The Envoy: A Heroic Story of the Rescue of the Final Jews of Europe

troutguy: Excellent historical review of an extraordinary event. Highly recommend. A must read for anyone interested in WWII history. Don’t miss

United States on Sep 29, 2023

Fedupwithpcbs: Alex Kershaw tells a history like a novel with incredible depth of research. Reading about the holocaust is hard but I am glad that I read the book

United States on May 21, 2023

Charlottekrn Bookfair: Rarely does an author of non-fiction achieve an action packed, heart-pumping thriller, and yet, Kershaw accomplishes exactly that in publishing, “The Envoy,” the story of Swedish born, Raoul Wallenberg. The Swede, sent on a mission to Hungary during WW II, worked tirelessly to save beleaguered and hunted Hungarian Jews and Jewish refugees in Hungary. The book is personable, highly informative, and accordingly, graphic.
In the spring of 1944, Hitler authorized, Operation Margarethe, the annihilation of the last vestige of Jews in occupied Europe. In March, Adolf Eichmann marched into Budapest. Immediate round-ups ensued and Eichmann began shipping three thousand Jews a day to Auschwitz.
In combined effort, contacts under President Roosevelt in coordination with officials in the Swedish Government initiated a stand. Raoul Wallenberg arrived to Budapest in July of 1944, and with limited power from the Swedish Crown, faced down Nazis as well as Hungarian Government officials and Hungarian Police when need be. Wallenberg battled the daily dictates of Adolf Eichmann, and the Hungarian Arrow Cross who were determined to kill every last one of the 725,000 Jews in Hungary. During...

United States on Jul 30, 2017

David H. Smethurst: I really liked the way the writer told the story but after reading I had to read something much lighter

Canada on Aug 07, 2014

Laura TV: Fanatical reader of all things true about the Nazi invasion, occupation and desperation in those times. Love all these sorts of books.

United Kingdom on Oct 03, 2013

Go Steelers: This book draws a vivid portrait of Raoul Wallenberg and some of the many people he rescued. In terms of style and presenting the human dimension of the man, it is perhaps the best I have read. Because it presents Wallenberg through the eyes of real people whom he rescued, the reader gains a heartfelt sense of the terror and unimaginable evil that was set loose on Hungary. I especially like that he follows up with what happened to these people after the Holocaust and what they are doing today. Some of the stories are heart-breaking, others inspiring. He also writes of the Wallenberg family and how their efforts to find and save their son and brother were thwarted at every turn. That is among the saddest stories of all. Having read some previous books on Wallenberg, the one thing I would like to have seen but didn't would be an analysis of reports that had him alive in the Gulags decades after his arrest. Early accounts are explored in details, but those from the 60s onward are only mentioned in passing. I'd like to know what the author thought of them.

United States on Mar 17, 2013

Boy Val: I knew a little about Raoul Wallenberg and Adolf Eichmann before I read this book. I was aware that Wallenberg saved thousands of Jews during the war and I knew enough to name my son Raoul in his honor.
What I didn't know was how much he risked his life doing so, his struggles with the SS and Hungarian Arrow Cross, and his mysterious disappearance after the Soviets arrested him.

This book tells the story of the Jews in Hungary during the war, their struggle to survive, first under an anti-semitic regime, then under the Nazis themselves, and finally under the local Nazis in the form of the Arrow Cross party, the evil that is Eichmann, and the desperate efforts of a few to save the Jews. Although anti-semitism was rampant in Hungary before the war, the Jews were somewhat spared the fate their brethren suffered in Poland, Ukraine, Netherlands, and other German-occupied countries during the war. Until 1944 when the Nazis, in particular Adolf Eichmann, decided that all Jews in Hungary, at all costs, should all be deported to the death camps.
In came the Swede Wallenberg, who together with other diplomats in Budapest, tried to save as many Jews as they can by issuing...

United States on Feb 05, 2012