Heroes: The Story Of Raoul Wallenberg
The Story of Raoul Wallenberg
If you have not heard of the name Raoul Wallenberg before, I’m sure you will want to hear about him now. Raoul Wallenberg was an amazing, brave, and thoughtful man who risked his life multiple times to rescue Jews and others who were being taken to the concentration camps throughout many places in Europe. Out of all of the important heroes during the Holocaust, Raoul Wallenberg was one of the most popular or known heroes. Because of his brave efforts and accomplishments, many Jews, including men, women, and children, had lived through the treacherous times of the Holocaust. Although, he could not of saved endangered lives without the help of other countries against Germany and all of the groups and their helpful …show more content…
sources. His outstanding achievements against the barbarous Germans, changed the world and the people throughout the world.
Raoul Wallenberg was born on August 4, 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden. His parents came from two of Sweden’s most outstanding families, whose members included diplomats, bankers, and bishops of the Lutheran Church, as well as artists and professors. Raul's father was the cousin of Jacob and Marcus Wallenberg, two of Sweden's best-known financiers and industrialists of the 20th century. (https://sweden.se/society/raoul-wallenberg-a-man-who-made-a-difference/) His father, an officer of the Swedish Navy and the son of the Swedish ambassador to Japan, died after a brief illness at the age of 23 - eight months after his marriage and three months before the birth of his son. Raoul’s mother, Maj Wising Wallenberg, was only twenty one years old at the time. Three months after Raoul’s birth, his grandfather Wising died suddenly of pneumonia. Maj Wallenberg remarried a young civil servant in the health ministry named Fredrik von Dardel who gave Maj two more children, Guy and Nina. After high school in Swedish military service, Raoul was sent to Paris for a year. Then, at own insistence, he attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he completed the five-year program at the School of Architecture in three and a half years. He graduated in 1935, along with his classmate, future president of the United States Gerald Ford. Once he returned to Sweden, Raoul’s first position was with a Swedish firm in South Africa. In 1936, his grandfather arranged a position for him at the Holland Bank in Haifa, Palestine. There, Raoul began to meet young Jews who had already been forced to flee from Nazi persecution in Germany. Their stories affected him deeply.(http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/aboutus.htm.html)
Raoul’s long journey through life started in August 1912 when he was born. His father had died in May, three months before he was born. Raoul’s grandfather died in October 1912, three months after his birth. Finally in 1918, Raoul’s mother, Maj Wallenberg, remarried and had two more kids. He had graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1935. In 1936, his grandfather arranged a position for him at the Holland Bank in Haifa, Palestine. In 1939, he went to work with a Jewish refugee from Hungary named Koloman Lauer. In eight months, Raoul was the junior partner of the firm. Through his partner’s relatives, Ralph begin to understand the Hungarian Jewish community.(http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/raoulwallenberg_aheroforourtime.htm.html) He was recruited by the United States War Refugee Board in June 1944 to travel to Hungary with a task to do what he could to assist and save Hungarian Jews. (https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005211) Assigned as first secretary to the Swedish legation in Hungary, Wallenberg arrived in Budapest on July 9th, 1944. (https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005211) By the time Wallenberg arrived in Budapest, the Hungarians and the Germans had deported nearly 440,000 Jews from Hungary, almost all of them to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the SS killed approximately 320,000 of them upon arrival and deployed the rest at forced labor in Auschwitz and other camps.(http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/raoulwallenberg_aheroforourtime.htm.html) In January 1945 Wallenberg and his driver, Vilmos Langfelder, were taken into custody by Soviet forces and were charged for espionage. He reportedly died in a Soviet prison in mid-January 1947, although the exact date and circumstances of his death are still unknown to the curious world. There were unconfirmed reports of freed Soviet prisoners that he had been seen alive in prison, notably in 1951, 1959, and 1975. In 1981, Wallenberg became the second of a total of just seven people to be named honorary citizens of the United States. In 1985, he was made an honorary citizen of Canada and in 1986 an honorary citizen of Israel. (https://sweden.se/society/raoul-wallenberg-a-man-who-made-a-difference/)
Over time, Raoul spent a lot of his time doing good things for the Jews in many different places in Europe. Wallenberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden. After high school in Sweden and 9 months of compulsory Swedish military service, Raoul was sent to the magnificent city of Paris for a year. After going to Paris, he traveled to the United States to attend and graduate from Michigan University, located in Ann Arbor. After graduating, he started to study banking and commerce in Haifa, Palestine in South Africa. Raoul returned to Sweden to work and gained information about the Hungarian Jewish communities. After Raoul joined the United States War Refugee board, he was sent to Budapest to help innocent Jews. He had traveled to many different places in the dangerous country of Hungary and helped many Jews throughout the country escape from a horrifying future ahead of them. Wallenberg and his driver were put in the Lubianka Prison in Moscow, Russia and then were never heard from again.
After meeting escaped Jews and hearing their astonishing stories, he became the foreign representative for a central European trading company whose president was a Hungarian Jew.
(http://www.britannica.com/biography/Raoul-Wallenberg) Raoul Wallenberg was chosen to be the War Refugee Board’s representative, which meant he would work under the auspices of the Swedish government with the protection of a Swedish diplomatic passport and was given a large sum of money and would be empowered by the Swedish government to issue passports to as many Jews as possible. (http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/aboutus.htm.html) With these amazing sources, Raoul was able to save an enormous amount of Jews from being sent to concentration camps and were able to put many men, women, and children in safe, cozy homes. To trick the Nazis to accept large numbers of Jews into other countries, he designed a new impressive-looking passport called a “Schutz Pass.” There were seals, stamps, 3 royal Swedish crowns, and bold blue and yellow colors. It was not valid in international law, although it saved many people from hard labor until death. During the autumn of 1944, Wallenberg repeatedly and personally intervened to secure the release of those with certificates of protection or forged papers, saving as many people as he could from the marching columns. Raoul used War Refugee Board and Swedish funds to establish hospitals, nurseries, soup kitchens, and designated more than 30 “safe” houses that together formed the core of the international ghetto in Budapest. He also sheltered over 8,000 terrified children whose parents had already been deported or killed. After the war, it was established that about 50,000 Jews living in the foreign houses of the International Ghetto had survived in about 25,000 were directly under Wallenberg's protection. These import events and accomplishments made him a
hero.
Many countries, religions, nations, and people were impacted because of the Holocaust itself and because of the amazing accomplishments Raoul Wallenberg had made during these awful times. The killing of the Jews was a huge impact on history and had shocked many people in the world when they realized how many people were saved and how many were killed. Many Holocaust heroes, including Raoul Wallenberg, are known for saving communities, families, and individual people. The Holocaust is a huge impact on how we are forming as a world today. Many people do not want an event like this to occur ever again in history. It also sets an example to the children of our future on why we need to strive for peace and that if something like this happens again, that there will always be a resistance against it. The Holocaust impacted the population of many different religions and people in history and is still impacting many lives today.
Raoul Wallenberg was credited for saving many lives of people in the dangerous hands of Germany. Everyone to this day is truly grateful for the saving of many people by Raoul Wallenberg and many other Holocaust heroes. Raoul’s determination to resist against the beliefs and actions of the barbarous Germans gave many people the courage to resist along with him. This shows that if there is ever something bad in the world that can or will impact many people, there will eventually be a gigantic number of people against these bad decisions and ideas. The Holocaust itself showed that there are good people in the world that want to make our world a better place and stop people from making bad decisions. Wallenberg’s saving of more than 25,000 people saved communities, families, and generations of innocent people has impacted every single one of us to
Raoul Wallenberg is a man I think that everyone would want to hear and learn about. His efforts and achievements towards saving people from being killed were amazing and can give people hope for a better world and for a peaceful future. Wallenberg has become a role model for different people throughout the world and has impacted many lives. If it weren’t for him, many generations of the Jewish population would not be recovering from the loss of so many people. If people have enough or more determination than Wallenberg did, they will truly make a difference in this world. The world thanks him and his family for the saving of generations to come and for hope that there will a peaceful future for the generation of our people to come.
If you have not heard of the name Raoul Wallenberg before, I’m sure you will want to hear about him now. Raoul Wallenberg was an amazing, brave, and thoughtful man who risked his life multiple times to rescue Jews and others who were being taken to the concentration camps throughout many places in Europe. Out of all of the important heroes during the Holocaust, Raoul Wallenberg was one of the most popular or known heroes. Because of his brave efforts and accomplishments, many Jews, including men, women, and children, had lived through the treacherous times of the Holocaust. Although, he could not of saved endangered lives without the help of other countries against Germany and all of the groups and their helpful …show more content…
sources. His outstanding achievements against the barbarous Germans, changed the world and the people throughout the world.
Raoul Wallenberg was born on August 4, 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden. His parents came from two of Sweden’s most outstanding families, whose members included diplomats, bankers, and bishops of the Lutheran Church, as well as artists and professors. Raul's father was the cousin of Jacob and Marcus Wallenberg, two of Sweden's best-known financiers and industrialists of the 20th century. (https://sweden.se/society/raoul-wallenberg-a-man-who-made-a-difference/) His father, an officer of the Swedish Navy and the son of the Swedish ambassador to Japan, died after a brief illness at the age of 23 - eight months after his marriage and three months before the birth of his son. Raoul’s mother, Maj Wising Wallenberg, was only twenty one years old at the time. Three months after Raoul’s birth, his grandfather Wising died suddenly of pneumonia. Maj Wallenberg remarried a young civil servant in the health ministry named Fredrik von Dardel who gave Maj two more children, Guy and Nina. After high school in Swedish military service, Raoul was sent to Paris for a year. Then, at own insistence, he attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he completed the five-year program at the School of Architecture in three and a half years. He graduated in 1935, along with his classmate, future president of the United States Gerald Ford. Once he returned to Sweden, Raoul’s first position was with a Swedish firm in South Africa. In 1936, his grandfather arranged a position for him at the Holland Bank in Haifa, Palestine. There, Raoul began to meet young Jews who had already been forced to flee from Nazi persecution in Germany. Their stories affected him deeply.(http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/aboutus.htm.html)
Raoul’s long journey through life started in August 1912 when he was born. His father had died in May, three months before he was born. Raoul’s grandfather died in October 1912, three months after his birth. Finally in 1918, Raoul’s mother, Maj Wallenberg, remarried and had two more kids. He had graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1935. In 1936, his grandfather arranged a position for him at the Holland Bank in Haifa, Palestine. In 1939, he went to work with a Jewish refugee from Hungary named Koloman Lauer. In eight months, Raoul was the junior partner of the firm. Through his partner’s relatives, Ralph begin to understand the Hungarian Jewish community.(http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/raoulwallenberg_aheroforourtime.htm.html) He was recruited by the United States War Refugee Board in June 1944 to travel to Hungary with a task to do what he could to assist and save Hungarian Jews. (https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005211) Assigned as first secretary to the Swedish legation in Hungary, Wallenberg arrived in Budapest on July 9th, 1944. (https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005211) By the time Wallenberg arrived in Budapest, the Hungarians and the Germans had deported nearly 440,000 Jews from Hungary, almost all of them to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the SS killed approximately 320,000 of them upon arrival and deployed the rest at forced labor in Auschwitz and other camps.(http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/raoulwallenberg_aheroforourtime.htm.html) In January 1945 Wallenberg and his driver, Vilmos Langfelder, were taken into custody by Soviet forces and were charged for espionage. He reportedly died in a Soviet prison in mid-January 1947, although the exact date and circumstances of his death are still unknown to the curious world. There were unconfirmed reports of freed Soviet prisoners that he had been seen alive in prison, notably in 1951, 1959, and 1975. In 1981, Wallenberg became the second of a total of just seven people to be named honorary citizens of the United States. In 1985, he was made an honorary citizen of Canada and in 1986 an honorary citizen of Israel. (https://sweden.se/society/raoul-wallenberg-a-man-who-made-a-difference/)
Over time, Raoul spent a lot of his time doing good things for the Jews in many different places in Europe. Wallenberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden. After high school in Sweden and 9 months of compulsory Swedish military service, Raoul was sent to the magnificent city of Paris for a year. After going to Paris, he traveled to the United States to attend and graduate from Michigan University, located in Ann Arbor. After graduating, he started to study banking and commerce in Haifa, Palestine in South Africa. Raoul returned to Sweden to work and gained information about the Hungarian Jewish communities. After Raoul joined the United States War Refugee board, he was sent to Budapest to help innocent Jews. He had traveled to many different places in the dangerous country of Hungary and helped many Jews throughout the country escape from a horrifying future ahead of them. Wallenberg and his driver were put in the Lubianka Prison in Moscow, Russia and then were never heard from again.
After meeting escaped Jews and hearing their astonishing stories, he became the foreign representative for a central European trading company whose president was a Hungarian Jew.
(http://www.britannica.com/biography/Raoul-Wallenberg) Raoul Wallenberg was chosen to be the War Refugee Board’s representative, which meant he would work under the auspices of the Swedish government with the protection of a Swedish diplomatic passport and was given a large sum of money and would be empowered by the Swedish government to issue passports to as many Jews as possible. (http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/aboutus.htm.html) With these amazing sources, Raoul was able to save an enormous amount of Jews from being sent to concentration camps and were able to put many men, women, and children in safe, cozy homes. To trick the Nazis to accept large numbers of Jews into other countries, he designed a new impressive-looking passport called a “Schutz Pass.” There were seals, stamps, 3 royal Swedish crowns, and bold blue and yellow colors. It was not valid in international law, although it saved many people from hard labor until death. During the autumn of 1944, Wallenberg repeatedly and personally intervened to secure the release of those with certificates of protection or forged papers, saving as many people as he could from the marching columns. Raoul used War Refugee Board and Swedish funds to establish hospitals, nurseries, soup kitchens, and designated more than 30 “safe” houses that together formed the core of the international ghetto in Budapest. He also sheltered over 8,000 terrified children whose parents had already been deported or killed. After the war, it was established that about 50,000 Jews living in the foreign houses of the International Ghetto had survived in about 25,000 were directly under Wallenberg's protection. These import events and accomplishments made him a
hero.
Many countries, religions, nations, and people were impacted because of the Holocaust itself and because of the amazing accomplishments Raoul Wallenberg had made during these awful times. The killing of the Jews was a huge impact on history and had shocked many people in the world when they realized how many people were saved and how many were killed. Many Holocaust heroes, including Raoul Wallenberg, are known for saving communities, families, and individual people. The Holocaust is a huge impact on how we are forming as a world today. Many people do not want an event like this to occur ever again in history. It also sets an example to the children of our future on why we need to strive for peace and that if something like this happens again, that there will always be a resistance against it. The Holocaust impacted the population of many different religions and people in history and is still impacting many lives today.
Raoul Wallenberg was credited for saving many lives of people in the dangerous hands of Germany. Everyone to this day is truly grateful for the saving of many people by Raoul Wallenberg and many other Holocaust heroes. Raoul’s determination to resist against the beliefs and actions of the barbarous Germans gave many people the courage to resist along with him. This shows that if there is ever something bad in the world that can or will impact many people, there will eventually be a gigantic number of people against these bad decisions and ideas. The Holocaust itself showed that there are good people in the world that want to make our world a better place and stop people from making bad decisions. Wallenberg’s saving of more than 25,000 people saved communities, families, and generations of innocent people has impacted every single one of us to
Raoul Wallenberg is a man I think that everyone would want to hear and learn about. His efforts and achievements towards saving people from being killed were amazing and can give people hope for a better world and for a peaceful future. Wallenberg has become a role model for different people throughout the world and has impacted many lives. If it weren’t for him, many generations of the Jewish population would not be recovering from the loss of so many people. If people have enough or more determination than Wallenberg did, they will truly make a difference in this world. The world thanks him and his family for the saving of generations to come and for hope that there will a peaceful future for the generation of our people to come.