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A five star book about a five star hero.
The second world war threw-up some gigantic figures but ironically Raoul Wallenberg from neutral Sweden towers over all the rest.
Like the Good Samaritan he didn't pass on by but instead left his safe homeland to assist others by putting himself in danger day after day in the inferno that was Hungary during the dreadful days of 1944-45.
The man who saved a 100,000 jews from the clutches of Adolf Eichmann, the SS, and the Hungarian facists, the Arrow Cross ultimately fell foul of the Russian 'liberators.' He was never seen again as a free man after being taken into 'protective custody' by the Reds on 17 January 1945.
I read John Bierman's excellent book some 20 years ago and he charts the extraordinary crusade of his subject with a deft touch.
This is a book that will both inspire you, with Wallenberg's humanity and courage, and anger you that such a man could lose his liberty after fighting so hard for the freedom and safety of others.
In the pantheon of heroes Raoul Wallenberg-the righteous gentile-would have to be at the very top
2 fitting tribute to a great hero
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish aristocrat who managed to save thousands of Hungarian Jews from the gas chambers in the closing months of 1944. His relief agency in Budapest issued bogus Swedish passports to as many Jews as possible. By dint of his commanding personality, his ingenuity, and his talent for pulling the wool over the eyes of dimwitted Nazi functionaries, he contrived to convince the German and Hungarian authorities to respect these entirely extralegal documents. In mid-January 1945, he was summoned to the Soviet embassy in newly-"liberated" Budapest, and he was never seen again.
This is a great and inspiring story, and "Righteous Gentile" does justice to it. Bierman doesn't really succeed in explaining the origins of the idealism that led Wallenberg to volunteer for this job in the first place, but probably nobody could. What he does show is the skill and energy with which Wallenberg executed the task assigned to him. Actually "skill and energy" are ludicrously inadequate terms. Wallenberg not only distributed his passports, he tirelessly roamed around pulling Jews out of death marches and off trains bound for Auschwitz, he bossed Nazi thugs around in impeccable Hochdeutsch (and they listened), and he confronted Adolf Eichmann himself, all the while taking the most extraordinary risks. I can't say that Wallenberg was the greatest hero in recorded history, since I'm not familiar with all of it; suffice to say that he is by a very large margin the greatest hero I've ever read of, in fiction or history, and it is an inspiring and hopeful fact that someone like him ever existed. I am grateful to John Bierman for bringing this figure to such luminous and memorable life.
The only problem I have with the book is that half of it consists of speculations and rumor-cataloguing to the effect that Wallenberg was alive in the Gulag until about 1980. I believe that most authorities now think he was murdered by the Soviets long before this, perhaps after they failed to recruit him for espionage. This part of the book is therefore something of an anachronism. However, it doesn't detract from the general value of the book, which should be required reading for everybody, period.
3 An Inspiring Book
I read this book about 1982. I used to work the night shift at a hospital and on Sunday mornings, I recall listening to a Sunday Morning NPR talk show. One morning, Howard Cosel interviewed the author of Righteous Gentile. I was completely fascinated by this story that I had never heard. Howard was masterful in his interview and I was so taken that I immediately purchased the book and read it. It is riveting and I could not put it down until I had consumed it all. I am always in amazed wonderment at ordinary people who perform extraordinary acts under dire conditions. Wallenberg was such a man. The story is, of course, a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, as Wallenberg disappears into the Russian Gulag. I irony of his imprisonment in the Gulag after having saved so many Jews from their fate in the Holocost. It is one of those books that is uplifting because it reminds us of both the good and evil that humans are capable of.