There has always been speculation that Wallenberg was alive and kept locked up somewhere. My dad has been trying to find out what's happened for years and years. The honorary Australian citizenship was a really important event in my fathers life.
I expected this to be about Folke Bernadotte [0]. Also a Swedish diplomat, he rescued about 31,000 prisoners from Nazi concentration camps.
Bernadotte didn't disappear, though. As the UN Mediator in Palestine, he negotiated the ceasefire of the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 and was surprisingly prescient in that capacity: 'After the truce was in place, Bernadotte began to address the issue of achieving a political settlement. The main obstacles in his opinion were "the Arab world's continued rejection of the existence of a Jewish state, whatever its borders; Israel's new 'philosophy', based on its increasing military strength, of ignoring the partition boundaries and conquering what additional territory it could; and the emerging Palestinian Arab refugee problem."' [1]
For his efforts, he was assassinated by Zionist terrorists, including the later Prime Minister of Israel.
A man given power who then uses it for great good -- I wish the history books were full of many more stories such as this, but sadly, the opposite is true. This was a rare circumstance where a man of great intelligence and energy was given a post where he could do some good, and with fantastic courage he used his power to save as many as he could. His success brings honor to himself, but it also brings dishonor to the thousands of other officials who held similar posts and who did absolutely nothing to stop the murder.
And in a reversal, a Nazi was the leader of a sanctuary set up by foreigners in Nanking that to a degree mitigated the horrors otherwise visited on that city's inhabitants by the IJA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Safety_Zone
"But it's very important to remember that Raoul Wallenberg was a representative of a sovereign government recognised by the Hungarians and the Germans. Therefore he had a status and standing enabling him to negotiate."
It just occurred to me, probably because I'm reading a book on WWI history, where the Swedish iron ore supply to Germany was just as important and was harassed by the U.K. and Tzarist Russia, that that detail is probably one of the things that helped Wallenberg's influence. Germany was in no position to invade Sweden, and really needed that ore (and possibly other imports).
Oops, I forgot to include language making it clear that in mid-1944 and on when Wallenberg was doing his thing it was beyond Nazi Germany's power to invade Sweden. Well, without for example stripping the forces trying to keep the US and the Commonwealth from breaking out of Normandy.
I have read about Wallenberg's fate in magazines etc every few years. Schindler I only recognize because of Spielberg's movie.
Somewhat interesting is that Hungarian Jews were, though occasionally persecuted, relatively safe as long as Hungary was a reliable co-belligerent with Germany, and Hungarians were in charge. When, after March 1944, Nazis were actually running things with the help of the Arrow Cross party, things changed for the worse.
It seems to have been the same in some other countries: Bulgaria, Finland and Italy had no interest in solving a "Jewish question" or even recognizing there was one. Bulgaria managed to resist deportations and pogroms of own citizens all the way. In Italy, the deportations started only after Italy capitulated in 1943 and Germany occupied the country. In Finland, Jews were few; not one of the local population was killed in persecutions (but a few died in the army when fighting the Soviets with their countrymen.)
