Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jewish Hungarians, is not coming home

Maxinquaye

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37824692
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who helped thousands of Hungarian Jews to escape Nazi mass murder in World War Two, has been formally pronounced dead by Sweden's Tax Agency.

He was arrested by Soviet forces in Hungary in 1945 and disappeared. He is thought to have died in a Soviet prison, but his fate remains a mystery.

Thousands of Jews escaped deportation to Auschwitz because Wallenberg gave them Swedish protective passes.

There has always been a faint hope that Wallenberg would be found after he disappeared into history and, most likely, into Stalin's internment camps. The hope has been microscopic, yes, but it's been there. Of course, even had he lived to ripe old age as a "guest" of the Soviets, he would have been dead by now.

But, now it's official. He's been officially declared dead.
 

Maryn

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I don't have anything remotely intelligent to say except to express regret and wish him peace.
 

frimble3

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But in memory, his name and his deeds will live on. RIP, Mr. Wallenberg.
 

CindyGirl

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When I was a teen, my parents took me to a lecture where several Wallenburg survivors told their stories. It was one of the most emotional and inspiring evenings of my life. RIP Raoul Wallenburg.
 

Maxinquaye

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Banker family. One of the most important Banker families in Sweden. I don't know if you have the sort in the US. Old money. Real old money, unlike upstarts like Kamprad or Bonniers. In that time, their sons and daughters were born into captaincies of industry and diplomacy. This was in the transition between Sweden being a very class-based society along UK lines. The Wallenbergs weren't nobility, but they had grown rich and influential on ensuring the nobility had lots of money for their schemes.

It's like the Soviets found themselves in possession of a key member of the Walton family, I guess. Something to revolt against. A member of the class enemy.
 

frimble3

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Ah, I never knew that about his background, just that he was a diplomat. That makes sense (if these things can make sense). They grab him, maybe for a show trial, or, maybe 'ransom' - right after the war I imagine things were financially tight in Russia. Then something goes wrong, and they can't follow through on their plans, so they just pretend they never heard of him.
 

regdog

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True immortality is the size of the whole we leave in the world when we are gone. Mr Wallenberg's is one of the great immortals.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Sad. I don't get it. Why did the Soviets arrest him. Makes no sense.

There's also that the Soviets were kind of ... indiscriminate in how they treated people in war and conquered territories.

The horribleness of how the Russians tended to act towards prisoners of war was one of the reasons the Nazis got a certain amount of undeserved sympathy and support worldwide.