Raoul Wallenberg
, 2005
95 x 64.5 cm (h x w)
stained glass
© The estate of Moshe Galili
Raoul Wallenberg (1912-?) was the Swedish diplomatic envoy in Budapest in the closing years of the Second World War. He displayed great personal courage, issuing protective passports and sheltering Jews in buildings designated as Swedish territory, saving thousands from the gas chambers. In January 1945 when the Russian Red Army liberated Budapest Wallenberg was arrested and taken to Moscow. In 1957 the Russian Foreign Minister, Andre Gromiko, informed the Swedish government that Wallenberg had died in his prison cell at Lubyanka in 1947, although this remains unconfirmed.