Raoul was an incredible holocaust hero. He saved many hungarian Jews, thousands to be honest. He was a diplomat, businessman, and humanitarian. He did all of this hard work in Budapest. Raoul handed out protective passports and he set up safe houses for Jews in Sweden.
In January, 1945 he was detained by soviet forces for reasons unknown. He was taken somewhere out of Budapest, and was never heard from again. Years later soviets admitted to taking Raoul into custody. They stated that he died from a heart attack in Moscow prison in 1947. In the ensuing decades, various sources claimed that wallenberg was still alive and being held by the russians. While his exact fate remains a mystery, he has received many accolades for his incredible humanitarianism.
Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg was born into a prominent swedish family on August 4, 1912. His father died before he was born, and he was raised primarily by his mother and grandmother. In the hopes of making wallenberg a citizen of the world, his paternal grandfather arranged for most of his education, as well as trips to foreign countries. Where he became officiant in languages, and the art of diplomacy. Despite his family’s wishes of him becoming a banker, following highschool and and compulsory military service Raoul wallenberg traveled to the United States and majored in architecture and at the university of michigan.
He graduated in 1935 and returned to sweden, where his grandfather arranged employment for him at a swedish firm in africa selling construction materials, and then a dutch bank in haifa, Palestine.
Then he met jews who escaped the persecution in nazis Germany and their stories had a profound effect on them.
In 1936 returned to sweden and worked kalman lauer, a hungarian jew who ran an import/export business. In 1938 he travel restrictions imposed by the nazis in europe made it difficult for lauer to personally conduct business especially in his native hungary, so wallenberg went to his place. In Hungary, Wallenberg quickly learned how the nazi bureaucracy operated, and with his excellent language and interpersonal skills, succeeded in expanding the business, especially in becoming a joint owner.