Editing Raoul Wallenberg (section)

== Mission to Budapest ==
When Wallenberg reached the Swedish legation in Budapest on 9 July 1944, the intense Nazi campaign to deport the Jews of Hungary to Auschwitz had already been underway for several months. The transports from Hungary were halted with few exceptions by Miklós Horthy two days earlier in large part because he was warned by Roosevelt, Churchill, the King of Sweden and even the Pope after the very vocal Swiss grass roots protests against the mass murder in Auschwitz.<ref name="Kranzler2000p87"/> Between May and early July 1944, Eichmann and his associates deported more than 400,000 Jews by freight train. All but 15,000 were sent directly to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in southern Poland.<ref name= JVL /> By the time of Wallenberg's arrival, there were only around 230,000 Jews remaining in Hungary. With fellow Swedish diplomat [[Per Anger]],<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Ilya |last=Garger |title=Milestones: Died. Per Anger. |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,501020909-346286,00.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160312173605/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C501020909-346286%2C00.html |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date= 2 September 2002 |archive-date=12 March 2016 |access-date=13 February 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[Miklos "Moshe" Krausz]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/an-israeli-moshav-fills-in-the-blanks-on-a-wwii-rescue/|title = An Israeli moshav fills in the blanks on a WWII rescue|website = [[The Times of Israel]]}}</ref> they issued "protective passports" (German: ''Schutz-Pass''), which identified the bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation and thus prevented their deportation. Although not legal, these documents looked official and were generally accepted by German and Hungarian authorities, who sometimes were also bribed.<ref name=NYT03301980/> The Swedish legation in Budapest also succeeded in negotiating with the German authorities so that the bearers of the protective passes would be treated as Swedish citizens and be exempt from having to wear the [[yellow badge]] required for Jews.<ref name=JVL/> When the German government said the travel passes were invalid, Wallenberg appealed for help from [[Baroness Elisabeth Kemény]], wife of Baron [[Gábor Kemény (politician, 1910–1946)|Gábor Kemény]], Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs in Budapest. She convinced her husband to have 9,000 passes honoured.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/c6fa5d03d0c40bf271f4805b06626646| title= Hundreds Honor Wallenberg at Concert| website=APnewsarchive.com| access-date=13 August 2016}}</ref>

With the money mostly raised for the War Refugee Board by American Jews, Wallenberg rented 32 buildings in Budapest and declared them to be [[extraterritorial]], protected by [[diplomatic immunity]]. He put up signs such as "The Swedish Library" and "The Swedish Research Institute" on their doors and hung oversized Swedish flags on the front of the buildings to bolster the deception. The buildings eventually housed almost 10,000 people.<ref name=TWS/>

Sandor Ardai, one of the drivers working for Wallenberg, recounted what Wallenberg did when he intercepted a trainload of Jews about to leave for Auschwitz:

{{blockquote|... he climbed up on the roof of the train and began handing in protective passes through the doors which were not yet sealed. He ignored orders from the Germans for him to get down, then the [[Arrow Cross Party|Arrow Cross]] men began shooting and shouting at him to go away. He ignored them and calmly continued handing out passports to the hands that were reaching out for them. I believe the Arrow Cross men deliberately aimed over his head, as not one shot hit him, which would have been impossible otherwise. I think this is what they did because they were so impressed by his courage. After Wallenberg had handed over the last of the passports he ordered all those who had one to leave the train and walk to the caravan of cars parked nearby, all marked in Swedish colours. I don't remember exactly how many, but he saved dozens off that train, and the Germans and Arrow Cross were so dumbfounded they let him get away with it.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/readings/wallenberg.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20010913171830/http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/readings/wallenberg.htm |url-status= dead |archive-date= 13 September 2001 |title= The Wallenberg Effect |work= [[The Journal of Leadership Studies]]| year= 1997| volume= 4| number= 3 |access-date= 11 August 2020}}</ref>}}

At the height of the program, more than 350 people were involved in the rescue of Jews in Budapest.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rwallenberg-int.org/Programs/RW_Lesson_Secondary_2006/CHAPTER_4.htm |title=Wallenberg Legacy |access-date=14 February 2007 |publisher=Raoul Wallenberg International Movement for Humanity |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010150631/http://www.rwallenberg-int.org/Programs/RW_Lesson_Secondary_2006/CHAPTER_4.htm |archive-date=10 October 2007  }}</ref> Sister [[Sára Salkaházi]] was caught sheltering Jewish women and was killed by members of the [[Arrow Cross Party]].

[[Tibor Baranski]] was a 22-year-old religious student who was recruited by [[Papal Nuncio]] Monsignor [[Angelo Rotta]] to help save Jews. Baranski, who posed as a Vatican representative, saved about 3,000 Jews. He collaborated with diplomats, including Wallenberg. He met with and talked with Wallenberg on the phone several times. Baranski described Wallenberg's motivation as "divinely human love." "We knew in a second we shared the same opinion … the same recklessness, the same determination, all through," said Baránszki.<ref name="kirst2">{{cite web |last1=Kirst |first1=Sean |title=Sean Kirst: He saved 3,000 Jews in World War II, now lives quietly in Buffalo |url=https://buffalonews.com/2017/08/27/sean-kirst-saving-thousands-holocaust-buffalo-man-honored-sweden/ |website=The Buffalo News |access-date=22 January 2019 |language=en-us |date=27 August 2017}}</ref>

Swiss diplomat [[Carl Lutz]] also issued protective passports from the Swiss embassy in the spring of 1944; and Italian businessman [[Giorgio Perlasca]] posed as a Spanish diplomat and issued forged visas.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/category/otherjuste/ |title= Lutz, Carl; Perlasca, Giorgio| first= Christopher| last= Gann| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160214155041/http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/category/otherjuste/ |archive-date= 14 February 2016 }} Gann is the author of ''Raoul Wallenberg: So Viele Menschen Retten Wie Moglich'' (Germany, 2002). {{ISBN|3-423-30852-4}}</ref> Portuguese diplomats [[Carlos Sampaio Garrido|Sampaio Garrido]] and [[Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho]] rented houses and apartments to shelter and protect refugees from deportation and murder and issued safe conducts to approximately 1,000 Hungarian Jews.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/wp-content/files_mf/1349882040ebooksparedlifes.pdf |title= ''Spared Lives: The Actions of Three Portuguese Diplomats in World War Documentary Exhibition, Catalogue'' | website= raoulwallenberg.net |publisher= The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation|access-date=9 April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Milgram|first=Avraham |year=2011 |title=Portugal, Salazar, and the Jews |publisher= [[Yad Vashem]] |pages=324 |isbn= 9789653083875 }}</ref> Berber Smit (Barbara Hogg), the daughter of Lolle Smit (1892–1961), director of N.V. Philips Budapest and a Dutch spy working for the British [[Secret Intelligence Service|MI6]], later claimed to have been his girlfriend, also assisted Wallenberg, as did her son.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/articles/raoul-wallenberg-girlfriend/ |title=Raoul's Girlfriend, also assisted Wallenberg, as did her son. :a Historical Footnote |last=McKay |first=C.G. |date=1 April 2008 |website=Raoul-wallenberg.eu |access-date=19 December 2017 |archive-date=14 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180714135207/http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/articles/raoul-wallenberg-girlfriend/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna24339683 |title=Clues surfacing in Wallenberg disappearance / WWII hero may have had ties to White House; other data to be released |agency= [[Associated Press]]| website= [[NBC News]] | first1= Arthur |last1= Max |first2= Randy |last2= Herschaft| date=27 April 2008 |access-date=17 May 2009}}</ref> However, she was temporarily engaged to Wallenberg's colleague [[Lars Berg]], and later married a Scottish officer;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Lolle-Smit.pdf|title=A Friend Indeed: The secret service of Lolle Smit|last=McKay|first=Craig Graham|date=August 2010|website=Raoul-wallenberg.eu|access-date=19 December 2017}}</ref> which has not dispelled claims that Wallenberg was homosexual.<ref>{{cite book| last= Keane| first= Elizabeth| title= Seán MacBride, A Life: From IRA Revolutionary to International Statesman| publisher= Gill & Macmillan | year= 2007| page= 222}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last= Norris| first= David | title= A Kick Against The Pricks: The Autobiography| publisher= Transworld Ireland| year= 2012| page= 264}}</ref>

Wallenberg started sleeping in a different house each night, to guard against being captured or killed by Arrow Cross Party members or by Adolf Eichmann's men.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://raoulwallenberg.org/who/who.html |title=''Final Report of the War Refugee Board from Sweden'' |access-date=14 February 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070205021752/http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/who/who.html |archive-date = 5 February 2007}}</ref> Two days before the Soviet Army occupied Budapest, Wallenberg negotiated with Eichmann and with Major-General [[Gerhard Schmidthuber]], the supreme commander of German forces in Hungary. Wallenberg bribed Arrow Cross Party member [[Pál Szalai]] to deliver a note in which Wallenberg persuaded the occupying Germans to prevent a Fascist plan to blow up the Budapest ghetto and murder an estimated 70,000 Jews. The note also persuaded the Germans to cancel a final effort to organize a [[Death marches (Holocaust)|death march]] of the remaining Jews in Budapest by threatening to have them prosecuted for war crimes once the war was over.<ref name=JVL /><ref name= NYT03301980/>

According to [[Giorgio Perlasca]], who posed as the Spanish [[Consul (representative)|consul-general]] to Hungary in the winter of 1944 and saved 5,218 [[Jews]], [[Pál Szalai]] lied to save his life during his criminal trial, and the history of the saving is different.<ref name="ushm">{{cite web| website= ushmm.org| publisher= [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]| url= https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn504674 |title= Oral history interview | first= Giorgio |last= Perlasca| date= 5 September 1990}}</ref><ref name="mixeritalia">{{cite news| title= Interview |interviewer= Enrico Deaglio | first= Giorgio |last= Perlasca| work= Mixer| publisher= [[Giovanni Minoli]], Rai| year= 1990}}</ref><ref name="varese">{{cite news| work= VareseNews.it| url= http://www.varesenews.it/2010/05/gli-uomini-giusti-muoiono-di-sabato/147029/ |language= it| title= Gli uomini giusti muoiono di sabato| date= 22 May 2010| trans-title= Righteous men die on the Sabbath }}</ref><ref name="mixerisraele">{{cite news| interviewer= Enrico Deaglio | first= Giorgio |last= Perlasca| work= Fondazione |title= Giorgio Perlasca – il mixer israeliano in ebraico| language= it| year= 1990}}</ref> Wallenberg (who was already dead at the time of Szalai's deposition) saved hundreds of people but was not directly involved in the plan to save the ghetto. While Perlasca was posing as the Spanish consul-general, he learned of the intention to burn down the ghetto. Shocked and incredulous, he asked for a direct hearing with the Hungarian interior minister Gábor Vajna, in the basement of the Budapest City Hall where he had his headquarters, and threatened legal and economic measures against the "3000 Hungarian citizens" (in fact, a much smaller number) declared by Perlasca as residents of Spain, and similar treatment to Hungarian residents in two Latin American republics, to force the minister to withdraw the project. This actually happened in the following days.<ref name="ushm" /><ref name="mixeritalia" /><ref name="varese" /><ref name="mixerisraele" />

People saved by Wallenberg include biochemist [[Lars Ernster]], who was housed in the Swedish embassy, and [[Tom Lantos]], later a member of the [[United States House of Representatives]], who lived in one of the Swedish protective houses.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://info.jpost.com/C001/Supplements/Shoah/hol_LantosList.html |title=Lantos's list |quote=Born in Hungary in 1928 to assimilated Jewish parents, he escaped from a forced-labor brigade, joined the resistance and was eventually, with his later-to-be-wife Annette, among the tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews rescued by the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. |access-date=15 February 2007 |newspaper= [[Jerusalem Post]] |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070121143916/http://info.jpost.com/C001/Supplements/Shoah/hol_LantosList.html |archive-date=21 January 2007 }}</ref>

The Swedish consulate building still exists as of 2025, on the hill behind the Hotel Gellért, with a reference to Wallenberg at the front.