Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest

Deplores the fact that the story of Wallenberg's mission in Budapest in July 1944-January 1945 is full of distortions and myths. Based on Swedish diplomatic sources, reconstructs the history of his mission. Briefly describes the Holocaust in Hungary and Wallenberg's early biography. The motives that drove him to Budapest in 1944 were neither philosemitic nor humanitarian; rather, it was his business interests and, even more, his concern over his professional future. The decision to stop the deportations of Jews from Hungary was taken by the Hungarian leadership before Wallenberg arrived, and rescue activities by the Swedish and Swiss legations in Budapest also began before his arrival. In his rescue activities, Wallenberg used the system of protective passes invented by the Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz who had negotiated their use with the Hungarian authorities. Wallenberg was given support by the Swedish diplomatic corps. Dwells on rescue activities by Sweden's minister in Budapest, Carl Ivan Danielsson, and the attaché Valdemar Langlet. The actions to save Jews from imminent death began after the Arrow Cross coup in October 1944, when the two ghettos, the "international" and the "central", were established and wanton murder of Jews began. Argues that Wallenberg cannot be credited with the rescue of 70,000 Jews of the "central ghetto", because the Arrow Cross leadership had no plans to annihilate the ghetto. His and other rescuers' main merit was showing the Hungarian bureaucracy that Budapest's Jews were under international surveillance and protection. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)