Discover the story of the Swedish hero who saved thousands of Jews and disappeared at the end of World War II

This award-winning biography, awarded the Axel Hirsch Prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy, which recognized “the high historical value of his contribution”, presents, for the first time, the complete story of Raoul Wallenberg, one of the most inspiring figures of the 20th century.

Ingrid Carlberg consulted official archives from several countries, private documentation, and interviewed around 70 witnesses to tell an extraordinary story. When Raoul Wallenberg took over as secretary of the Swedish mission in Budapest at the age of 32 in June 1944, Hitler’s armies had already annihilated most of Europe’s most important Jewish communities. issuing 1500 passports to Jews, managed to raise this quota to 4500 and, in the end, tripled the numbers. Wallenberg assembled a team of 400 employees – of whom 250 were Jews and he himself slept no more than four hours a night.

The diplomat set up hospitals, nurseries, collective kitchens and safe houses in Budapest to help Jews. He personally interceded with the Nazis to stop mass deportations, as in December 1944, when he learned that the Germans intended to kill the 70,000 Jews still living in Budapest’s central ghetto. According to Hungarian sources, during the six months he worked in Budapest the Swedish diplomat was responsible for the survival of 100,000 Jews, whether by issuing passports, helping prisoners get off the death trains and distributing food and medicine.

After risking his life to save Jews from the Holocaust; he then disappeared under circumstances that, to this day, remain unexplained. Arrested by Soviet authorities on January 17, 1945, Wallenberg would never be seen again. What happened to the Swede once the Germans were expelled from Budapest and the Russians took power?

In 1981, Wallenberg was the second person in the world to become an honorary citizen of the United States, after Winston Churchill. He is also an honorary citizen of Israel, Canada and Australia. Named “Righteous Among the Nations” by the State of Israel in the summer of 2014, he was awarded the US Congressional Gold Medal for his heroic conduct during the Holocaust.

“Wallenberg is such an important figure for all of us, especially today, when intolerance once again casts its immense shadow over the entire world. He demonstrated that everyone – regardless of position and ability – can make a difference. He showed us that the fight for equality between men cannot be left to governments or political theory alone. Wallenberg understood that this was an individual responsibility and acted accordingly.” Kofi Annan

INGRID CARLBERG was born in Sweden in 1961 and is a journalist. With a degree in Political Science and Economics from Uppsala Universitet, she worked for several years for Dagens Nyheter, the largest Swedish daily newspaper, and before that for Maktutredningen, an independent research commission on power relations and democracy in Norway. She debuted as a children’s author in 2002, but it was with The Phill, a non-fiction, that achieved greater success, in 2008. The Swedish edition of The Wallenberg Case received the August Prize, for best work of non-fiction, and the Axel Hirsch Prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy, which recognized «the high artistic and historical value of his contribution». This is her first book published in Portugal.