Ambassador (retired) stationed in
Budapest during the war. Secretary of the Swedish Legation in Budapest,
Hungary, 1944-45.
Per Anger kept the Swedish Embassy open in
Hungary and worked closely with Raoul Wallenberg.
He personally intervened on behalf of Jews
who were being deported to the Nazi death camps.
On other occasions, Anger rescued Jews from
Nazi death marches leaving Budapest.
Consul Anger is credited with saving thousands
of Jews from the spring of 1944 until the end of the war in May 1945. Anger
currently lives in Menton, France and Stockholm, Sweden.
Foreword by Per Anger.
"By now, people in most parts of the world
have heard about Raoul Wallenberg's extraordinary rescue action on behalf
of the Hungarian Jews during the World War II.
Documentaries about him, produced in a number
of countries,have contributed to public awareness of his role. But the
American TV miniseries "Wallenberg", which has been seen by millions of
people all over the globe, has been particularly important ín this
regard.
During my lecture tours both in Sweden and
abroad as part of the international
effort to secure Raoul's release from the Soviet Union, I have often been
asked how it was possible to save such a large number of people, about
100.000 from the Nazi executions.
The most important answer: Raoul Wallenberg
was the right man in the right place, given the situation then prevailing.
Although he was not the heroic type in the ordinairy sense, he was a fearless,
skilled negotiator and organizer.
He was, more-over, a good actor, a talent that
served him well during his clashes with the Nazis.
He could also show two different personalities.
The first was the calm, humorous, intellectual,
warm person that we co-workers could see.
The second was Raoul Wallenberg in confrontation
with the Nazis: he was transformed into an aggressive person who would
shout at them or threaten them on one occasion, flatter or bribe them on
another, as the circumstances required.
They were impressed by him and usually gave
in to his demands. One reason, of course, was his Swedish diplomatic status,
which the Germans did not date to violate.
Raoul and his co-workers
The fact is that neither Raoul nor we, his
co-workers, at first had any idea that his rescue action would eventually
grow to such a large scale.
Raoul was forced to play for increasingly high
stakes in a stituation where Budapest was becoming more and more of a battlefield.
The bombs were raining down, and Soviet troops were closing in the suburbs.
The last time I saw Raoul Wallenberg, on Januar
10, 1945 I urged him to seek shelter, especially given the fact that the
Arrow Cross, the Hungarian Nazis, were searching for him in particular
and that he was consequently taking a major risk by continuing his human
work.
His reply was typical:
"To me there's no other choice.
I've accepted this assignment and I could
never return to Stockholm without the knowledge that I'd done everything
in human power to save as many Jews as possible."
And he continued doing until he himself was
captured, not by the Nazis, but by the Soviet Army.
Last Picture of Wallenberg in
Budapest.
Listen to Per Anger's explanation
of the Mount of Remembrance in Jeruzalem.
