THE BOOK FAIR

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 the summer of 1944, the Nazis sent 450,000 Hungarian Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz.

It is unknown exactly the number of Jews Wallenberg saved from the Nazis transports and the Hungarian Arrow Cross collaborators, but it is estimated between 20,000 to 100,000 Jews.  After the Nazi retreat from Hungary, approximately 124,000 Jews were left alive in Hungary, due directly to Wallenberg’s relentless effort, together with the Swiss and Spanish delegates, the Swiss Embassy and officials in Hungary.

Decades later, Soviet officials returned Wallenberg’s few possessions to the family (who never gave up their search for him), but never his remains. The Soviet government finally admitted in 1989, after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, that Raoul Wallenberg died in Soviet custody in 1947.  Raoul Wallenberg holds the title in the Guinness Book of World Records of having saved the most lives, by an individual.  The fascinating, highly informative book serves as a tribute to the indomitable moral character of Raoul Wallenberg.