Children…

Raoul Wallenberg and
other Swedes in Budapest
In 1944, Europe’s largest surviving Jewish population
lived in Hungary, a German ally. Although Hungary
introduced discriminatory laws against its approximately
800,000 Jewish citizens, Hungarian leaders refused
to have them deported. On 19 March 1944, Germany
occupied Hungary and took immediate action against
the Jews.Assisted by local collaborators, Jews outside of
Budapest were forced from their homes, robbed of their
possessions and placed in temporary ghettos before
deportation to camps, mainly Auschwitz-Birkenau.
When the deportations were discontinued in early July,
437,000 people had been deported, more than 300,000
of them gassed immediately upon arrival.
The situation in Budapest differed from that in the
provinces. Swedish and other neutral diplomats were
able to assist at least some of the city’s Jews, and help
them survive. Germany’s military and political situation
was rapidly deteriorating, making the Germans
largely dependent on Hungarian assistance to deal
with the Jews. This gave the neutral diplomats space
to manoeuvre. In June, Swedish Ambassador Carl Ivan
Danielsson wrote to the Foreign Ministry: “(In Budapest)
the Jews have been deprived of virtually all their
property.They have had to put up with living 8-10 people
in a single room (…) Those lucky enough to possess
necessary labour skills are believed to be transported to
German industrial facilities where they have a chance
to be treated fairly well. The rest however, children,
weak women or the elderly, are said to be transported to
the extermination camps in Auschwitz-Birkenau, near
Kattowitz in Poland.”
Sweden’s efforts were strengthened and energized
with Raoul Wallenberg’s arrival in Budapest on 9 July.
The young businessman’s courage and inventiveness
brought Sweden’s humanitarian diplomacy for foreign
Jews to a new and historic phase. However,Wallenberg
would not have been as successful as he was without the
support of his colleagues Ambassador Danielsson and
Per Anger. Valdemar Langlet of the Swedish Red Cross
also made significant contributions. The Swedes and
other diplomats employed “bureaucratic resistance”
and other diplomatic methods with historic creativity.
The most well-known activity was the issuance of “protective
passports”, which Wallenberg gave to as many
Jews as possible. The Swede and his colleagues worked
relentlessly until the Red Army occupied Budapest, saving
the lives of tens of thousands of people.
In January 1945, Raoul Wallenberg was arrested by
Soviet forces, and never returned to Sweden. His actual
fate remains unknown.
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