Political campaigns with their emphasis on denigrating one’s opponent can cast a pall over our outlook. Imagine the lift my sagging spirits received last week when I read in an essay written by a high school senior of her goal to lead an “honorable life.”
That same day, Sweden declared Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg officially dead. His was a life that was honorable in every respect. Before his disappearance and likely death while in Russian custody, Wallenberg had saved as many as 100,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps.
Dr. Clif CleavelandWallenberg was born in 1912 into a distinguished Swedish family noted for its leadership in banking and manufacturing. An accomplished artist and student of Russian, he aspired to a career in architecture. In 1931, he entered the University of Michigan, where he graduated with honors in architecture 3 1/2 years later.
A job took him to Palestine in 1935, where he learned firsthand of Nazi oppression from Jews who had escaped from Germany. Back home in Stockholm, he established a business partnership with a Jewish man who had immigrated from Hungary. Because of Sweden’s neutral status in World War II, Wallenberg could travel freely in France, Germany and Hungary, where he witnessed further mistreatment of Jews.
Hungary had allied with Germany in 1941 during the invasion of Russia. As the tide of war turned against Germany, Hungary sought a separate truce with Russia, a move that led in March 1944 to Germany’s invasion of Hungary.