sign in sign up
<<
Home , Per Anger, Raoul Wallenberg

Student presentation on Rightrous Among the Nations

Raoul BASIC INFORMATION

• Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg was born on 4th and died probably on 17th July 1947. • He was Swedish architect, businessman, and humanitarian.

• He is widely celebrated for his successful efforts to rescue between tens of thousands and one hundred thousand in Nazi-occupied during from Hungarian Fascists and the Nazis during the later stages of World War II.

BASIC INFORMATION

• While serving as 's special envoy in between July and December 1944, Wallenberg issued protective passports and sheltered Jews in buildings designated as Swedish territory saving tens of thousands of lives. • He was detained by Soviet authorities on suspicion of and imprisoned in the prison Lubyanka in , where he reportedly died.

BACKROUND

• He was a member of a prominent family of bankers and industrialists. • His father died of cancer three months before he was born, and his maternal grandfather died three months after his birth. His mother and grandmother, both suddenly widows, raised him together. • After high school and eight months in the Swedish military, his paternal grandfather sent him to study in Paris, where he spent one year. In 1931, he enrolled in the in the to study architecture. • He visited Hungary on business in the early , during World War II and he became increasingly disturbed by the plans of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to kill all the Jews of Europe. • In 1944, the World Jewish Congress and the American asked Wallenberg to help and he agreed to go to Hungary to save the remaining Jews there.

RESCUE OF JEWS • According to Wallenberg’s request, he was sent in Budapest as a diplomat by the Swedish goverment. • By the time of Wallenberg's arrival there were only 230,000 Jews remaining in Hungary, others were sent directly to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in southern . • Together with Swedish diplomat , he issued protective passports, which identified the bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation. • Thanks these passports prevented their deportation. Although not legal, these documents looked official and were generally accepted by German and Hungarian authorities.

Shoes on the Danube – Memorial for victims of Holocaust in Budapest RESCUE OF JEWS

• Wallenberg rented 32 buildings in Budapest and declared them to be extraterritorial, protected by . He put up signs such as "The Swedish Library" and "The Swedish Research Institute" on their doors and hung oversize Swedish flags on the front of the buildings. The buildings eventually housed almost 10,000 people. PASSPORT ARREST AND DEATH

• During the , Wallenberg was arrested by Soviet forces. • The reason for his arrest was reportedly suspicion of espionage for USA. • He was imprisoned by communist authorities and KGB secret police in the Lubyanka, a building located in Moscow, housing both the KGB headquarters and its prison. • In 1957, the Soviet government reported that Wallenberg had died of a heart attack in prison in 1947. However, several people said that they saw him alive in Soviet prisons and hospitals after 1947. • The motives behind Wallenberg's arrest and imprisonment by the Soviet government, along with questions surrounding the circumstances of his death, remain mysterious and are the subject of continued speculation.

HONOURS AND AWARDS

• Wallenberg is an honorary citizen of the United States, , Hungary, and . • In 2012, he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by the “in recognition of his achievements and heroic actions during the Holocaust.”

• Wallenberg was also nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1948 and 1949. At the time, the prize could be awarded posthumously, but the concept of such awards was controversial. HONOURS AND AWARDS

• He has also a lot of memorials and monuments all around the world.

"Righteous Gentile" in Honor of Wallenberg, Budapest, Hungary

Stone globe in memory of , "Angel of Rescue", Los Angeles, , Sweden California

HONOURS AND AWARDS

• In his honour there were issued a lot of stamps in different countries.

• There are also some awards in his name, for example the Raoul Wallenberg Award "on individuals, organizations and communities that reflect Raoul Wallenberg's humanitarian spirit, personal courage and nonviolent action in the face of enormous odds." WALLENBERG´S STORY

• A number of films have been made about Wallenberg's life. The most famous is Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (1985), starring . There are also a lot of documents such as Raoul Wallenberg: Buried Alive (1984) or Raoul Wallenberg, Between The Lines (1985).

“Never postpone until tomorrow what you can postpone until the day after.”

“I encounter one example after another of how relative truth is.”

“I will never be able to go back to Sweden without knowing inside myself that I'd done all a man could do to save as many Jews as possible.”

Raoul Wallenberg SOURCES

• http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Wallenberg • http://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Wallenberg • http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/highlights/wallenberg-stamp-issued-for-the-centanary/ • http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Raoul_Wallenberg.jpg • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RossijaLubjanka.jpg • http://www.jspace.com/news/articles/us-congressional-medal-named-in-wallenberg-s-honor- video/13965 • http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_ph.php?ModuleId=10005211&MediaId=1696 • http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/raoulwallenberg_memorials.htm.html • http://filateliastamp.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/wallemberg-usa.jpg • http://www.stampcommunity.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=30112 • http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/news/argentine-postal-service/ • http://fotky.sme.sk/fotografia/324683/pamatnik-holokaustu-v-budapesti-topanky-na-brehu-dunaja • http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/raoul-wallenberg • http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090285/

Thanks for watching

Žaneta Semanišinová and Kristína Mišlanová Oktáva Class, Gymnázium Alejová