Raoul Wallenberg

Wallenberg, Raoul (1912–47?), Swedish diplomat. While representing Sweden in Budapest during World War II, he issued Swedish passports to 20,000 Hungarian Jews to prevent their deportation into Nazi hands. Soviet authorities arrested him as a spy in 1945 and reported his death in prison in 1947. In 1981 an international association found evidence indicating he might be alive and urged the former Soviet Union to investigate (his death was never verified). In the same year the U.S. Congress declared him an honorary U.S. citizen.

See also: Sweden.