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96-779: The organization bears the name of Raoul Wallenberg , a Swedish diplomat who saved Jews and other persecuted people in Hungary during the Holocaust. He was captured by the Soviet Union and his death has been the source of controversy and secrecy. On 27 October 2023, the Foundation revoked the Honorary Membership of António Guterres , Secretary-General of the United Nations, following his declaration that

192-600: A Washington Post column. Noticing these efforts and angry that Sweden had not gone far enough in their efforts to find Wallenberg, Nina Lagergren , Wallenberg's half-sister, traveled to the United States to campaign with Lantos. The efforts of Lantos and Lagergren eventually led to the creation of the Free Wallenberg Committee in Congress, led by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan , whose goal

288-605: A diplomatic passport or, for UN officials, a United Nations laissez-passer . The regular use of permanent diplomatic representation began in the states of 15th-century Italy. However the terms "diplomacy" and "diplomat" appeared during the French Revolution . "Diplomat" is derived from the Greek διπλωμάτης ( diplōmátēs ), the holder of a diploma , referring to diplomats' documents of accreditation from their sovereign. Diplomats themselves and historians often refer to

384-668: A 1941 British anti-Nazi propaganda thriller. The film had been banned in Sweden, but Wallenberg and his sister, Nina, were invited to a private screening at the British Embassy in Stockholm . Enthralled by Professor Smith (played by Leslie Howard ), who saved twenty-eight Jews from the Nazis, Nina stated, "We thought the film was amazing. When we got up from our seats, Raoul said, ‘that is the kind of thing I would like to do’". At

480-482: A 1991 inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his disappearance that Wallenberg had likely been executed by Soviet authorities in late 1947 as a result of evidence that he may have been associated with people helping not only Jews but also Nazi war criminals escape prosecution. However, there is no conclusive proof of this and his cause and date of death have been disputed ever since, with some people claiming to have encountered men matching Wallenberg's description until

576-579: A 396–2 vote and was quickly signed into law by Reagan, making Wallenberg the second person in history ( Winston Churchill being the first) to be made an honorary American citizen by an act of Congress . With his citizenship now granted, the Wallenberg family successfully sued the Soviet Union in 1984 in an American Federal District Court over his disappearance for $ 39 million, or $ 1 million per year that Wallenberg's fate has been unknown. However,

672-548: A Dutch spy working for the British MI6 , later claimed to have been his girlfriend, also assisted Wallenberg, as did her son. However, she was temporarily engaged to Wallenberg's colleague Lars Berg , and later married a Scottish officer; which has not dispelled claims that Wallenberg was homosexual. Wallenberg started sleeping in a different house each night, to guard against being captured or killed by Arrow Cross Party members or by Adolf Eichmann's men. Two days before

768-746: A Hungarian Jew. Beginning in 1938, the Kingdom of Hungary , under the regency of Miklós Horthy , passed a series of anti-Jewish measures modeled on the so-called Nuremberg Race Laws enacted in Germany by the Nazis in 1935. Like their German counterparts, the Hungarian laws focused heavily on restricting Jews from certain professions, reducing the number of Jews in government and public service jobs, and prohibiting intermarriage . Because of this, Wallenberg's business associate, Kálmán Lauer, found it increasingly difficult to travel to his native Hungary, which

864-570: A Swedish diplomat. Efim (or Yefim) Moshinsky claims to have seen Wallenberg on Wrangel Island in 1962. An eyewitness asserted that she had seen Wallenberg in the 1960s in a Soviet prison where she worked. During a private conversation about the conditions of detention in Soviet prisons at a Communist Party reception in the mid-1970s, a KGB general is reported to have said that "conditions could not be that harsh, given that in Lubyanka prison there

960-434: A Vatican representative, saved about 3,000 Jews. He collaborated with diplomats, including Wallenberg. He met with and talked with Wallenberg on the phone several times. Baranski described Wallenberg's motivation as "divinely human love." "We knew in a second we shared the same opinion … the same recklessness, the same determination, all through," said Baránszki. Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz also issued protective passports from

1056-410: A foreign country or accredited to an international organization, both career diplomats and political appointees enjoy the same diplomatic immunities, as well as United Nations officials. Ceremonial heads of state commonly act as diplomats on behalf of their nation, usually following instructions from their head of Government. Sasson Sofer argues that, "The ideal diplomat, by the nature of his mission,

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1152-445: A never-ending global cocktail party". J. W. Burton has noted that "despite the absence of any specific professional training, diplomacy has a high professional status, due perhaps to a degree of secrecy and mystery that its practitioners self-consciously promote." The state supports the high status, privileges, and self-esteem of its diplomats in order to support its own international status and position. The high regard for diplomats

1248-451: A passenger rickshaw handler at Chicago 's Century of Progress . He used his vacations to explore the United States, with hitchhiking being his preferred method of travel. About his experiences, he wrote to his grandfather saying, "When you travel like a hobo, everything's different. You have to be on the alert the whole time. You're in close contact with new people every day. Hitchhiking gives you training in diplomacy and tact." Wallenberg

1344-424: A person to detain for possible involvement in espionage. Information about Wallenberg after his detention is mostly speculative; there were many who claimed to have met him during his imprisonment. Wallenberg was transported by train from Debrecen, through Romania, to Moscow . The Soviet authorities may have moved him to Moscow in the hope of exchanging him for defectors in Sweden. Vladimir Dekanozov notified

1440-450: A result of his successful efforts to rescue Hungarian Jews , Wallenberg has been the subject of numerous humanitarian honours in the decades following his presumed death . In 1981, US Congressman Tom Lantos , one of those saved by Wallenberg, sponsored a bill making Wallenberg an honorary citizen of the United States , the second person ever to receive this honour. Wallenberg also became an honorary citizen of Canada , Hungary, Australia,

1536-665: A son, Guy von Dardel , and a daughter, Nina Lagergren . After high school and his compulsory eight months in the Swedish military, Wallenberg's paternal grandfather sent him to study in Paris. He spent one year there, and then in 1931 he studied architecture at the University of Michigan in the United States. Although the Wallenberg family was rich, he worked at odd jobs in his free time and joined other young male students as

1632-675: A special section on their English language website for them. IRWF aims for its research subjects and honorees to gain official recognition by their local governments and organizations. In addition to Wallenberg, the IRWF has researched and honored numerous Rescuers of the Holocaust, such as: The organization has many humanitarian campaigns. Aimed to put pressure on the Russian government to release an official statement of what happened to Wallenberg, IRWF created two campaigns. The 'Bring Raoul Home' campaign asks dignitaries to address Wallenberg’s case in

1728-546: A summer house in 1882. His paternal grandfather, Gustaf Wallenberg, was a diplomat and envoy to Tokyo , Istanbul , and Sofia . His parents, who married in 1911, were Raoul Oscar Wallenberg (1888–1912), a Swedish naval officer , and Maria "Maj" Sofia Wising (1891–1979). His father died of cancer three months before he was born, and his maternal grandfather died of pneumonia three months after his birth. His mother and grandmother, now both suddenly widows, raised him together. In 1918, his mother married Fredric von Dardel; they had

1824-486: A year, Wallenberg was a joint owner and the International Director of the company. In this capacity, Wallenberg also made several business trips to Germany and German-occupied France during the early years of World War II . It was during these trips that Wallenberg was able to closely observe the Nazis' bureaucratic and administrative methods—knowledge which proved valuable to him later. Meanwhile,

1920-463: Is a danger that diplomats may become disconnected from their own country and culture. Sir Harold Nicolson acknowledged that diplomats can become "denationalised, internationalised and therefore dehydrated, an elegant empty husk". Nicolson also claimed that personal motives often influenced the diplomatic pursuit of the national interest. For example, he wrote: "Nobody who has not actually watched statesmen dealing with each other can have any real idea of

2016-406: Is also due to most countries' conspicuous selection of diplomats, with regard to their professionalism and ability to behave according to a certain etiquette , in order to effectively promote their interests. Also, international law grants diplomats extensive privileges and immunities , which further distinguishes the diplomat from the status of an ordinary citizen . While posted overseas, there

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2112-460: Is another state and a different special service" from the Soviet Union and the services in charge of holding Wallenberg. Diplomat A diplomat (from Ancient Greek : δίπλωμα ; romanized diploma ) is a person appointed by a state , intergovernmental , or nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or international organizations . The main functions of diplomats are representation and protection of

2208-507: Is destined to clash with the expedient needs of his country's politics." On the other hand, professional politicians often ridicule diplomats. President John F. Kennedy often denigrated career diplomats as "weak and effeminate" and moved foreign policy decisions out of their hands. Every diplomat, while posted abroad, will be classified in one of the ranks of diplomats (secretary, counselor, minister, ambassador , envoy , or chargé d'affaires ) as regulated by international law (namely, by

2304-462: Is different. Wallenberg (who was already dead at the time of Szalai's deposition) saved hundreds of people but was not directly involved in the plan to save the ghetto. While Perlasca was posing as the Spanish consul-general, he learned of the intention to burn down the ghetto. Shocked and incredulous, he asked for a direct hearing with the Hungarian interior minister Gábor Vajna, in the basement of

2400-549: Is general agreement that around the end of the eighteen[th] century, a German Jew named Benedicts emigrated to Sweden, establishing the material line of [Raoul's] Wallenberg’s family. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1935. Upon his return to Sweden, he found his American degree did not qualify him to practice as an architect. Later that year, his grandfather arranged a job for him in Cape Town , South Africa, in

2496-474: Is some foreign prisoner who had been there now for almost three decades." The last reported sightings of Wallenberg were by two independent witnesses who said they had evidence that he was in prison in November 1987. John Farkas was a resistance fighter during World War II and was the last man claiming to have seen Wallenberg alive. Farkas' son has stated that there have been sightings of Wallenberg "up into

2592-575: The 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel "did not come in a vacuum". IRWF is primarily a historical research organization, collecting information on different cases of rescuing during the Holocaust. As part of the research, the foundation gathers survivors saved by Wallenberg and others like him to interview them for the purposes of research and historic memory preservation. IRWF posts the transcripts online for others to read and use. IRWF also identifies and commemorates safe houses. It recently has pushed for researching more women saviors, dedicating

2688-953: The German resistance to the Third Reich Greg McClelland, the Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry Paul J. Crutzen , Yuan T. Lee and Herbert A. Hauptman , President of the Republic of Croatia Stjepan Mesic , and Mayor of Or Yehuda (Israel) Itzhak Buchovza . IRWF also campaigns for public sites to be named after Wallenberg. Parks, streets and schools across the globe bear his name in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Ecuador, Uruguay and others. IRWF has an art gallery in its New York City Headquarters, where it exhibits work done by Holocaust survivors or those who have been inspired by Rescuers of

2784-696: The Raoul Wallenberg Award annually to recognize persons who carry out those goals. In 2012, Wallenberg was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress "in recognition of his achievements and heroic actions during the Holocaust." Declassified documents have confirmed that Raoul Wallenberg worked with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the CIA . Although some have claimed that Wallenberg

2880-590: The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs agreed to the American request to assign Wallenberg to its legation in Budapest as part of an arrangement in which Wallenberg's appointment was granted in exchange for a lessening of American diplomatic pressure on neutral Sweden to curtail the nation's free-trade policies toward Germany. When Wallenberg reached the Swedish legation in Budapest on 9 July 1944,

2976-554: The US State Department , offered the Swedish government help in inquiring about Wallenberg's fate, but the offer was declined. Söderblom met with Vyacheslav Molotov and Stalin in Moscow on 15 June 1946. Söderblom, still believing Wallenberg to be dead, ignored talk of an exchange for Russian defectors in Sweden. On 6 February 1957, the Soviet government released a document dated 17 July 1947 that stated: "I report that

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3072-500: The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961). Diplomats can be contrasted with consuls who help businesspeople, and military attachés . They represent not the foreign ministry but other branches of their government, but lack the diplomat's role in dealing with foreign policy at the highest level. Diplomats in posts collect and report information that could affect national interests, often with advice about how

3168-607: The occupation of Hungary by German troops in March 1944. The Wehrmacht quickly took control of the country and placed Horthy under house arrest . A pro-German puppet government was installed in Budapest; actual power rested with the German military governor, SS-Brigadeführer Edmund Veesenmayer . With the Nazis now in control, the relative security from the Holocaust enjoyed by the Jews of Hungary came to an end. In April and May 1944,

3264-679: The 1980s in Soviet prisons and psychiatric hospitals ." In the late 1970s, Annette Lantos , one of the people rescued by Wallenberg, established the International Free Wallenberg Committee to pressure the Soviet Union into providing answers about his disappearance. She later tried to enlist US President Jimmy Carter to seek further information by sending in a postcard to the Ask President Carter radio show and by working with Simon Wiesenthal and Jack Anderson to tell Wallenberg's story through

3360-509: The 1980s in Soviet prisons and psychiatric hospitals. 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 shrouded in mystery and are the subject of continued speculation. In 2016, the Swedish Tax Agency declared him dead in absentia , with the pro forma date of death noted as 31 July 1952. As

3456-686: The 33-page Auschwitz Protocols (i.e., the Vrba-Wetzler and Rosin-Mordowicz reports). The reports described in detail the operations of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. The second was a six-page Hungarian report that detailed the ghettoization and deportation of 435,000 Hungarian Jews, as updated to 19 June 1944, by towns, to Auschwitz. Mantello publicized the reports' findings immediately upon receipt. This resulted in large-scale grassroots protest in Switzerland against

3552-523: The Budapest City Hall where he had his headquarters, and threatened legal and economic measures against the "3000 Hungarian citizens" (in fact, a much smaller number) declared by Perlasca as residents of Spain, and similar treatment to Hungarian residents in two Latin American republics, to force the minister to withdraw the project. This actually happened in the following days. People saved by Wallenberg include biochemist Lars Ernster , who

3648-695: The German Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in southern Poland. By the time of Wallenberg's arrival there were only 230,000 Jews remaining in Hungary. With fellow Swedish diplomat Per Anger , and Miklos "Moshe" Krausz , they issued "protective passports" (German: Schutz-Pass ), which identified the bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation and thus prevented their deportation. Although not legal, these documents looked official and were generally accepted by German and Hungarian authorities, who sometimes were also bribed. The Swedish legation in Budapest also succeeded in negotiating with

3744-451: The German authorities so that the bearers of the protective passes would be treated as Swedish citizens and be exempt from having to wear the yellow badge required for Jews. When the German government said the travel passes were invalid, Wallenberg appealed for help from Baroness Elisabeth Kemény , wife of Baron Gábor Kemény , Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs in Budapest. She convinced her husband to have 9,000 passes honoured. With

3840-562: The Germans and Arrow Cross were so dumbfounded they let him get away with it. At the height of the program, more than 350 people were involved in the rescue of Jews. Sister Sára Salkaházi was caught sheltering Jewish women and was killed by members of the Arrow Cross Party . Tibor Baranski was a 22-year-old religious student who was recruited by Papal Nuncio Monsignor Angelo Rotta to help save Jews. Baranski, who posed as

3936-403: The Germans to cancel a final effort to organize a death march of the remaining Jews in Budapest by threatening to have them prosecuted for war crimes once the war was over. According to Giorgio Perlasca , who posed as the Spanish consul-general to Hungary in the winter of 1944 and saved 5,218 Jews , Pál Szalai lied to save his life during his criminal trial, and the history of the saving

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4032-687: 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 which he declared as Swedish territory . On 17 January 1945, during the Siege of Budapest by the Red Army , agents of SMERSH detained Wallenberg on suspicion of espionage , and he subsequently disappeared . In 1957, 12 years after his disappearance, he

4128-647: The Holocaust. The Foundation will often co-organize film screenings and theatre productions based on Wallenberg and other rescuers. In April, 2010, the IRWF commissioned an exhibit by painter Peter Bulow . The exhibit "Blessings May Break from Stone" featured statues of Raoul Wallenberg and Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas . Bulow's mother is a Holocaust survivor from Budapest, Hungary. IRWF has created many different educational programs for different student levels. For middle school to higher education, there are resources for both students and teachers that are free for public use and easily accessible online. The program emphasizes

4224-605: The IRWF campaigns had led to Wallenberg Days proclamations in Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Raoul Wallenberg Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg (4 August 1912 – disappeared 17 January 1945) was a Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat , and humanitarian . He saved thousands of Jews in German-occupied Hungary during

4320-618: The Nazi regime and its accomplices began the mass deportation of Hungary's Jews to extermination camps in German-occupied Poland . Under the personal leadership of SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann , who was later tried and hanged in Israel for his role in the implementation of the Nazis' Final Solution , deportations took place at a rate of 12,000 people per day. Wallenberg was directly inspired by "Pimpernel" Smith ,

4416-499: The Russian government with investigating Wallenberg's fate. He concluded that Wallenberg died in 1947, executed while a prisoner in Lubyanka. He may have been a victim of the C-2 poison ( carbylamine-choline-chloride ) tested at the poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services . In Moscow in 2000, Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev announced that Wallenberg had been executed in 1947 in Lubyanka prison. He claimed that Vladimir Kryuchkov ,

4512-472: The Soviet Army occupied Budapest, Wallenberg negotiated with Eichmann and with Major-General Gerhard Schmidthuber , the supreme commander of German forces in Hungary. Wallenberg bribed Arrow Cross Party member Pál Szalai to deliver a note in which Wallenberg persuaded the occupying Germans to prevent a Fascist plan to blow up the Budapest ghetto and murder an estimated 70,000 Jews. The note also persuaded

4608-437: The Soviet Union ignored the suit and did not pay any of the damages awarded by the judge. They also did not offer any information into his disappearance. Raoul Wallenberg's half-brother, Guy von Dardel , a well-known physicist, retired from CERN and dedicated the rest of his life to finding out his half-brother's fate. He traveled to the Soviet Union about fifty times for discussions and research, including an examination of

4704-433: The Soviet Union would not answer questions to America about a non-American citizen, Lantos worked with Senator Moynihan to pass a bill recognizing Wallenberg as such. The effort grew as 60 Minutes aired a piece on Wallenberg while the resolution was moving through Congress. Newly elected President Ronald Reagan watched the program and joined Lantos and Moynihan in pushing for the resolution to pass. It eventually passed by

4800-632: The State's national government to conduct said state's relations with other States or international organizations, a number of States maintain an institutionalized group of career diplomats—that is, public servants with a steady professional connection to the country's foreign ministry . The term career diplomat is used worldwide in opposition to political appointees (that is, people from any other professional backgrounds who may equally be designated by an official government to act as diplomats abroad). While officially posted to an embassy or delegation in

4896-505: The Swedish government on 16 January 1945 that Wallenberg was under the protection of Soviet authorities. On 21 January 1945, Wallenberg was transferred to Lubyanka prison and held in cell 123 with fellow prisoner Gustav Richter , who had been a police attaché at the German embassy in Romania. Richter testified in Sweden in 1955 that Wallenberg was interrogated once for about an hour and a half, in early February 1945. On 1 March 1945, Richter

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4992-468: The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet show that an order for Wallenberg's arrest was issued by Deputy Commissar for Defence (and future Soviet Premier ) Nikolai Bulganin and transmitted to Malinovsky's headquarters on the day of Wallenberg's disappearance. In 2003, a review of Soviet wartime correspondences indicated that Vilmos Böhm , a Hungarian politician who was also a Soviet intelligence agent, may have provided Wallenberg's name to SMERSH as

5088-528: The Swiss embassy in the spring of 1944; and Italian businessman Giorgio Perlasca posed as a Spanish diplomat and issued forged visas. Portuguese diplomats Sampaio Garrido and Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho rented houses and apartments to shelter and protect refugees from deportation and murder and issued safe conducts to approximately 1,000 Hungarian Jews. Berber Smit (Barbara Hogg), the daughter of Lolle Smit (1892–1961), director of N.V. Philips Budapest and

5184-653: The United Kingdom and Israel. In 1963 the Israeli agency Yad Vashem designated Wallenberg one of the Righteous Among the Nations . Numerous monuments have been dedicated to him, and streets have been named after him throughout the world. The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States was founded in 1981 to "perpetuate the humanitarian ideals and the nonviolent courage of Raoul Wallenberg". It gives

5280-552: The Vladimir prison records. Over the years, von Dardel compiled a 50,000-page archive of interviews, journal articles, letters, and other documents related to his quest. In 1991, Dardel initiated a Swedish-Russian working group to search eleven separate military and government archives from the former Soviet Union for information about Wallenberg's fate, but the group was not able to find useful information. Many, including von Dardel and his daughters, Louise and Marie, do not accept

5376-399: The beginning and the end of each loop in the continuous process through which foreign policy develops. In general, it has become harder for diplomats to act autonomously. Diplomats use secure communication systems, such as emails, and mobile telephones that allow reaching even the most reclusive head of mission. This technology also gives diplomats the capacity for more immediate input about

5472-539: The chief rabbi of Russia by the Russian government in September 2007. The items were slated to be housed at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, which opened in 2012. In August 2016, new information about Wallenberg's death came to light when the diary of KGB head Ivan Serov surfaced after Serov's granddaughter found the diary hidden in a wall of her house. "I have no doubts that Wallenberg

5568-588: The chief of " Currency Operations " for the Stockholm station of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the United States' wartime espionage service. In search of someone willing and able to go to Budapest to organize a rescue program for the nation's Jews, Olsen established contact with a relief committee composed of many prominent Swedish Jews led by the Swedish Chief Rabbi Marcus Ehrenpreis to locate an appropriate person to travel to Budapest under diplomatic cover and lead

5664-492: The city had been encircled by Soviet forces. Despite this, the German commander of Budapest, SS Lieutenant General Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch , refused all offers to surrender, setting in motion a protracted and bloody siege of Budapest . At the height of the fighting, on 17 January 1945, Wallenberg was called to General Malinovsky's headquarters in Debrecen to answer allegations that he was engaged in espionage. According to

5760-608: The correspondence and official meetings with the Russian Government; and the '100,000 Names for 100,000 Lives' campaign, which aims to get 100,000 people to sign the petition who then will be conveyed to the Russian President. As of August 12, 2010, IRWF has gotten 27,204 signatures for its '100,000 Names for 100,000 Lives' campaign. Dignitaries that have written letters on Wallenberg's behalf include Argentine Congressman Federico Pinedo , American Researcher on

5856-411: The diplomats overseas to make. In this operation, the intelligence, integrity, cultural understanding, and energy of individual diplomats become critical. If competent, they will have developed relationships grounded in trust and mutual understanding with influential members of the country in which they are accredited. They will have worked hard to understand the motives, thought patterns and culture of

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5952-515: 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

6048-443: The end of May 1944, George Mantello received and immediately publicized two important reports given to him by Romanian diplomat Florian Manilou , who had returned from a fact-finding trip to Romania and Budapest at Mantello's request. Manilou received material from Miklos "Moshe" Krausz in Budapest, who worked with Carl Lutz to rescue Jews. One of the reports was probably Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl 's abridged version of

6144-759: The foreign ministry by its address: the Ballhausplatz (Vienna), the Quai d’Orsay (Paris), the Wilhelmstraße (Berlin); Itamaraty (from the former Itamaraty Palace in Rio de Janeiro, now transferred to Brasília since 1970) and Foggy Bottom (Washington). For imperial Russia to 1917 it was the Choristers' Bridge (St Petersburg). The Italian ministry was called "the Consulta". Though any person can be appointed by

6240-552: The former Soviet secret police chief, told him about the shooting in a private conversation. The statement did not explain why Wallenberg was killed or why the government had lied about it. General Pavel Sudoplatov claimed that Wallenberg died after being poisoned by Grigory Mairanovsky , an NKVD chemist and torturer. In 2000, Russian prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov signed a verdict posthumously rehabilitating Wallenberg and his driver, Langfelder, as "victims of political repression ". Files pertinent to Wallenberg were turned over to

6336-576: 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 otherwise. I think this is what they did because they were so impressed by his courage. After Wallenberg had handed over the last of the passports he ordered all those who had one to leave the train and walk to the caravan of cars parked nearby, all marked in Swedish colours. I don't remember exactly how many, but he saved dozens off that train, and

6432-472: The home-country government should respond. Then, once any policy response has been decided in the home country's capital, posts bear major responsibility for implementing it. Diplomats have the job of conveying, in the most persuasive way possible, the views of the home government to the governments to which they are accredited and, in doing so, of trying to convince those governments to act in ways that suit home-country interests. In this way, diplomats are part of

6528-615: The immense part played in human affairs by such unavowable and often unrecognisable causes as lassitude, affability, personal affection or dislike, misunderstanding, deafness or incomplete command of a foreign language, vanity, social engagements, interruptions and momentary health." To prevent disconnection and apathy from their own state, many foreign services mandate their employees to return to their home countries in between period serving abroad. Diplomats have started celebrating International Day of Diplomats on October 24 since 2017. The idea of celebrating International Day of Diplomats on

6624-721: The intense Nazi campaign to deport the Jews of Hungary almost entirely to Auschwitz had already been under way for several months. The transports from Hungary were halted with few exceptions by Miklós Horthy two days earlier in large part because he was warned by Roosevelt, Churchill, the King of Sweden and even the Pope after the very vocal Swiss grass roots protests against the mass murder in Auschwitz. Between May and early July 1944, Eichmann and his associates had deported more than 400,000 Jews by freight train. All but 15,000 were sent directly to

6720-615: The interests and nationals of the sending state; initiation and facilitation of strategic agreements, treaties and conventions; and promotion of information, trade and commerce, technology, and friendly relations. Seasoned diplomats of international repute are used in international organizations (for example, the United Nations , the world's largest diplomatic forum) as well as multinational companies for their experience in management and negotiating skills. Diplomats are members of foreign services and diplomatic corps of various nations of

6816-536: The mission or any member of the diplomatic staff is already on duty in the receiving state, the receiving state may still decide at anytime that the person is no longer wanted in the state and is considered persona non grata . When this happens, the sending state may discharge the person. Diplomats are the oldest form of any of the foreign policy institutions of a state, predating by centuries foreign ministers and ministerial offices. They usually have diplomatic immunity , and in their official travels they usually use

6912-523: The money mostly raised for the War Refugee Board by American Jews, Wallenberg rented 32 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 oversized Swedish flags on the front of the buildings to bolster the deception. The buildings eventually housed almost 10,000 people. Sandor Ardai, one of

7008-698: The office of a Swedish company that sold construction material. After six months in South Africa, he took a new job at a branch office of the Holland Bank in Haifa . He returned to Sweden in 1936, securing a job in Stockholm with the help of his father's cousin and godfather, Jacob Wallenberg , at the Central European Trading Company, an export-import company trading between Stockholm and central Europe, owned by Kálmán Lauer ,

7104-460: The other side. Most career diplomats have university degrees in international relations , political science , history , economics , or law . " Emotional intelligence " has recently become a component of many foreign service training programs. Diplomats have generally been considered members of an exclusive and prestigious profession. The public image of diplomats has been described as "a caricature of pinstriped men gliding their way around

7200-539: The policy-making processes in the home capital. Secure email has transformed the contact between diplomats and the ministry. It is less likely to leak, and enables more personal contact than the formal cablegram , with its wide distribution and impersonal style. The home country will usually send instructions to a diplomatic post on what foreign policy goals to pursue, but decisions on tactics – who needs to be influenced, what will best persuade them, who are potential allies and adversaries, and how it can be done – are for

7296-448: The prisoner Wallenberg who is well-known to you, died suddenly in his cell this night, probably as a result of a heart attack or heart failure . Pursuant to the instructions given by you that I personally have Wallenberg under my care, I request approval to make an autopsy with a view to establishing cause of death.... I have personally notified the minister and it has been ordered that the body be cremated without autopsy." The document

7392-524: The report's publication, the Roosevelt administration turned to the newly created War Refugee Board (WRB) in search of a solution to the genocide against Jews. US Treasury Department official Iver C. Olsen was dispatched to Stockholm as a representative of the WRB and tasked with putting together a plan to rescue the Jews of Hungary. In addition to his duties with the WRB, Olsen was also secretly employed as

7488-603: The rescue operation. One member of the committee was Wallenberg's business associate Kálmán Lauer . The committee's first choice to lead the mission was Count Folke Bernadotte , the vice-chairman of the Swedish Red Cross and a member of the Swedish Royal Family . When Bernadotte's proposed appointment was rejected by the Hungarians, Lauer suggested Wallenberg as a potential replacement. Olsen

7584-564: The situation in Hungary had begun to deteriorate as the tide of the war began to turn decisively against Germany and its allies. Following the catastrophic Axis defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad (in which Hungarian troops fighting alongside German forces suffered a staggering 84% casualty rate), the Horthy regime began secretly pursuing peace talks with the United States and the United Kingdom. Upon learning of Horthy's duplicity, Adolf Hitler ordered

7680-405: The unprecedented barbarism against Jews and led to Horthy being threatened by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill . In a letter, Churchill wrote, "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...." Following

7776-421: The values of courage and integrity. The organization has advocated for having October 5, the date in which Wallenberg became an Honorary American citizen, proclaimed as Raoul Wallenberg Day across the U.S. The purpose of the commemorative day is to promote peace and the values that come with humanitarianism , while remembering Wallenberg and his deeds. The day is recognized annually in the State of New York and

7872-560: The various versions of Wallenberg's death. They continue to request that the archives in Russia, Sweden, and Hungary become available to impartial researchers. In 2012, Russian lieutenant general Vasily Khristoforov, head of the registration branch of the Russian Federal Security Service , said that the Wallenberg case was still open. He also dismissed any allegation of a continuing cover-up, saying that "this

7968-557: The wife of Géza Soós, a ringleader of the Hungarian resistance who worked with Wallenberg, he used the opportunity to try to transport copies of the Auschwitz Report to the interim Hungarian government in Debrecen. Wallenberg's last recorded words were, "I'm going to Malinovsky's ... whether as a guest or prisoner I do not know yet." Documents recovered in 1993 from previously secret Soviet military archives and published in

8064-410: The world. The sending state is required to get the consent of the receiving state for a person proposed to serve in key diplomatic positions such as an ambassador, also referred to as the head of the mission. The receiving state of the proposed diplomat may accept the diplomat or refuse to accept the diplomat without having to provide reasons for its refusal or acceptance of the person. While the head of

8160-407: Was a Swedish diplomat and said he was there "through a great error". Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal searched for Wallenberg and collected several testimonies. For example, British businessman Greville Wynne , who was imprisoned in the Lubyanka prison in 1962 for his connection to KGB defector Oleg Penkovsky , stated that he had talked to, but could not see the face of, a man who claimed to be

8256-467: Was aware of his one-sixteenth Jewish ancestry and proud of it. It came from his great-great-grandfather (his maternal grandmother's grandfather) Michael Benedicks, who immigrated to Stockholm in 1780 and converted to Christianity. Ingemar Hedenius (one of the leading Swedish philosophers) recalls a conversation with Raoul dating back to 1930 when they were together in an army hospital during military service: We had many long and intimate conversations. He

8352-501: Was full of ideas and plans for the future. Although I was a good deal older – you could choose when to do your service – I was enormously impressed by him. He was proud of his partial Jewish ancestry and, as I recall, must have exaggerated it somewhat. I remember him saying, 'A person like me, who is both a Wallenberg and half-Jewish, can never be defeated'. Raoul Wallenberg's Jewishness is supported also by Sweden researcher Paul A. Levine, who wrote in his monograph about Wallenberg: There

8448-596: Was housed in the Swedish embassy, and Tom Lantos , later a member of the United States House of Representatives , who lived in one of the Swedish protective houses. The Swedish consulate building still exists as of 2019, on the hill behind the Hotel Gellért, with a reference to Wallenberg at the front. On 29 October 1944, elements of the 2nd Ukrainian Front under Marshal Rodion Malinovsky launched an offensive against Budapest . By late December,

8544-484: Was introduced to Wallenberg by Lauer in June 1944 and came away from the meeting impressed and, shortly thereafter, appointed Wallenberg to lead the mission. Olsen's selection of Wallenberg met with objections from some US officials who doubted his reliability, in light of existing commercial relationships between businesses owned by the Wallenberg family and the German government. These differences were eventually overcome and

8640-445: Was liquidated in 1947," Serov wrote. Several former prisoners have claimed to have seen Wallenberg after his reported death in 1947. In February 1949, former German Colonel Theodor von Dufving , a prisoner of war , provided statements concerning Wallenberg. In the transit camp of Kirov , while being moved to Vorkuta , Dufving encountered a prisoner dressed in civilian clothes with his own special guard. The prisoner claimed that he

8736-586: Was moved from his cell and never saw Wallenberg again. On 8 March 1945, Soviet-controlled Hungarian radio announced that Wallenberg and his driver had been murdered on their way to Debrecen, suggesting that they had been killed by the Arrow Cross Party or the Gestapo . Sweden's foreign minister, Östen Undén , and its ambassador to the Soviet Union , Staffan Söderblom , wrongly assumed that they were dead. In April 1945, W. Averell Harriman , then of

8832-609: Was moving still deeper into the German orbit. Hungary became a member of the Axis powers in November 1940 and later joined the Nazi-led invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Out of necessity, Wallenberg became Lauer's personal representative. He traveled to Hungary to conduct business on Lauer's behalf and to look in on members of Lauer's extended family who remained in Budapest. He soon learned to speak Hungarian and, from 1941, made increasingly frequent travels to Budapest . Within

8928-622: Was reported by Soviet authorities to have died of a suspected myocardial infarction on 17 July 1947 while imprisoned in the Lubyanka , the prison at the headquarters of the NKVD secret police in Moscow . A document released in 2023 as part of The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection indicates that Vyacheslav Nikonov , then an assistant to the head of the KGB , determined as part of

9024-483: Was responsible for rescuing 100,000 Jews who survived the Holocaust in Hungary, historians regard that figure as an exaggeration; Yad Vashem estimates the number of people granted protective paperwork as about 4,500 individuals. Wallenberg was born in 1912 in Lidingö Municipality , near Stockholm , where his maternal grandparents, Per Johan Wising and his wife Sophie Wising (née Benedicks), had built

9120-412: Was signed by Smoltsov, then the head of the Lubyanka prison infirmary, and addressed to Viktor Abakumov , the Soviet minister of state security. In 1989, Wallenberg's personal belongings were returned to his family, including his passport and cigarette case. Soviet officials said they found the materials when they were upgrading the shelves in a store room. In 1991, Vyacheslav Nikonov was charged by

9216-455: Was to determine what happened to Wallenberg. Lantos' husband and fellow Holocaust survivor, Tom , later continued the congressional push for answers regarding Wallenberg after being elected to the House of Representatives in 1980. One of Tom Lantos' first acts as a representative in Congress was to recognize Wallenberg as an honorary American citizen . After being told by President Carter that

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