subject of numerous humanitarian honors in the decades following his presumed death. In 1981, U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, himself one of those saved by Wallenberg, sponsored a bill making Wallenberg an Honorary Citizen of the United States. He was the second person ever to receive this honor, after Winston Churchill (and unlike Churchill, neither of his parents had been born in the United States). Wallenberg is also an honorary citizen of Canada, Hungary, Australia, and Israel.[5] Israel has also designated Wallenberg one of the Righteous Among the Nations. Monuments have been dedicated to him, and streets have been named after him throughout the world. A Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States was created in 1981 to "perpetuate the humanitarian ideals and the nonviolent courage of Raoul Wallenberg."[6] It gives the Raoul Wallenberg Award annually to recognize persons who carry out those goals. Postage stamps have been issued in his honour by Argentina,[7] Australia, Canada, Dominica,[8] Hungary, Kazakhstan,[9] Sweden, and the United States.[10] On 26 July 2012, he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress "in recognition of his achievements and heroic actions during the Holocaust."[11]

In October 2016, 71 years after his disappearance, Wallenberg was formally declared dead by the Swedish Tax Agency.