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[ABOVE—Raoul Wallenberg—Pressensbild / [public domain] Wikimedia File:Raoul Wallenberg 214082a.jpg]

As with most Swedes of his day, Raoul Wallenberg was reared a Lutheran. Friends say that as a boy he memorized large passages of Scripture, delighted in lightening as God’s handiwork, and, when sick with malaria, attempted to live out the precepts of sermons he had heard. However, his correspondence does not suggest theological interest or a deep commitment to Christ. Enrolled in an architecture program at the University of Michigan, he attended Handel’s Messiah every December with a girlfriend, but his letters mention only his pleasure with the music.

Visiting Palestine on behalf of his family (who were international bankers) he wrote matter-of-factly of swimming in the “lake . . . on which Jesus walked.” His correspondence mentions attending a New Year service with his whole family at Katarina Church, Stockholm. In other words, Wallenberg gave the appearance of a conventional and nominal Christian. 

And yet few saints have risen to the level of selflessness and courage he exhibited in 1944 and 1945. Appointed at the behest of the United States to undertake a humanitarian mission to Hungary to rescue Jews, he threw himself into the work wholeheartedly. (He may also have spied for the United States.) The Hungarian government had already restricted Nazi deportations and Raoul bribed Hungarian officials—or threatened them with trial as war criminals—to extend this anemic protection for Jews. The Swedish embassy was already issuing Swedish papers to Jews who had prior connections with Sweden, and Raoul expanded this system. 

He negotiated with the Hungarians and bribed, stormed, lied, and coaxed authorities, militia groups, and soldiers to free or protect Jews. He even dined with Eichmann to play on his insecurities, thus delaying the roundup of Jews. Wallenberg redesigned the Swedish passport to make it look more impressive, provided safe houses, established hospitals, and opened soup kitchens. He funded the work primarily from the humanitarian American bank account, but wealthy Jews also chipped in. He and his team (which grew to about 400) slept only four hours a night. When starvation increased, he made heroic efforts to feed Budapest’s Jews.

Wallenberg seized favorable currents and conditions to save thousands of other Jews. He claimed many from columns of death marches and sometimes managed to thwart desperate efforts by Eichmann and the Arrow Cross Party to exterminate as many Semites as possible as the war wound down. Once, after Eichmann threatened him, a truck rammed Wallenberg’s car in an apparent effort to kill him.

When the Soviets advanced on Budapest, Wallenberg went to meet them, hoping to share post-war plans for Hungary’s Jews. On this day, 17 January 1945, the Russians held Raoul Wallenberg in their custody. His associates would not see him alive again. 

For decades family and friends tried to discover what happened to him. At first the Soviet Union declared it had no knowledge of Wallenberg, but later claimed he died of a heart attack in 1947. In 2000, a Swedish committee concluded the Russian claim was probably correct. However not everyone accepted the conclusion. Credible witnesses, including a Russian doctor, claimed to have met Wallenberg in prison in the early 1960s. To this day his end remains unknown. 

The Episcopal Church calendar recognizes him on July 16 with other Righteous Gentiles—those non-Jews who worked to save Jews from slaughter. Frederick E. Werbell and Thurston Clarke tried to sum up Wallenberg’s importance: 

If the Holocaust is to be taken as evidence that human nature is essentially evil, then Raoul Wallenberg’s life must be considered as evidence that it is not. . . . He saved humanity’s reputation.

—Dan Graves

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