The Heroic Life of Raoul Wallenberg: How One Man Saved Thousands of Jews During the Holocaust in Budapest

PETER V.: Everyone knows about Oscar Schindler who is hailed as a hero of the Holocaust for saving the lives of 1,200 Jews. Not to sneered at but Raul Wallenberg saved about 100,000! Many others are also celebrated as Ritecheous Heros but nobody has come close to the accomplishments of Wallenberg. His heroic and tragic story is well presented in this book. If you have an interest in the WW II then you must read about Wallenberg. This book does a very good job of telling the story. It is well written and accurate. I have read several accounts on this topic and this book belongs at the top pf the list. Enjoy it!

Canada on Sep 16, 2021

Amazon Customer: Very informative but, too long, a bit repetitive and needs editing: many "u"s were replaced by "ii"s as in Fiihrer, Giinther, fiinf etc.
Overall, although I skipped/skimmed over pages (mainly in epilog) I enjoyed the book.

Canada on May 04, 2021

depeshkov: Kati Marton has written an excellently researched and very readable account of Raoul Wallenberg's efforts in Nazi Hungary to save the Jews. It provides, of course, details on the life of the heroic figure of Wallenberg, but also on the major players caught in the maelstrom of WWII and of Nazi Germany's and the Arrow Cross's efforts to erase the Jews from Budapest and Hungary. There are villains, there are the collaborators, there are no shortage of apathetic political leaders, there are the victims, and in the midst of the storm there are the handful of men and women who rose up against the evil forces and, guided and inspired by Wallenberg, pushed back against the current of evil. Marton's research and interviews allow this narrative to come to life and allows us to follow the man - from his driven mission to save the Jews from sure death, to his capture and imprisonment by the Soviets and their continual denial of his presence and condition in the GULag - a tragic end in so many ways. Firstly, fear of the Russians and abandonment by the Swedish government and later by Kissinger and the American administration; secondly by the beast that was Soviet leadership and the fear...

United States on Feb 28, 2021

Kindle Customer: Raoul Wallenberg's life was SO incredible in so many and yet all his promise and heroics resulted in endless years in Russian prisons. What a terrible waste. And where was his country? His family? The Red Cross? The thousands he saved? He saved so many at great risk to his life, but when he was in peril no one did anything for him...for decades. Then, it was far too late.

Canada on Aug 12, 2017

Claudia Moscovici: A Holocaust hero in Hungary: The courage of Raoul Wallenberg

The Talmud states: “Whoever destroys a soul, it is as if he destroyed the whole world. And whoever saves a life, it is as if he saved the whole world” (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9, Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 37a). There’s so much wisdom in this saying, which also resonates with history. The Nazis did everything in their power to destroy the whole Jewish race while Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, did everything he could to save them. He worked relentlessly to save 100,000 Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.

Wallenberg’s own life story contains as much triumph as it does tragedy. By the time Wallenberg, only 31 years old, arrived in Budapest 437,000 Jews living outside the city had already been deported to Auschwitz. He could do nothing to save their lives. But there were aproximately 230,000 Jews left in Budapest, all of whom Adolf Eichamann, who was then stationed in the capital, planned to send as efficiently as possible to their deaths. The preparations of the death machine had already begun. Most of the Jews in Budapest had already been herded by the Nazis and their Fascist, Arrow Cross...

United States on May 15, 2015

Niklas Pivic: This is a book that succeeds in ambition, but fails in depth; while it is plainly and succinctly written, I feel it would have increased in rating if the style were more personal; here, there are a lot of anecdotes, of which a lot are smarmy, yet interesting; it's a bit "Schindler's List" which goes to serve memory and what the Holocaust was about, on a human level, but this is really not for historians, neither for people looking for an in-depth version of the Raoul Wallenberg story.

The story kicks off in a good way, where Raoul's relatives are concerned (bar his mother):

<blockquote>The Wallenberg who is best known and most admired in this family of remarkable characters is one who was never fully accepted into their ranks. Raoul Wallenberg did not have the total support of his powerful relatives in his early professional struggles. More tragically, the Wallenbergs failed to play a vital, positive role in the life of their cousin, the Soviet captive. They have done precious little to win his freedom.

[...]

When, in 1947, President Harry Truman offered Marcus Wallenberg his personal help in extricating Raoul from Soviet custody, the elder...

United States on Feb 17, 2015

Wennel: A tragic story about Raoul Wallenberg, a brave, intelligent, driven Swede who saved thousands of Jewish lives in Hungary. He was ultimately abandoned by his own country to its great shame. Very well written, meticulously organized, excellent 'voice,'.. Gripping from beginning to end. I will end here as I don't want to give anything away. Highly recommend if you like the subject matter.

United Kingdom on Feb 09, 2015

hungarianjedi: A well written book which makes an important subject accessible to the general reader. Unfortunately, the early portions of the book are a bit dry and tough to get through (or get into), but once the story makes it to wartime Budapest, the book borders on being a page-turner.

The length of the book felt just right, even considering the really sluggish start, and flowed quite nicely once readers were enveloped by the wartime challenges faced by Wallenberg. The entire post-war portions leave one embittered, if not outraged, but ultimately with a feeling of disappointment in the seemingly pointless East-West pettiness that ensued in the early years of the Cold War.

Having read the book while in Budapest, I found the book to be quite an enjoyable/interesting read (other than the first chapter). It’s one of Kati Marton’s earlier books, but it fits very well with her later books on Hungary and/or Jewish history. It’s also an excellent book for anyone interested in a basic overview of Raoul Wallenberg and his incredible accomplishments in wartime Budapest.

With the first edition published in 1982, her epilogue in this re-released second edition (1995) brings a...

Canada on Jul 17, 2013