Text written by Christopher Gann In Budapest in mid 1944 a major rescue mission began to protect the endangered Jewish community. The rescue mission “Budapest Jews“ was carried out by a group of individuals who personally took responsibility for various…
Raoul Wallenberg was born on August 4, 1912, in Stockholm. His father died of cancer three months before Raoul was born. Raouls mother and his grandfather, Gustaf Wallenberg, took charge of Raouls education. Gustaf Wallenberg had been a diplomat in Japan, China…
From 1931 to 1935, Raoul Wallenberg studied architecture in Michigan, USA.He then spent some time in Capetown and Haifa. Here he began to train as a banker. His grandfather would have liked to have seen Raoul follow in the family tradition and become a banker. The Wallenberg family was Sweden´s best known banking family. Raoul discovered early enough that banking was not for him. In a letter to his grandfather Raoul writes: “To tell you the truth, I don´t find myself very bankerisch. … My temperament is better suited to some positive line of work than to sitting around saying no.“
It was in Palestine that Raoul first made contact with the „Hitler-Germany-Refugees“. Here he found out about the Jewish persecution in Germany. Wallenberg returned to Stockholm