Raoul Wallenberg arrived on July 9, 1944 to Budapest. His first task was to design a Swedish protective pass to rescue the Jews from the "nazihorrors". However, to reach his goal of rescuing as many Hungarian Jews as possible from deportation, Raoul did not use traditional diplomacy.

The German SS officer Adolf Eichmann was preparing a plan that "in one day" would exterminate the whole Jewish population in Budapest. In a report to Berlin he stated that "the technical details will take a few days."

If Eichmann's plan had been put into action, Raoul's mission would have been meaningless. Then the "Jewish issue" would have been "permanently solved" for that part of Hungary. The head of state, Horthy, however, in time received a letter from the Swedish King, Gustav V, with an appeal that the deportations should stop. Horthy replied to the Swedish King stating that he "did everything in his power to ensure that the principals of humanity and justice would be respected." The German deportations were subsequently cancelled and one train with 1,600 Jews was even stopped at the border and sent back to Budapest.

Oddly enough the German authorities approved the cancellation of the deportations. The explanation may have been that Heinrich Himmler, one of the top Nazi officials during this time, played a high level game for peace. He thought he would be able to negotiate a separate peace with the western allies and might have believed that he would stand a better chance if the pressure on the Jews was decreased. Eichmann could do nothing but wait.

At this time, minister Carl Ivar Danielsson was head of the Swedish legation. His closest aide was secretary Per Anger. Raoul Wallenberg, who arrived on July 9 headed the department responsible for rescuing the Jews. Before Raoul arrived, the head of the Swedish Red Cross in Hungary, Valdemar Langlet, had assisted the Swedish legation by renting buildings in the name of the Red Cross and placing signs such as "The Swedish Library" and "The Swedish Research Institute" on their doors. These buildings were then used as hiding places for Jews.

To reach his goal of rescuing as many Hungarian Jews as possible from deportation, Raoul did not use traditional diplomacy. At first, the diplomats at the Swedish legation were rather taken aback with his unconventional methods. Raoul used every mean, ranging from bribes to extortion threats, to obtain results. Raoul's methods proved very efficient and he soon had the unreserved support of the rest of the legation.

Raoul's first task in Budapest, was to design a Swedish protective pass to rescue the Jews from in particular the Germans, but also the Hungarians. Previous experience told him that both German and Hungarian authorities were impressed by seemingly official symbols and stamps. Raoul therefore had the passes printed in yellow and blue, with the coat of arms of the Three Crowns of Sweden in the middle, and then added the appropriate stamps and signatures. Raoul's protective passes had no value whatsoever under international law. However, in practise they worked and gave the Hungarian Jews the intended protection. To start out with, Raoul only had permission to issue 1,500 such passes. Quickly though, he managed to negotiate another 1,000, and, through promises and empty threats to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, he eventually managed to raise the quota to 4,500 protective passes.

In reality, Raoul managed to issue more than three times as many protective passes. He controlled a staff of several hundred co-workers. All were Jews and because of their work at the Swedish legation they did not have to wear the degrading yellow Star of David.

In August 1944, Horthy, dismissed his pro-German Prime Minister Sztójay and had General Lakatos succeed him. As a result, the situation for the Jews improved considerably. Amongst others, the responsibility to "solve the Jewish issue in Hungary" was, after diplomatic pressure mediated by the neutral legations, taken away from Eichmann.

At this point, Raoul believed his department at the legation could be dismantled and that he himself could return back to Sweden. He expected the Soviet troops to successfully invade Budapest soon, whereby the Nazi deportation plans would finally be put to a definite end.

On 15 October, Horthy, declared that he wanted peace with the Soviets. But his radio speech had barely been broadcast when the German troops took command. Horthy was overthrown with immediate effect and replaced by the leader of the Hungarian Nazis, Ferenc Szálasi. Szálasi was the leader of the Arrow Cross organisation, which was just as feared as the German Nazis for their cruelty towards the Jewish population. Eichmann returned and received a free reign to continue the terror against the Jews.

This development led Raoul to remain in Budapest and continue his fight against the ruling powers of evil and often appeared as an unwelcome witness to the atrocities. He frequently managed to save Jews from the clutches of the Nazis, with firm action and courage as his only weapons.

At this point, Raoul began establishing "Swedish houses." These were some 30 houses in the Pest part of the city where Jews could seek refuge. Swedish flags hung in front of the door and Raoul declared the houses Swedish territory. The population of the "Swedish houses" soon rose to 15,000.

The other legations in Budapest in close collaboration with Wallenberg acted in similar way.

Toward the end of the war, when the situation became increasingly desperate, Wallenberg issued a simplified form of his protective pass; one copied page with his signature alone. In the existing chaos even that worked.

The newly instated Hungarian Nazi government immediately let it be known that with the change of power the protective passes were no longer valid. Meanwhile, Wallenberg befriended the Baroness Elizabeth "Liesel" Kemény. She was the wife of the foreign minister, and with her cooperation the passes were made valid again.

During this time, Eichmann started his brutal "death marches." This was an implementation of the deportation plan by having large numbers of Jews leave Hungary by foot. The first march began 20 November 1944. The conditions along the 200 kilometres long road between Budapest and the Austrian border were horrendous so that large numbers died of exhaustion and starvation along the way.

The marching Jews could be counted in the thousands along never-ending rows of starving and tortured people. Raoul was at hand to hand out protective passes, food and medicine.

When Eichmann began transporting the Jews by train, Raoul intensified his rescue efforts. He climbed train wagons, stood on the tracks, ran along the wagon roofs, and stuck bunches of protective passes to the people inside the trains, all in order to rescue additional Jews. The German soldiers were ordered to open fire, but were so impressed by Wallenberg's courage that they deliberately aimed too high. Wallenberg was unharmed and would demand that the Jews with passes should leave the train together with him.

Raoul's department of the Swedish legation continued to grow and at one point kept 340 persons busy, who with their families lived there.

Toward the end of 1944, Wallenberg moved over the river Danube from Buda to Pest where the two Jewish ghettos were situated. The minimal level of law and order that once existed there was gone. The Arrow Cross, police and German war machine now shared power.

The second week of January 1945, it became clear that Eichmann planned a total massacre in the largest ghetto. The only one who could stop it was general August Schmidthuber who was commander-in-chief for the German troops in Hungary.

Raoul searched desperately for suitable people to bribe in order to prevent the implementation of this horrific plan. He found a very powerful ally in Pa'l Szalay, a high-ranking officer in the police force and an Arrow Cross member. (After the war, Szalay was the only Arrow Cross member that was not executed. He was set free in recognition for his cooperation with Raoul.)

Szalay was sent to deliver a note to Schmidthuber explaining that Raoul would make ensure that the general would be held personally responsible for the massacre and that he would be hanged as a war criminal after the war. The massacre was stopped at the last minute thanks to Wallenberg's action.

Two days later, the Russians arrived and found 97,000 Jews alive in Budapest's two Jewish ghettos. In total 120,000 Jews survived the Nazi extermination in Hungary.

Wallenberg and his colleagues in the Swedish and Swiss legations must be honoured with saving at least 100,000 Jews.

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