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'''Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg''' (4 August 1912 – disappeared 17 January 1945)<ref group=note name=DeathNote>He is presumed to have died in 1947, although the circumstances of his death are not clear and this date has been disputed. Some reports claim he was alive years later. In accordance with Swedish law, the Swedish Tax Agency in October 2016 determined his ''pro-forma'' date of death as 31 July 1952.</ref><ref name="auto"/> was a Swedish architect, businessman, [[diplomat]], and [[humanitarian]]. He saved thousands of [[Jews]] in [[Government of National Unity (Hungary)|German-occupied Hungary]] during [[the Holocaust]] from German [[Nazis]] and [[Arrow Cross Party|Hungarian fascists]] during the later stages of [[World War II]]. While serving as Sweden's [[special envoy]] in [[Budapest]] between July and December 1944, Wallenberg issued protective passports and sheltered Jews in buildings which he [[Extraterritoriality|declared as Swedish territory]].<ref name="YV">{{cite web|title=A Swedish Rescuer in Budapest|url= http://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/wallenberg.html|access-date= 15 April 2018|publisher= [[Yad Vashem]]|quote= he saved the lives of tens of thousands of men, women and children by placing them under the protection of the Swedish crown.}}</ref>
On 17 January 1945, during the [[Siege of Budapest]] by the [[Red Army]], agents of [[SMERSH]] detained Wallenberg on suspicion of [[espionage]], and he subsequently [[forced disappearance|disappeared]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/articles/raoul-wallenbergs-arrest-order-signed-by-bulganin-in-january-1945/|title=Raoul Wallenberg's arrest order, signed by Bulganin in January 1945 – Searching for Raoul Wallenberg Searching for Raoul Wallenberg|work= Searching for Raoul Wallenberg|access-date= 27 August 2018|date= 17 January 1945}}</ref> In 1957, 12 years after his disappearance, he was reported by Soviet authorities to have died of a suspected [[myocardial infarction]] on 17 July 1947 while imprisoned in the [[Lubyanka Building|Lubyanka]], the prison at the headquarters of the [[NKVD]] secret police in [[Moscow]]. A document released in 2023 as part of The President [[John F. Kennedy Assassination]] Records Collection indicates [[Vyacheslav Nikonov]], a [[KGB]] deputy at the time, determined as part of a 1991 inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, that he was likely executed by Soviet authorities in late 1947 due to evidence that he may have been associated with people helping not only Jews but also Nazi war criminals escape prosecution.<ref name="archives.org">{{cite web |title= JFK Assassination Records - 2023 Additional Documents Release |date= 27 June 1991 |publisher= United States National Archives |url= https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10014-10064.pdf | access-date= 25 November 2023}}</ref> However, there is no conclusive proof of this and his cause and date of death have been disputed ever since, with some people claiming to have encountered men matching Wallenberg's description until the 1980s in Soviet prisons and psychiatric hospitals.
As a result of his successful efforts to rescue [[History of the Jews in Hungary|Hungarian Jews]], Wallenberg has been the subject of numerous humanitarian honours in the decades following his [[declared death in absentia|presumed death]]. In 1981, US Congressman [[Tom Lantos]], one of those saved by Wallenberg, sponsored a bill making Wallenberg an [[honorary citizenship of the United States|honorary citizen of the United States]], the second person ever to receive this honour. Wallenberg also became an [[Honorary Canadian citizenship|honorary citizen of Canada]], Hungary, Australia, the United Kingdom and Israel.<ref name=PM>{{cite web |url = http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/honorary-australian-citizenship-be-awarded-raoul-wallenberg |title = Honorary Australian Citizenship to be Awarded to Raoul Wallenberg |date = 15 April 2015 |access-date = 6 May 2013|publisher = Prime Minister's Press Office, [[Commonwealth of Australia]]|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130430114411/http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/honorary-australian-citizenship-be-awarded-raoul-wallenberg|archive-date = 30 April 2013|df = dmy-all}}</ref> In 1963 the [[State of Israel|Israeli]] agency [[Yad Vashem]] designated Wallenberg one of the [[Righteous Among the Nations]].<ref>
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Numerous monuments have been dedicated to him, and streets have been named after him throughout the world. The [[Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States]] was founded in 1981 to "perpetuate the humanitarian ideals and the nonviolent courage of Raoul Wallenberg".<ref name = Mission>{{cite web |url = http://www.raoulwallenberg.org/aboutus.htm.html |publisher= Raoulwallenberg.org | title = The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States – Our Mission |access-date = 8 June 2013}}</ref> It gives the [[Raoul Wallenberg Award]] annually to recognize persons who carry out those goals. In 2012, Wallenberg was awarded a [[Congressional Gold Medal]] by the [[United States Congress]] "in recognition of his achievements and heroic actions during the Holocaust."<ref name="thomas.loc.gov">{{cite web|title=The Library of Congress: Bill Summary & Status 112th Congress (2011–2012) H.R. 3001|url= http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3001:|date= 26 July 2012|access-date= 31 July 2012|archive-date= 15 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121215215111/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3001:|url-status=dead}}</ref> Declassified documents have confirmed that Raoul Wallenberg worked with the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS), the predecessor of the [[CIA]].<ref name="jta.org">{{cite web |title= Declassified Cia Documents Show Wallenberg Was U.S. Spy |date= 8 May 1996 |publisher= Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency |url= https://www.jta.org/archive/declassified-cia-documents-show-wallenberg-was-u-s-spy | access-date= 18 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="scholar.lib">{{cite web | title= REPORT: WALLENBERG WORKED AS U.S. SPY | date= 5 May 1996 |publisher= Roanoke Times |url= https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1996/rt9605/960505/05070016.htm |access-date= 18 January 2023}}</ref>
Although some have claimed that Wallenberg was responsible for rescuing 100,000 Jews who survived the Holocaust in Hungary, historians regard that figure as an exaggeration;<ref>{{cite book |last1= Rubinstein |first1= W. D. |title= The Myth of Rescue: Why the Democracies Could Not Have Saved More Jews from the Nazis |date= 2002 |publisher= Routledge |isbn= 978-1-134-61568-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6IaEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA194 |language=en|page=194}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1= Dietrich |first1= D. J. |title= Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest: Myth, History and Holocaust, Paul A. Levine (London and Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, 2010), xviii + 392 pp.|journal= Holocaust and Genocide Studies |date=2012 |volume=26 |issue= 1 |pages= 144–145 |doi= 10.1093/hgs/dcs020}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1= Cherry |first1= Robert |title= Holocaust Historiography: The Role of the Cold War |journal=Science & Society |date=1999 |volume=63 |issue=4 |pages=459–477 |jstor=40403812 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40403812 |issn=0036-8237}}</ref> Yad Vashem estimates the number of people granted protective paperwork as about 4,500 individuals.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Raoul Wallenberg |language=en |url= https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/wallenberg.html |access-date= 18 June 2023 | quote = The protective letter authorized its holder to travel to Sweden or to any of the other country Sweden represented. About 4,500 Jews had these papers, which protected them from forced labor and exempted them from wearing the yellow star.}}
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[[File:Kappsta Raoul Wallenberg.jpg|thumb|Former location of the summer villa where Wallenberg was born in 1912 (pictured in 2009)]]
Wallenberg was born in 1912 in [[Lidingö Municipality]], near [[Stockholm]], where his maternal grandparents, Per Johan Wising and his wife Sophie Wising (née Benedicks), had built a summer house in 1882.
His parents, who married in 1911, were Raoul Oscar Wallenberg (1888–1912), a [[Swedish Navy|Swedish naval officer]], and Maria "Maj" Sofia Wising (1891–1979). His father died of cancer three months before he was born, and his maternal grandfather died of pneumonia three months after his birth. His mother and grandmother, now both suddenly widows, raised him together.<ref name =ROB/> In 1918, his mother married Fredric von Dardel;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/researcher/dardel/|title=Raoul Wallenberg's family, the von Dardel|work=Searching for Raoul Wallenberg|access-date=30 March 2016|date=22 February 2008}}</ref> they had a son, [[Guy von Dardel]],<ref name="raoul-wallenberg">{{cite web|url=http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/articles/guy-von-dardel-introduction-to-the-report-of-the-independent-consultants/|title=Guy von Dardel's introduction to the report of the Independent consultants" Searching for Raoul Wallenberg|publisher=Raoul-wallenberg.eu|access-date=27 May 2014|date=January 2001}}</ref> and a daughter, [[Nina Lagergren]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=Nina Lagergren obituary |newspaper=[[The Times]] |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nina-lagergren-obituary-gmfg72tlj |access-date=2022-05-04 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref>
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