Raoul Wallenberg: The Man Who Saved Thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust

Description

An Honorary Citizen of the U.S.A., and designated as one of the Righteous among the Nations by Israel, Raoul Wallenberg's heroism in Budapest at the height of the Holocaust saved countless lives, and ultimately cost him his own. A series of unlikely coincidences led to the appointment of Wallenberg, by trade a poultry importer, as Sweden's Special Envoy to Budapest in 1944. With remarkable bravery, Wallenberg created a system of protective passports, and sheltered thousands of desperate Jews in buildings he claimed were Swedish libraries and research institutes. As the war drew to a close, his invaluable work almost complete, Wallenberg voluntarily went to meet with the Soviet troops who were relieving the city. Arrested as a spy, Wallenberg disappeared into the depths of the Soviet system, never to be seen again. For this seminal biography, Ingrid Carlberg has carried out unprecedented research into all elements of Wallenberg's life, narrating with vigour and insight the story of a heroic life, and navigating with wisdom and sensitivity the truth about his disappearance and death. Translated from the Swedish by Ebba Segerberg

Ingrid Carlberg is a Swedish author and journalist. Her book about the life and destiny of Raoul Wallenberg was awarded the August Prize for best work of non-fiction 2012. Her biography was also awarded the Swedish Academy's Axel Hirsch Prize in 2013. Ingrid Carlberg worked at the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter from 1990 to 2010, specializing in investigative and narrative journalism. She has a honorary doctorate at Uppsala University, awarded for her book The Pill, 2008. This historical narrative about the history of antidepressants also recieved the Swedish journalistic prize Guldspaden 2008, for best work of investigative journalism. Between 2012 and 2013, Carlberg was a guest professor in journalism at the University of Gothenburg.

A truly fascinating, subtle and revelatory portrait of this enigmatic character and perhaps the closest any historian has got to the real man and the truth of his fate - Simon Sebag Montefiore We must remember that genocide begins with the humiliation of one man, not because of what he has done, but because of who he is. Let Raoul's example also guide us in our daily lives and help us to stand up against injustice in all its forms. Wherever individuals are shunned, humiliated or hurt because they are different, scapegoated at work, bullied at school, or vilified in cyberspace, let us never be passive by-standers. In this book we meet Raoul Wallenberg, a truly fascinating story of one of the most inspiring figures of the twentieth century. - Kofi A. Annan