January Blog

Through the years we have written extensively about Raoul Wallenberg in the swedish Press magazine. The Swedish hero, who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest during World War II, was taken into "protective custody" by the Soviet Union on January 17, 1945 and was never to be heard of again. In the February issue we bring you a revealing article by Josh Prager about the inefficiency of the Swedish government to come to Raoul Wallenberg’s aid, and the toll this tradgedy took on his family.

The story of Raoul Wallenberg is somewhat special to me as there have been family associations through the generations. My paternal grandfather started his career as an officer in the Swedish navy the same year as Raoul Wallenberg’s father. The two became good friends and so did their wives and I still have photos of the two couples sailing in the Stockholm archipelago.

Raoul Wallenberg’s father died of cancer before Raoul was born. His mother Maj later married Fredrik von Dardel with whom she had two children, Guy and Nina. When Guy started a company in Sweden my grandfather was one of the board members.

The von Dardels rented an apartment in a building that my maternal grandmother owned on Strandvägen in Stockholm. My mother lived there too, and when a Hunga-rian Jewish friend wrote to her asking for help, my mother wrote to Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest. I still remember the two letters he wrote back because of the German censorship stamps all over them.

Unfortunately the letters have disappeared, but I know that Raoul Wallenberg saved my mother's friend and her whole family.

A few years ago when I visited Raoul Wallenberg’s half-sister Nina Lagergren, to interview her (SwPr Dec01) the first thing she did was to bring out a family album and show pictures of me as a six-year-old playing with her daughter Nan (who is now married to the former Secre-tary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan). As my parents are long dead I did not know that our families had been close, but my conversation with Nina Lagergren brought back memories. I remembered her children’s play-house and even a long discussion at their breakfast table about whether one should crack or cut a boiled egg open.

It really is a small world in Stockholm.

If you happen to be in Vancouver on Raoul Wallenberg Day January 17, please join us at the Jewish Community Center where the Chair of “The International Commission of Inquiry into the Fate and Whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg”, Irwin Cotler will speak of the Swedish hero's fate.