Raoul Wallenberg

Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat, b. August 4, 1912. Used his diplomatic status to save many Hungarian Jews during the later stages of World War II, by issuing temporary Swedish passports and claiming the bearers as Swedish citizens. He also skillfully negotiated with Nazi officials such as Adolf Eichmann for the cancellation of deportations by playing on their fear of the consequences of having perpetrated war crimes.

Wallenberg was arrested by the Red Army on January 7, 1945, probably on suspicion of being a spy for the United States. What happened to him since is not known - the official Russian version is that he died in captivity on July 17, 1947, but a number of testimonies have placed him alive in Siberian or Russian prisons as late as the 1960s.

Raoul Wallenberg was made an honorary citizen of the United States in 1981, in Canada in 1985, and in Israel in 1986.