The Envoy by Alex Kershaw

The Envoy:  The Epic Rescue of the Last Jews of Europe in the Desperate Closing Months of World War II, by Alex Kershaw

Published:  2010 by Da Capo Press

Source:  borrowed from the library

  In  high school history class, I did a book report on a biography of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who is credited with saving thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.  His is a fascinating story, not only for his heroic efforts in saving lives but also for the mystery surrounding his disappearance into the Soviet Union almost immediately upon the Soviets' liberation of Hungary.

 The Envoy is an account of the fate of Hungarian Jews towards the end of World War II.  Up until mid-1944, Jews in Hungary were relatively safe from the Nazis; however with Germany increasingly on the losing side of battles, Adolf Eichmann - the architect of the Holocaust - was brought in to begin liquidating the last large cohort of Jewish people in Europe.  While other countries looked on passively, Raoul Wallenberg took it upon himself and his nation to save as many Jews as he could by providing them with Schutzpasses - documents conferring Swedish citizenship upon the bearer and therefore protection from transport to the concentration camps.  His work was certainly not done completely on his own, but Wallenberg himself risked his own safety on numerous occasions to ensure the protection of the vulnerable. 

  Once Hungary has been liberated by the Soviet troops, the fates of both Wallenberg and his adversary Eichmann are tracked.  Eichmann's escape from Europe, subsequent capture by Israeli agents and his trial are well documented and is described briefly in this book; it is Wallenberg's fate, however that is still the cause of speculation.  Taken into the Soviet Union after the liberation, it appears that he was considered a German spy (having in his papers several phone numbers for Eichmann, whom he contacted in his efforts to rescue Jews) and was imprisoned; officially the Soviet Union said that he died of a heart attack in prison in 1947 but his family refused to believe this and despite no assistance from the Swedish government to act on behalf of their own missing diplomat, they have tried learning his true fate for over sixty years.

  Along with profiles of several Jews Wallenberg saved, this book provides insight into both sides of the Holocaust that isn't normally seen in one place.  The efforts to kill Jews are placed alongside efforts to save them, and the courage of those needing to be rescued and the rescuers themselves has greater emphasis when viewed next to the evil that worked against them.