Righteous Gentile: The Story of Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero of the Holocaust

Description

'This timely reprint of John Bierman's moving account of the extraordinary courage and actions of Raoul Wallenberg during World War II stands as a powerful testament to the difference that a single individual can make against brutality' Kofi Annan Swallowed up by the Soviet prison system, the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, saviour of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Nazi holocaust, remains a mystery. Recently KGB files have been opened and many Communist crimes have been fully exposed. Yet there is still no evidence, apart from a handwritten note of doubtful authenticity, to support the Kremlin's claim that in 1947 Wallenberg, then thirty-five years old, died of a heart attack in prison. On the other hand there is abundant evidence - none of it conclusive, but much of it highly persuasive - that Wallenberg remained alive in captivity long after 1947, broken in body and spirit, somewhere in the vastness of the former Soviet Union. Righteous Gentile is the first book to tell the full story of Raoul Wallenberg's shining wartime exploits and shameful post-war incarceration.

John Bierman was a journalist and biographer who for 25 years covered trouble spots all over the world for major news organizations in Britain, the USA and Canada. For 10 years he was a staff correspondent for BBC Television News and BBC World Service, and spent much of that time in the Middle East, where he discovered the story of Raoul Wallenberg, then virtually unknown. He has co-authored two books with journalist Colin Smith, including Alamein, War Without Hate, published by Penguin. John Bierman died in 2006.