Which Swedish diplomat issued protective passports and helped rescue Jews in Budapest in 1944?

Raoul Wallenberg was the Swedish diplomat who issued protective passports and helped rescue Jews in Budapest in 1944. Sweden appointed him secretary at its legation in Budapest in July 1944, when deportations and killings threatened Hungary’s Jewish population.

Wallenberg and his colleagues distributed Swedish protective documents, established safe houses, and intervened with Hungarian and German officials. The documents did not always have a clear legal basis, but their appearance and diplomatic pressure sometimes protected their holders. His efforts are credited with helping tens of thousands of people, although the precise number is difficult to establish.

The Soviet army arrested Wallenberg in January 1945 as it entered Budapest. The Soviet government later said he died in custody in 1947, but the circumstances remain disputed. Wallenberg’s work is sometimes conflated with that of Carl Lutz, a Swiss diplomat who also protected Jews in Budapest.