Raoul Wallenberg (1912-?), a member of a wealthy Swedish family, saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from persecution and murder by the Nazis and Hungarian fascists. Wallenberg traveled to Hungary in 1944, and worked tirelessly during the deportation of the Jews of Budapest. He provided some Jews with Swedish visas, many of which were home-made, and sheltered others in “protected houses” owned by Sweden and other neutral countries. These actions saved an estimated 20,000 to 35,000 Hungarian Jews. Additionally, as the Soviet Army neared Budapest, Wallenberg reportedly thwarted a German scheme to blow up the two ghettos in the city. Because of this act alone, the 70,000 to 100,000 Jews who remained in the ghettos survived to be liberated on January 18, 1945. After liberation, the Soviet authorities arrested Wallenberg and imprisoned him on charges of espionage. The Soviets later claimed that Wallenberg died in prison in 1947, but the circumstances and date of his death remain in dispute.
