Raoul Wallenberg – a Swedish legacy of courage and responsibility

Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat and businessman who became one of the key figures in efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust. He was born in 1912 into one of Sweden’s most prominent families, and travelled to Budapest in July 1944 as First Secretary to the Swedish Legation. By then, hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews had already been deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and those who remained in Budapest were threatened with persecution and death.

Mr Wallenberg and his colleagues issued Swedish protective passports, organised buildings under Swedish protection, and provided food, shelter and medical assistance. He also personally intervened with Hungarian and German officials, sometimes confronting armed guards to stop deportations and executions. These actions, taken together with other diplomats and aid workers, saved tens of thousands of lives.

Mr Wallenberg was arrested by Soviet authorities in January 1945, after Soviet forces entered Budapest. He was taken to Moscow and disappeared in the Soviet prison system. The Soviet Union later stated that he had died in Lubyanka prison in 1947, but the circumstances surrounding his prison sentence and death have never been fully established.

Mr Wallenberg’s story is still important because his actions show what one person can achieve, even in a society characterised by organised persecution. He had no military power, but used his diplomatic position, his ingenuity, his personal courage and Sweden’s international position to protect people whom others had abandoned. His example reminds us that laws and institutions have real significance when people are prepared to use them to defend human life.

For Sweden and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Mr Wallenberg is both a source of pride and a cause for reflection. His mission represents the best aspects of Swedish diplomacy: humanitarian engagement, practical problem-solving and the defence of human dignity. At the same time, Sweden’s long-standing attempts to establish what happened to him raise difficult questions about the state’s responsibility for citizens who serve the country abroad and about the importance of standing up to powerful governments when basic human rights are violated.

This web page, which provides access to the documents regarding the Wallenberg case at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, should be considered in this context. The Ministry hopes that it will not only contribute to our shared memory of one of the great heroes of the 20th century, but also be a resource for those who want to dig deeper into the matter and support continued efforts to clarify Mr Wallenberg’s fate.