In my research on Raoul Wallenberg, I have read the following two books:
Wallenberg: Lost hero – by Danny Smith
To Save a People – by Alex Kershaw
Both books track the events of the summer of 1944 in Budapest, Hungary. However their approach is a little different. “To Save a People” gives us a potted history of the main characters of the story, and how they ended up in Budapest, both the Nazi, Adolf Eichmann, and the meeting at Wansee which resulted in the agreement of the “Final Solution”, as well as some of the Jewish survivors who Wallenberg was to later help save. “Lost Hero”, deals with the aftermath of the war, and tries to explain why and how Wallenberg was never seen again after the war.
“To Save a Nation”, I think uses the stories of people escaping the Nazis from Poland and Czechoslovakia, to illustrate the point that Hungary was the last place left in Eastern Europe that was still free to the Jews, and where the Jewish population was free to carry out their daily routines, although the Hungarian government had passed some anti-Jewish decrees as early as 1938. With 825.007 Jews in Hungary in 1941, the Nazi’s sent Eichmann to Budapest, with the goal to carry out the Nazi’s “Final Solution”.
The start of the book read more like a work of fiction than a true account of what was happening at that time. The author goes in to so much descriptive detail. For example, our first encounter with Eichmann:
“Dragging on a cigarette, he surveyed his two hundred odd men as they readied to leave for Hungary. A corner if his thin-lipped mouth twitched.”
Descriptions like this are quite common in this book, and I was left wondering, “how does the author know”.
“The Lost Hero” is much more evidence based, and concentrates more, as the title suggests of what happened to Wallenberg after the war. Danny Smith has used accounts from people who claimed they were in the Russian Gulag system, who were subsequently released.
There is not too much information offered about Raoul Wallenberg as a person in either book, which I was a little disappointed with. We know he comes from aristocracy, and his family were big in the banking World, he was educated in the United States, worked in Palestine and had been working previously in Budapest for the Central European Trading Company. However, I wanted to discover what made this man risk his life to save so many.
“To Save a Nation” captures a quote from Wallenberg himself, something he said to his Grandfather, who was his role model, when talking about his role in the family business:
“I think that my talents lie elsewhere. I want to do something more positive than sit behind a desk all day saying ‘no’ to people”
Also mentioned, was how, in the 1930’s when he was in Palestine, he befriended Jews that had “escaped” the horrors that were just beginning in Europe. This I am sure had a profound effect on Wallenberg.
It was through friends, that he was recommended to the American State Department, as the person who could help save some of the Jewish people in Europe. In America, there was some pressure on the government to “do something”, and not just to sit back and let innocent people die without doing anything. Money was raised, and Wallenberg was invited to carry out the task. He was sent to Budapest, and went as a Swedish Diplomat.
I know Raoul Wallenberg had to act quickly, but I was amazed how quickly he managed to influence things in Budapest. The rate of progress is quite amazing. He did upset many of his fellow Swedish Diplomats, as he “acted out of the box”, determined to speak to people with influence, and was never afraid to court their friendship. He also took risks, for example the number of “Shultzpasses” (temporary passports) he produced. Off course he was backed by American money, and even more during war-times money and the goods money can by, is a real influence in getting your own way.
“The Lost Hero”, also touches on the role the family business played during the war. Remembering that Sweden was a neutral country during the war, which meant they could trade with both sides. This is what Raoul’s two cousins, Jacob and Markus did. It is a known fact that they traded iron ore with the Nazis, which in many eyes contributed to the war going on as long as it did.
Both books describe the acts of heroism that Raoul Wallenberg carried out. All documented from the view point of the survivors he saved. Both books share the same story of one of the rescue missions he made on the Death Marches of late 1944. He is quoted as saying “I cannot save everyone”, and it appears he chose younger people, with the idea of saving the Jewish nation.
The final hours of the war are described quite graphically. Thinking the Red Army was the saviours of the people in hiding and shelter in Budapest, was a misconception. As a reward for beating the Nazis, the commanders of the Red Army allowed as a reward their soldiers to “go mad” for three days. There are many documented stories of Jewish women being rapped. It must have felt that their nightmare’s were just getting worse.
With the Nazis gone, Raoul Wallenberg wanted to see the Commander of the Red Army in Hungary to talk about the plans he had been preparing for the future. Against advice from his friends and colleagues in Budapest, he decided to go the 120 miles to share his plans. In what may have been a joke, he said that he was in safe hands, as there were Russian soldiers acting as an escort:
“I don’t know if I am their guest, or their prisoner.”
As it turned out, Raoul Wallenberg was their prisoner. So what actually happened to Raoul. “The Lost Hero” offers many explanations as to why the Russians would capture him as a “Prisoner of War”:
The family name. The Russians knew about the business interests of the Wallenberg’s, and how they had supplied the Nazis with goods during the war. As I mentioned above, the Russians did believe that it was through this that the war was prolonged.
Raoul was a spy. He drove round in an American car, was captured with loads of money and was working indirectly for the Americans. Even during the aftermath of World War Two, the Russians never trusted the Americans. Also, they may have also believed he was a “double spy” and that he worked for the Nazis. It was thought that there was no way that Wallenberg could have achieved what he did, without some backing from the Nazis. The idea of him being a spy, was also fuelled by the fact, that while a prisoner, neither the Swedish or US governments made an attempt to gain his release. However, there are reports of some half-hearted attempts to find out what happened to him. “The Lost Hero” documents a meeting that the Swedish Ambassador, Stefan Soldeblom, had with Stalin. It is claimed he gave Stalin a piece of paper with Raoul Wallenberg’s name on it, and asked if the Russians could trace him, however in doing so, he mentioned the idea that they thought that Raoul was probably dead, and died on his way to meet with the Russians in Hungary in January 1945.
Sweden was very loath to put any pressure on the Russians, fearing their much larger neighbours. Their were hints from Russian diplomats in Sweden that a bargain could be made, but the Swedish authorities didn’t want to get involved in such schemes. Also, are we certain that they were actually talking about Wallenberg?
Another puzzling fact, is why didn’t any of the survivors that had escaped to the West make any concerted efforts to find out what happened to the person that saved their lives? Alex Kershaw talks about how many of the survivors found it very difficult to talk about their experiences after the war. Many of them wanted to forget about what happened, and wanted to build new lives for themselves. However, interestingly, Kershaw suggests that many people didn’t believe the stories they were sharing, so it was easier not to mention their war-time experiences.
Even now, there is still no concrete evidence to say what happened to Raoul Wallenberg. We know that he was captured by the Russians, as during a meeting his family attended in Moscow in 1989, they gave back some of his processions back to his family in 1989. A spokesman for the Soviet Foreign Ministry apologised for his country’s “tragic mistake” and added “your brother was swept up in the maelstrom of repression”. Despite many eyewitness accounts of sightings of Raoul up until as late as 1987, the Russians still maintain that he died of a heart attack in prison in 1947. His family though, still believed him to be alive.
Both books were interesting reads, and despite the subject, were quite easy to read. There are so many stories surrounding Wallenberg’s 6 months in Budapest, and the events in the Russian gulag system, that you could make up many conspiracy theories, and come to many conclusions. I was left thinking that the Russians knew they had made a mistake capturing Wallenberg, and after a time, because to the way diplomacy works, it was easier to say he had died, rather than releasing him and owning up to their error.
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