Protective Passport (“Schutz-Pass”) issued to a Hungarian Jew (Ernst Landsberger) endorsed by Carl Ivan Danielsson and <<Raoul Wallenberg.>>

<<An original Swedish Protective Passport issued by Raoul Wallenberg. >> A single piece of paper that was the priceless ticket of life for a Jew otherwise destined to a certain death in Nazi occupied Hungary. The Swedish protective passports issued by Raoul Wallenberg enabled tens of thousands of desperate Hungarian Jews the hope of surviving the mass deportations that a desperate and increasingly defeated Nazi regime was determined to execute no matter the circumstances elsewhere on the battle-field. Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg was the ultimate pioneer in this extraordinary effort to save Hungarian Jews from their intended wholesale murder by German Nazis, ably assisted by their allies, the Hungarian Arrow Cross Fascists. Wallenberg’s heroic actions began in July 1944, when the Swedish Foreign Ministry, at the request of various Jewish organizations, sent him on a rescue mission to Budapest, as an attaché to the Swedish Embassy. By this time more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews living outside Budapest had already been deported to their deaths via Nazi agencies led by Adolf Eichmann. The rest of Hungary’s Jewish population consisted of the 230,000 Jews resident in the capital. Upon arrival in Budapest Wallenberg recognized that an immediate first task was to redesign the existing Swedish protective passport which he perceived to be physically, dramatically unimpressive. He determined that the Nazis and their Hungarian Fascist counterparts would likely be more impressed by a larger and more extrovertly “official” looking document. Hence Wallenberg redesigned the Schutzpass, and utilizing the blue and yellow of the Swedish flag, centrally emblazoned the document with the symbol of the triple crown of Sweden. This redesigned passport subsequently saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews to whom Wallenberg extended it to, as it was generally deemed authritative by German and Hungarian authorities, despite the fact that in essence it had no actual legal bearing. Each Schutz-Pass was signed by Wallenberg and Carl Ivan Danielsson (head of the Swedish mission to Budapest) and stated that the bearer was under the protection of Sweden’s neutral authority and thus if forbidden to be deported or harassed. In addition to granting physical immunity, the Schutzpass also allowed for Hungarian Jews to remove the yellow Star of David from their clothing, which of course provided them with an even greater sense of security. In addition to providing protective papers, Wallenberg created in Budapest an “International Ghetto” which housed thousands of Jewish refugees in extra-territorial safe-houses, shielding them from the hands of German and Hungarian Nazis. Almost all survived to lead lives long after the war. Wallenberg tragically did not, for he disappeared following his inexplicable arrest by Soviet martial police in January, 1945. The circumstances of his arrest and death still remain undetermined. Kayla Kaufman, a young girl saved by Raoul Wallenberg in 1944 remarked at an event commemorating what would have been his 98th birthday: “His courage was mythical. Today there are survivors with thousands of children and grandchildren walking this earth because of his gallant and victorious deeds” (www.raoulwallenberg.net/news/wallenberg-survivors-special/).