biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1912–? 47)
|
| biography:
| Swedish businessman and diplomat, born in Stockholm, Sweden. He took a science degree at Ann Arbor, then worked as the foreign representative of a European company run by a Hungarian Jew (1935–44). When Hitler began deporting Hungarian Jews to concentration camps he was sent to Hungary as a ‘diplomat’ with the assistance of the US and Swedish governments to rescue as many Jews as he could. He designed a Swedish protection passport, and arranged ‘Swedish houses’ offering Jews refuge, saving up to 100 000. When Soviet troops occupied Hungary in 1945 he was taken to Soviet headquarters and never returned. On insistent Swedish requests, Soviet authorities produced a document stating that he had died of a heart attack in July 1947, but testimony of ex-prisoners suggested that he was still alive in the 1950s, and persistent rumours implied he was still in prison in the 1970s. Wallenberg was made an honorary citizen of the USA in 1981, of Canada in 1985, and of Israel in 1986. |
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