Chronology of Rescue by Raoul Wallenberg, Sweden

 

Raoul Wallenberg volunteered as a civilian employee of the American War Refugee Board in 1944.  He was credentialed as a diplomat by Sweden and arrived in Budapest on January 9, 1944.  His mission was to save as many Budapest Jews as possible.  Raoul Wallenberg redesigned the Swedish protective papers.  Wallenberg issued Swedish diplomatic papers to thousands of Hungarian Jews.  He prevented the Nazis from deporting and murdering Jews in the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  With his staff of Jewish volunteers, Wallenberg rescued thousands of Jews who were being forced on death marches.  He also established dozens of safe houses throughout Budapest.  He tirelessly protected the safe houses from Nazi and Arrow Cross raids.  In January 1945, shortly before the Soviets liberated Budapest, Wallenberg prevented the Germans from blowing up the Jewish ghetto in Pest and killing its inhabitants.  Shortly thereafter, Raoul Wallenberg was arrested by the Soviets and disappeared. He was honored as Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel in 1963.  In 1981, Wallenberg was bestowed the title of honorary citizen of the United States, at that time, an honor reserved only for Winston Churchill.  In addition, he has been honored all over the world for his life-saving activities.  In 2013, the United States Congress authorized the issuing of a Congressional Gold Medal for Raoul Wallenberg.  After nearly 70 years of investigation, his whereabouts or fate in the hands of the Soviet Union has never been proven.

 

1911
Raoul parents are married. They are Raoul Oscar Wallenberg (1888–1912), a Swedish naval officer, and Maria "Maj" Sofia Wising (1891–1979). His father dies of cancer three months before he is born, and his maternal grandfather dies of pneumonia three months after his birth. His mother and grandmother, now both widows, raised him together.

August 5, 1912
Raoul Wallenberg is born in Lidingö Municipality, near Stockholm, Sweden to a wealthy and aristocratic banking family. For generations, they had been in banking and commerce. Raoul Wallenberg’s father, Raoul Gustav Wallenberg, died three months before his son was born. His mother, Maj Wising, is the daughter of Sweden’s first professor of neurology.

August 1914-November 1918
World War I. Millions of soldiers die. At the conclusion of World War I, many of the royal families of Europe are deposed. First of many European oligarchies and “undemocratic democracies” are formed.

October 1917
Russian Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin. Czar Nicholas II is swept from power. The Russian Revolution inspires Communist movements throughout Western Europe, including Germany, Italy, France, Austria and Hungary. In response, extreme right wing and nationalistic movements, many of a fascist nature, are created.

1918
Maj Wallenberg marries Fredrik von Dardel. They have two children, Guy and Nina. Young Raoul is raised and guided by his fraternal grandfather, Ambassador Gustav Wallenberg. Gustav Wallenberg insists on supervising the upbringing and education of his grandson. Young Wallenberg is encouraged to have an enlightened and cosmopolitan outlook on the world.

January 5, 1919
The German Workers’ Party (DAP) is founded. It is a small, right-wing political group based on German ultra-nationalism. Hitler joins the party on September 12.

August 26, 1919
Raoul’s brother Guy Fredrik von Dardel is born. He becomes a noted a Swedish physicist who researched particle physics and participated in the establishment of CERN. Dardel was active in searching for and establishing the fate of his half-brother, Raoul Wallenberg.

1920
League of Nations is founded.

March 3, 1921
Nina Viveka Maria Lagergren (née von Dardel the half-sister of Raoul Wallenberg is born.

November 1921
Hitler becomes head of the National Socialist German Workers’ party (Nazi).

1922
Josef Stalin becomes Secretary General of the Communist Party in Russia.

1927
Josef Stalin ousts Trotsky from power in the USSR and becomes the absolute dictator. The Communist government consolidates its hold on the Russian Confederation of States.

October 1929
New York Stock Exchange fails. Stock values dissolve overnight. This event initiates a worldwide economic depression. It will not end until 1939. The depression hits Germany extremely hard.

1930
After graduating from high school with top honors and serving in the Swedish home guard, Gustav sends Raoul to France for a year to learn French. Raoul is already proficient in English, German and Russian.

September 30, 1930
The Nazi party gets 18% of the popular vote in the German Reichstag election.

1931
Grandfather Wallenberg sends Raoul to study architecture at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. As a young man, Raoul Wallenberg had been fascinated by architecture, and often studied buildings in Stockholm. Raoul is an outstanding student and graduates more than a year early.

July 31, 1932
The Nazis win more than 37% of the vote in a Reichstag election.

November 8, 1932
Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President of the US by a landslide.

January 30, 1933
Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by German President Paul von Hindenburg.

The Nazi party becomes the ruling party in Germany.

Fifty concentration camps will be built throughout Germany. They include Dachau, Oranienburg, Esterwegen and Sachsenburg (Sachsenhausen). These brutal camps are designed to house enemies of Nazism, Socialists and Jews. In 1933, 25,000 people are sent to these camps.

February 27-28, 1933
The German Reichstag [Parliament] is burned down under mysterious circumstances. As a result, a state of emergency is declared. Hitler receives emergency powers from German President Paul von Hindenburg. Nazi storm troopers arrest ten thousand opponents of the Nazi party. Many of these are executed or “disappear.”

March 4, 1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as 32nd President of the United States. Roosevelt appoints Cordell Hull as Secretary of State and Sumner Wells as Assistant Secretary of State.

March 24, 1933
Passage of the Enabling Act by the Nazi-controlled Reichstag suspends and thereby destroys all civil liberties in Germany. It establishes a completely totalitarian system with only one leader and one political party, which controls all communication.

Spring 1933
King Gustav V of Sweden and other prominent Swedes warn Hitler that continued persecution of Jews would erode sympathy for Germany.

July 20, 1933
The Vatican signs Reich Concordat with Nazi Germany, which gives Hitler’s regime legitimacy. This concordat purports to protect church rights and property; in fact, it closes Germany’s center party and withdraws the Catholic Church from German political organizations.

November 12, 1933
In a German general election, 92% of the electoral vote is for Nazi candidates.

November 17, 1933
The United States recognizes the USSR and resumes trade.

1935
Wallenberg graduates with honors and receives his degree in architecture. Gustav sends Raoul to Cape Town, South Africa, where he works for a Swedish firm selling building materials.

September 15, 1935
Anti-Jewish laws known as “Nuremberg Laws” are enacted in Germany. These include the Law Respecting Reich Citizenship and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. Jews are no longer considered German citizens. Soon, hundreds of additional edicts are enacted.

International reaction to the Nuremberg Laws is almost universally negative.

1936
On the recommendation of his grandfather, Raoul takes a job with the Holland Bank in Haifa, Palestine. Though he enjoys Israel and makes many friends, he writes his grandfather, “Possibly, I am not cut out for banking...I think I have the character for positive action, rather than to sit at a desk and say No to people.”

Grandfather Gustav Wallenberg writes of his grandson, “First and foremost I wanted to make a man of him, to give him a chance to see the world and, through mixing with foreigners, give him what most Swedes lack--an international outlook.” He happily concludes, “Raoul is a man. He has seen much of the world and has come into contact with people of all kinds.”

March 7, 1936
Germans march into the Rhineland, previously demilitarized by the Versailles Treaty. The United States, Great Britain and France denounce the invasion.

July 16-18, 1936
The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. In Spain, right wing general Francisco Franco leads a mutiny against the Spanish Republican government. Hitler sends thousands of German troops to support Franco’s forces.

August 1-16, 1936
The International Olympic Games are held in Berlin. Persecution of Jews is temporarily suspended by Hitler and the Nazis.

October 25, 1936
Hitler and Mussolini form Rome-Berlin Axis. This is a formal alliance between fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

November 25, 1936
Germany and Japan sign Anti-Cominturn Pact against the Soviet Union. This pact attempts to thwart Soviet territorial aspirations in Europe.

1937
Gustav Wallenberg dies.

Wallenberg’s American diploma in architecture does not permit him to practice in Sweden, and at 25, he feels too old to go back to college. For a while, Wallenberg tries a number of businesses. Nothing seems to work out for young Raoul.

The right-wing, antisemitic Hungarian fascist party, called the Arrow Cross, is formed.

November 6, 1937
Italy joins German-Japanese Anti-Comminturn Pact.

January 1, 1938
Sweden passes a law severely limiting immigration.

March 13, 1938
Anschluss (annexation of Austria). Austria becomes a province of the German Greater Reich and is renamed Austmark. Vienna loses its status as a capital and becomes a provincial administrative seat. All antisemitic decrees imposed on German Jews are immediately applied in Austria. Nearly 200,000 more Jews come under Hitler’s control.

May 1938

The German Nuremberg Laws, which forcibly segregate Jews in Germany and deprive them of citizenship and the means of livelihood, are officially enforced in Austria. More than 200,000 Austrian Jews would be persecuted under these laws, according to German records.

May 29, 1938
Anti-Jewish laws are enacted in Hungary.

July 6-15, 1938
Representatives from 34 countries meet at Evian, France, to discuss refugee policies. All of the countries refuse to help or let in more Jewish refugees. Australia’s response to accepting Jewish refugees states: “As we have no real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one.” The lack of support for Jewish refugees signals to Hitler that the world is unconcerned with Jewish refugees.

The US State Department declares, “No country would be expected to make any changes in its immigration legislation.”

As an outcome of the Evian Conference, an Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees is established to help refugees. It is headed by Lord Winterton and George Rublee. It is, however, highly ineffectual and fails to help Jews who are leaving Germany to take their assets with them.

September 15 and September 22, 1938
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain meets with Hitler in Germany to discuss the Sudetenland crisis. Hitler demands Czechoslovakia return Sudeten territories to Germany. Hitler states that this will be his last territorial demand in Europe. Chamberlain has agreed to Hitler’s demands to annex the Sudetenland. Chamberlain signs Friendship Treaty with Germany. Chamberlain returns to England bearing an agreement he signed with Hitler and states that there would be “peace in our time.”

September 29-30, 1938
The Munich Conference is held. It is attended by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French President Daladier, Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini, and Hitler. Great Britain, France and Italy agree to allow the Nazis to annex the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia is not allowed to participate in the conference.

The General Assembly of the League of Nations merges the Nansen Office for Refugees with the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees.

October 6, 1938
The Czech Sudetenland is annexed and occupied by the German Army. Soon, 200,000 Czechs are expelled or flee the territory. Czech President Eduard Benes resigns as a result of the annexation.

November 9-10, 1938
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass): anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Thousands of Jews are beaten, hundreds killed; 200 synagogues set fire and destroyed; 7,500 Jewish shops looted; 171 Jewish homes destroyed; 30,000 German, Austrian and Sudeten Jews sent to concentration camps (Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen), 15,000 from Austria. 680 men and women commit suicide in Austria.

Eventually, many Jews are released from the Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps with proof of emigration, diplomatic exit visas and promises to leave Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Many diplomats work to help Jews gain release from the German and Austrian camps.

1939
Between 1933 and 1939, 14,000 anti-Jewish laws are passed in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

78,000 Jews leave Germany.

100,000 Jews leave Austria by May 1939. 113,824 Jews remain.

By the end of 1939, most young Jews have left Austria. 55,000 to 60,000 Jews, most of them elderly, remain.

January 1, 1939
Mandatory identification cards are required of all Jews in Germany and Austria.

Jews banned from working with German citizens.

January 10, 1939
Hitler announces to the German Reichstag [Parliament] that a world war will result in “the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.”

January 14, 1939
Pope Pius XI urges foreign diplomats accredited to the Holy See to give as many visas as possible to victims of German and Italian racial persecution.

January 24, 1939
Reinhardt Heydrich is given authority by Göring to “solve the Jewish question by emigration and evacuation in the way that is most favorable under the conditions prevailing at present.”

March 11, 1939
A law is passed in Hungary establishing the Hungarian Labor Service.

March 15, 1939
German troops invade Czechoslovakia and occupy Prague. Hitler incorporates Bohemia and Moravia into the Third Reich as a “Protectorate.” Another 120,000 Jews come under Hitler’s control. A total of 350,000 Jews are trapped in the Nazi web.

March 31, 1939
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and the French President Edouard Daladier declare that Britain and France will go to war with Germany if Poland is attacked.

April 11, 1939
Hitler orders his generals to plan for the attack and invasion of Poland. It is code-named “Operation White.”

May 3, 1939
Antisemitic laws are enacted in Hungary. Jews are forbidden in the professions of banking, teaching, law and serving in the legislature.

May 5, 1939
A second anti-Jewish law is enacted in Hungary. It defines who is a Jew and severely restricts Jewish participation in the Hungarian economy.

May 22, 1939
Italy and Germany sign a ten-year “Pact of Steel” political and military alliance.

August 23, 1939
Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact). Germany and the USSR agree not to attack each other. According to this pact, in the event of war, Hitler gives Stalin Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and eastern Poland, almost half of the country.

August 25, 1939
Great Britain and Poland sign an Anglo-Polish Alliance. England agrees to defend Poland if it is attacked.

September 1, 1939
Germany invades Poland. World War II begins. This is the first major Blitzkrieg (lightening war) of World War II. It is devastatingly effective. 48 German divisions with 1,400 aircraft invade on three fronts. Poland’s soldiers are outnumbered three to one by Germany’s 1.5 million men. Poland collapses in three weeks. 2,212,000 Polish Jews come under Hitler’s control.

Aktion [operation] Tannenberg is started. Einsatzgruppen [special troops] are sent to murder Jews, Polish soldiers, political leaders and intellectuals in Poland. According to some records, nearly 500,000 Polish Jews and other civilians are killed.

A euthanasia program to kill physically and mentally handicapped people in Germany begins. It is called Operation T-4. Hitler authorizes doctors to kill mentally and physically disabled persons.

September 3, 1939

In response to the German invasion of Poland, France, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand officially declare war on Germany. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain forms a wartime cabinet with Winston Churchill as the First Lord of the Admiralty.

September 17, 1939
Soviet Army invades and occupies Poland’s eastern section. The army enters virtually unopposed. In accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement, the Soviet Union invades Poland from the east. By October 1939, the Second Polish Republic is split in half between two totalitarian powers. Germany occupies 48.4 percent of western and central Poland.

September 21, 1939
Chiefs of Einsatzgruppen, in cooperation with German civil and military leaders, are ordered to establish Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Poland. The aim of the ghettos is to segregate Jews from Polish society. The plan is to murder Jews slowly by starvation and disease, to kill them by shooting them on the spot, and eventually to deport them.

September 27, 1939
Warsaw surrenders after three days of intense bombardment by the Luftwaffe.

The Reichssicherheitshauptamt [Reich Security Main Office; RSHA] is established. This office will be one of the main instruments for the deportation and murder of millions of Jews and others throughout Europe.

September 28, 1939
Warsaw surrenders. Germany and the Soviet Union partition Poland. German forces occupy Warsaw.

October 1, 1939
The Polish government in exile is established in Paris, France. After the invasion and occupation of France, it moves to London, England.

October 10, 1939
Germany creates Generalgovernment headed by Hans Frank in German-occupied Poland. Its headquarters are in Krakow. The soon-to-be-established murder camps will be located in this area.

October 30, 1939
Himmler orders Jews to be removed from the rural areas of Western Poland. Hundreds of Jewish communities are dispersed and destroyed forever.

November 23, 1939
The Nazis order Polish Jews in the occupied area of the General Government to wear a yellow Star of David. Jewish businesses must also be marked with a yellow star.

November 28, 1939
A law to establish Jewish councils, called Judenräte, in the Nazi general government in Poland, is enacted. These councils convey German occupation orders to the Jewish community.

November 29, 1939
SS chief Himmler signs order to kill Jews who do not report to deportation.

November 30, 1939
Soviet Union invades Finland. War lasts until March 13, 1940.

December 1939
By the end of 1939, approximately 1.8-1.9 million Jews live in German occupied Poland. 610,000 live in Northwest Poland. 360,000 live in the Warsaw area. Approximately 1.3 million Jews reside in the Russian occupied area of Eastern Poland.

December 14, 1939
Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations following their invasion and occupation of Poland.

January 1940
First gassing of handicapped and mental patients in German asylums. More than 70,000 people are murdered before protests by church leaders bring about an end to the euthanasia program. However, this operation continues secretly until the end of the war.

February 12-13, 1940
First deportation of Jews from Germany.

March 5, 1940
The Central Immigration Office, under Adolf Eichmann, maintains complete control of all Jews in Czechoslovakia.

March 12, 1940
The Russian-Finnish War ends. Finland and Russia sign peace treaty.

April 8, 1940
Soviet army massacres 26,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest near Smolensk, Russia.

April 9, 1940
Germany invades and occupies Denmark and Norway. Anti-Jewish measures are immediately applied by Nazi government.

May 10, 1940
Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. 136 German divisions participate in the invasion. Germans enforce anti-Jewish measures in each area. In the wake of the German invasions, more than 8 million persons are displaced all over Europe. In Belgium, there are between 85,000 and 90,000 Jews, among whom 30,000 are refugees. In Holland, there are 140,000 Jews. 110,000 are native Dutch Jews, and 30,000 are refugees from Germany and Austria. In Luxembourg, the Jewish population is 3,500, many of whom are German and Austrian refugees.

May 12, 1940
Germany invades France.

May 15, 1940
The Netherlands surrender to Germany. Thousands of German, Austrian and Czech Jews who sought refuge in Holland are now trapped.

May 16, 1940
German Governor-General Hans Frank orders AB-Aktion (extraordinary pacification) to begin in Poland. 3,500 Polish leaders are murdered, along with 33,000 others.

May 20, 1940
Concentration camp established at Auschwitz, Poland. It will become the largest and deadliest death camp in the Nazi system. More than 1.2 million including 438,000 Hungarian Jews, and tens of thousands of others, will be systematically murdered there.

May 26-June 4, 1940
Following the encirclement of Allied forces in northeastern France, the British, French and Belgian forces are evacuated from Dunkirk, France. 338,226 soldiers are rescued by 861 ships.

May 28, 1940
Belgium surrenders to Germany. The Prime Minister and members of the Belgian cabinet flee to southern France.

June 10, 1940

Italy enters the war as a German ally, declares war on Great Britain and France, and invades France.

June 9, 1940
Norway surrenders to Germany.

June 14, 1940
First deportation to Auschwitz death camp arrives.

June 14-15, 1940

Paris falls, the German army occupies Paris and the French government is transferred to Bordeaux. There are 100,000 Jews living in Paris. More than 1 million refugees pour into Bordeaux.

Soviets invade and occupy Lithuania.

June 16, 1940
French Vichy collaborationist government is established under Marshal Philippe Pétain, a hero of World War I. Pétain becomes head of the French cabinet. He asks for an armistice eight days before the fighting ceases.

June 22, 1940
France surrenders to Germany. The French sign an armistice with Germany; in Article 19 of this document, the French agree to “surrender on demand” all persons named by the German authorities in France. France is divided into two zones. The French Army is limited to 125,000 officers and soldiers in metropolitan France.

July 10, 1940
Hitler orders the implementation of the invasion of England, called Operation Sea Lion. He orders the Luftwaffe to attack British air bases, convoys and ports. Battle of Britain begins.

The French National Assembly gives Pétain full powers to govern occupied France. The next day, Pétain abolishes the French constitution of 1875 and dismisses the French Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

August 30, 1940
Hungary annexes northern Transylvania.
September 7, 1940
Hitler initiates terror bombing of London. Called the “Blitz,” it lasts for 57 days.

September 17, 1940
Due to the setbacks of the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, Hitler puts off the invasion of England. This is the first major setback for Hitler.

September 27, 1940
Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis alliance is signed.

October 3, 1940
Statute des Juifs, a set of Nuremberg-style anti-Jewish laws, is passed by the French Vichy government. Law removes many civil rights for Jews in France.

October 4, 1940
Vichy government is empowered to arrest and imprison Jews in concentration camps in the southern unoccupied zone in France. 31 of these camps are established throughout France. Eventually, more than 50,000 Jews will be interned in these French-administered camps. 4,000 Jews will die from the poor health conditions in the camps. Eventually, these will become centers for deportation to the death camps in Poland.

December 9, 1940
Operation Compass begins in North Africa. The British Army advances from Egypt to Libya.

1941-1942
Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz serves as executive in Berne, Law Section of Federal Political Department.

February 1, 1941
Deportation of Jews to the Warsaw ghetto begins.

February 5, 1941
Reinhardt Heydrich states in memorandum that he sees the “later total solution to the Jewish problem” is to “send them off to whatever country will be chosen later on.”

February 14, 1941
Heydrich tells German foreign ministry representative in France Martin Luther, “After the conclusion of the peace, they [Jews] will be the first transported to leave fortress Europe in the total evacuation of the continent we plan.” Luther then tells his diplomatic representatives that forced Jewish emigration from German territories must take priority.

March 1, 1941
Bulgaria joins the Tripartite Pact with Germany, Italy and Japan.

Himmler orders the construction of a second death camp in Auschwitz called Birkenau (Auschwitz II).

March 26, 1941
The German general staff gives the approval for the activities of the Einsatzgruppen (murder squads) in the Soviet Union. The Wehrmacht will participate directly in the murder of civilians.

April 6, 1941
German forces invade Greece and Yugoslavia.

April 27, 1941
Greece surrenders to the German and Italian armies. After a protracted battle for conquering Greece, Germany intervenes on behalf of the Italian army. This delays Hitler’s planned attack on the Soviet Union.

March 30, 1941
Hitler informs German military leaders that the upcoming war against the Soviet Union will be a war of “extermination.”

May 14, 1941
Thousands of Jews in Paris are rounded up pending deportation.

May 15, 1941
French Vichy government declares policy of cooperation with Nazi German government.

May 20, 1941
Gestapo issues circular prohibiting Jewish emigration from Germany and Austria.

June 6, 1941
Hitler issues the Commissar Order. It authorizes the German army to murder any and all Soviet authorities in the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union.

June 7, 1941
Jews are ordered to wear the yellow star in occupied France. Many Jews refuse to wear the star and some French citizens wear stars and yellow flowers in solidarity with persecuted Jews.

June 22, 1941
Breaking the non-aggression pact of 1939, Hitler orders the German army to invade the Soviet Union. The plan is called “Operation Barbarossa.” Germany is now fighting a two-front war. The Wehrmacht, with 150 divisions and more than three million men, invade and occupy much of the western Soviet Union.

At the onset of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, the main architect of the Holocaust, Reinhard Heydrich, issues his operational guidelines for the mass anti-Jewish actions to be carried out with the participation of local gentiles. Massacres of Polish Jews by the Ukrainian and Lithuanian auxiliary police battalions follow. Deadly pogroms are committed in over 30 locations across formerly Soviet-occupied parts of Poland.

June 27, 1941
Hungary enters the war against the Allies.

July 9, 1941
Unable to win the air war over England, Hitler calls off Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of Great Britain.

July 31, 1941
Hermann Göring appoints Reinhardt Heydrich to implement the “final solution of the Jewish question.”

August 15, 1941
German government stops issuing exit visas to Jews.

September 1, 1941
Hitler ends the T-4 euthanasia program in Germany under pressure from church and civic leaders. Between 70,000 and 93,000 people are killed in this program.

September 6, 1941
The Nazis forbid emigration of Jews between 18 and 45 years old. The RVE in Germany helps Jews escape to Spain and Portugal.

September 17, 1941
The beginning of the general deportation of German Jews to the death camps in Poland.

September 19, 1941
In Germany, Jews are forced to wear the yellow star.

October 1, 1941

All legal emigration out of Germany and the occupied territories is stopped by Gestapo order.

October 25, 1941
The first part of the German army’s offensive against Moscow fails.

November 1941
The early onset of the Russian winter greatly slows the German army’s advance in the Soviet Union.

December 1941
Germany Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories declares, “As a matter of principle, no consideration should be given to economic interest…” This statement declares that killing Jews takes precedence over all other considerations, including use of Jewish labor for the war effort.

December 1-5, 1941
The German army reaches the outer suburbs of Moscow.

December 5, 1941
The Soviets launch a major counteroffensive against the German army’s attack on Moscow.

December 7, 1941
Japanese Imperial Navy attacks US forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Night and Fog Decree: Hitler orders the suppression of anti-Nazi resistance in Nazi-occupied Europe. This order is carried out by the German army in Eastern Europe. Tens of thousands are murdered under this order.

December 8, 1941
The United States, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand declare war on Japan.

Gassing of Jews begins at Chelmno extermination camp in Poland. Jews are herded into trucks and vans, where they are asphyxiated. 320,000 Jews are eventually murdered in Chelmno.

By the end of December 1941, the Nazis have murdered more than one million Jews.

December 16, 1941
The German army forces of Army Group Center, who are attacking Moscow, begin to retreat as a result of Soviet Marshall Zhukov’s counterattack.

1940-1944
Through a family connection, Raoul is put in touch with a Jewish refugee, Koloman Lauer. Lauer is the director of a successful specialty food import-export company. This company is the Central European Trading Company. Within eight short months, Raoul succeeds in becoming a junior partner in this company. After the outbreak of war in September, 1939, Raoul travels throughout Nazi occupied France and Germany. He soon acquires a knack for working with the Nazi bureaucracy.

He even travels throughout Hungary, which is still relatively safe for Jews. Lauer’s in-law’s are living in Budapest, and when he goes there, Wallenberg will go there to see that all was well with them.

1942
A major conference planning the murder of millions of Jews is held on January 20, 1942, in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. Heads of major German departments gather to plan the largest organized murder in history.

2.7 million Jews will be murdered this year. The Aktion Reinhardt death camps are established in Poland. They are Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. These camps are established with the specific purpose of murdering Jews. They are named after SS security chief Reinhardt Heydrich, who was assassinated earlier in Czechoslovakia. 1.7 million Jews are killed in these camps from March 1942 through November 1943. Most of the Jews killed are from the area of the General Government of Poland.

Numerous reports reach the Allies regarding the murder of millions of Jews in Eastern Europe.

Eight European governments in exile meet in London and refuse to condemn the Nazi murder of Jews in Europe. The Allies refuse to acknowledge that Jews were being targeted for murder as Jews and not just as Europeans

January 1, 1942
The United Nations is founded in Washington, DC. 26 nations sign an agreement to defeat Hitler and his allies.

January 2, 1942
Consul Lutz assigned to Chief of the Department of Foreign Interests of the Swiss Legation in Budapest.

He also represents the interests of the United States, Britain and several other countries that had severed relations with Hungary because of its alliance with Germany.

Carl Lutz initiates the practice of issuing Schutzbriefe (protective letters) on the basis of Palestine Certificates, in cooperation with the Budapest office of the Jewish Council for Palestine. This document is designed to protect Jewish children waiting for immigration to Palestine. Carl Lutz helped 10,000 Jewish children and young people immigrate to Palestine.

January 12, 1942
Nine European nations and China sign a resolution to hold Nazi war criminals responsible for war crimes, “whether they have ordered them, perpetuated them or in any way participated in them.”

January 20, 1942
Wannsee Conference in Berlin: Heydrich outlines plan to murder Europe’s Jews.

February 15, 1942
First transport of Jews murdered at Auschwitz using prussic acid (Zyklon B) poison gas.

March 1942

Consul Lutz issues more than 10,000 “Palestine certificates,” and invents a document called the Schutzbrief (protective letter) to protect Jewish refugees who then escape to Palestine.

George Mandel-Mantello begins issuing El Salvador citizenship papers to Jews in Belgrade, Yugoslavia and is soon arrested by Nazis.

March 1, 1942
Construction of the Sobibor death camp in Poland begins. It begins its murderous activities in May 1942.

March 12-April 20, 1942
30,000 Jews are deported to and murdered in the Belzec death camp.

July 1, 1942
The Polish government in exile issues a report to the Allied nations detailing the murder of 700,000 Jews since the German invasion and occupation in September 1939. This report reveals the use of mobile gas vans at Chelmno. Ninety Jews are murdered at a time in each of these vans by carbon monoxide. More than a thousand people are murdered a day.

July 22, 1942
Construction begins on the Treblinka death camp near Warsaw. It begins its murderous operation in August 1942. More than 870,000 Jews are murdered there. Most are from the Warsaw ghetto.

July 22-September 12, 1942
265,000 Jews from Warsaw are murdered in Treblinka.

August 1, 1942
Gerhardt Riegner, representative of the World Jewish Congress stationed in Geneva, Switzerland, learns from a top German industrialist, Eduard Schulte, that Nazi Germany is planning to murder Jews using poisonous prussic acid gas (Zyklon B).

September 1942

Germany’s allies in France, including Hungary, Romania, and Italy, refuse to cooperate with deportations.

September 30, 1942
In a speech at the Sports Palace in Berlin, Hitler acknowledges plans to murder Jews. Hitler says, “if Jewry should plot another world war in order to exterminate the Aryan peoples of Europe, it should not be the Aryan peoples which would be exterminated, but Jewry…”

November 8, 1942
The Allied armies land in Algeria and Morocco, in North Africa. The invasion is called Operation Torch. The landing guarantees the safety of 117,000 Algerian Jews.

December 17, 1942
The United States, Great Britain, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and the French government in exile make a joint declaration of condemnation against the murder of European Jews. They declare their intention to prosecute Nazi war criminals after the war. This declaration makes headlines around the world. Thousands of letters are sent to the US State Department and the British Foreign Ministry at Whitehall regarding this declaration. Swiss officials continue to state that reports of atrocities are unverified Allied propaganda. These reports are, in fact, verified by the liberal press in Switzerland.

1943
Hundreds of thousands of Jews are murdered in the gas chambers of Treblinka, near Warsaw. 250,000 Jews are murdered in Sobibor’s gas chambers. On November 3, 1943, 42,000 Jews are rounded up and shot in the Lublin district of Poland. The code name for this operation is Erntefest, which means harvest festival. In 1943, it is estimated that 500,000 Jews are murdered in Nazi-occupied Europe.

January 1943
A group of German generals near Stalingrad, Russia, plans to overthrow Hitler. The plot is never implemented.

61,000 Jews are murdered at Auschwitz, Treblinka and Belzec death camps.

The Relief and Rescue Committee of Budapest (Va’ada) begins functioning in Budapest as part of the Jewish Agency.

February 2, 1943
The German Sixth Army surrenders to the Soviet Army at Stalingrad, Russia. This event is considered the major turning point in World War II. Total German casualties in the Sixth Army are 160,000 dead and 107,000 captured.

April 17, 1943
Hitler summons Hungarian Regent Admiral Horthy to Salzburg, Austria, to urge him to allow the Jews of Hungary to be ‘resettled.’ Horthy refuses: “The Jews cannot be exterminated or beaten to death.”

April 19-May 16, 1943
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; Jews in the Warsaw ghetto resist German deportations to murder camps.

November 1, 1943
Moscow Declaration is signed by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, notifying German leaders that they will be held responsible for crimes against humanity for the murder of Jews and others, and will be subject to extradition to the countries where the crimes were committed. The declaration does not mention Jews.

January 1944

President Roosevelt establishes the War Refugee Board (WRB). It is created in response to revelations that the United States government has covered up its knowledge of the murder of Jews in Europe and has actively prevented efforts that might have rescued them. From its inception, the new board will seek international help in an attempt to protect Hungarian Jews. The Hungarian Jewish community is one of the last intact Jewish communities in Europe. Overtures are made to neutral countries and the Vatican.

In 1944, more than 600,000 European Jews will be murdered.

February 14, 1944
Josef Winniger, an officer in the German intelligence, tells Jewish leaders in Budapest of a plan for German occupation of Hungary.

March 15, 1944
Soviet Army begins liberation of Transnistria.

March 19, 1944

The Germans occupy Hungary. Hundreds of desperate Budapest Jews besiege the American legation, where Carl Lutz has his headquarters. Jewish Council of Palestine office seized by pro-Nazi Hungarian officials. Hungarian borders are closed against immigration.

Consul Lutz has 8,000 persons register for immigration to Palestine. Lutz is not immediately aware of deportation plans. After receiving secret information about planned deportations, Lutz decides to appeal for help from other neutral legations, including the Vatican, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal, for an intervention with Hungarian officials. Angelo Rotta becomes spokesman on behalf of the neutral legations.

March 1944
Lutz continues issuing Schutzbriefe (letters of protection). The bearer was protected by the Swiss Embassy while waiting to emigrate to Palestine.

March 19, 1944
Germany occupies Hungary and immediately implements anti-Jewish decrees; places the Hungarian government at the disposal of Adolf Eichmann, architect of the Final Solution; Consul Lutz challenges Eichmann, begins to issue thousands of additional Schutzpässe; Lutz appeals to the neutral legations of Sweden, Spain, Portugal and the Vatican for a united front against the deportations of the Hungarian Jews.

March 20, 1944
Eichmann orders the establishment of Judenrat (Jewish councils) representing Hungarian Jews. This is a preliminary step to ghettoization and deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

March 24, 1944
President Roosevelt sends a stern warning to Hungarian officials against harming the Jews.

April 5, 1944

Jews of Hungary forced to wear the star; Jewish businesses and bank accounts confiscated; Jews placed in ghettoes.

Joel Brand and Rudolph Kasztner, of the Rescue and Relief Committee in Budapest, meet with SS with a plan to ransom Jews from deportation. This plan ultimately fails.

April 7, 1944
Two Jewish prisoners, Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba, escape Auschwitz and reach Slovakia with detailed information about the mass murder of Jews in the camp. Their report, called the Auschwitz Protocols, (supplemented by information brought by two more escapees) reaches the free world in June. These reports will be disseminated worldwide by George Mandel Montello.

May 15-July 9, 1944
More than 438,000 Hungarian Jews from the countryside are deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where most of them are gassed. It takes 148 trains to carry them there.

May 1944
Friedrich Born, representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross, arrives in Budapest and begins to issue thousands of Swiss Red Cross documents to protect Jewish refugees.

Mantello issues thousands of El Salvador visas to Jewish refugees in Budapest through Consul Lutz’s office and Raoul Wallenberg. Mantello soon arrested by Swiss police.

May 2, 1944
First Jews deported from rural Hungary arrive in Auschwitz.

May 15, 1944
Dean of the diplomatic corps in Budapest and Papal Nuncio Angelo Rotta condemns the deportation of Jews.

May 17, 1944
Assembly of Reform Churches in Hungary protest the treatment and deportations of Hungarian Jews.

May 27, 1944
Two additional Jewish prisoners escape from Auschwitz. They are Czeslan Mordowicz and Arnost Rosin. They report on the murder in the death camp to members of the Working Group in Slovakia.

June 6, 1944
D-Day: Operation Overlord is launched. Allied invasion at Normandy, in northwestern France, opens second front. Seven Allied divisions attack in the largest amphibious operation in history. The invasion involves more than 4,000 ships and 1,000 transport planes.

June 7, 1944
The first part of the deportation and murder of Hungarian Jews is complete. 290,000 Jews have been killed in 23 days.

June 24, 1944
Jews in Budapest ordered to wear the yellow Star of David.

June 25, 1944
Pope Pius XII sends telegram to Hungarian Regent Horthy to stop persecution of “a large segment of the Hungarian people because of their race.” The Pope does not specifically mention Jews.

June 25-28, 1944
Negotiations with SS officials result in 21,000 Jews from southern and southeastern Hungary, including the areas of Baja Debrecen and Szeged, being transferred to Strasshoff, Austria, where they survive the war.

June 27, 1944
US government issues warning to Hungarian government and people regarding treatment of Hungarian Jews.

June 29, 1944
US War Department refuses request to bomb Auschwitz. The request is denied on the grounds that it would ostensibly divert resources needed in order to win the war. It is later discovered that US Air Force bombing raids routinely flew over the Auschwitz death camp.

July 4, 1944
The Soviet Army reaches the 1939 Polish-USSR border.

July 7, 1944

Hungarian Regent Miklós Horthy reassumes power, temporarily halts deportation of Jews; there are 200,000 Jews left in Budapest; they are concentrated into two ghettoes; Lutz, Wallenberg and others place Jews under their diplomatic protection in over 100 safe houses; Nazi and Arrow Cross gangs continue to raid and murder in these areas.

July 9, 1944
Swedish volunteer envoy Raoul Wallenberg arrives in Budapest. He is employed by the War Refugee Board (WRB) of the US Treasury Department. His mission is to save as many Jews as possible. Wallenberg works with 500 Jewish Chalutzim (pioneers) who provide him with rapid communication with the entire community of Budapest and the Hungarian underground. This organization alerts the Swedish Legation to the transfer of Jews, deportations, death marches and actions by the Nazis and Arrow Cross. One hundred Chalutzim die in the aiding their fellow Jews.

July 12, 1944
Don Angel Sans Briz, Minister (Ambassador) of Spain stationed in Budapest, issues 500 visas to Budapest Jews providing them protection from deportation and death marches. Also rents buildings that become protected by the Spanish legation.

July 18, 1944
Horthy announces deportation of Jews will be halted in Hungary.

August 14, 1944
Operation Anvil. Allied forces land on the south coast of France. They quickly advance 20 miles on the first day.

August 17, 1944
US forces break out of the German defenses in western Normandy.

August 21, 1944
The diplomatic legations in Budapest of Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, the Vatican, and the Red Cross protest the resumption of deportations of Jews to Auschwitz. The diplomats from these legations were active in saving Jews from deportation to Auschwitz and the death marches. They all issued protective papers, documents, and other forms of identification. They housed, fed, and provided medical care for more than 100,000 Jews in Budapest. Swiss diplomats include Dr. Harald Feller, Maximillian Jaeger, Charles Lutz (and Gertrud Lutz), Peter Zürcher, Ernst Vonrufs, Franz Bischof, Ladislaus Kluger. Swiss Red Cross: Jean de Bavier, Friedrich Born, Dr. Robert Schirmer, Hans Weyermann, Dr. Gyorgy Gergely.

August 23, 1944
Horthy informs Eichmann that he will not cooperate with the deportation of Hungarian Jews.

August 24-25, 1944
Paris is liberated by Allied forces. The French forces, led by de Gaulle, lead the victory procession.

August 25, 1944
Himmler orders the halt of deportations of Jews from Budapest.

September 12, 1944
Soviet Army begins offensive on Budapest, Hungary.

October 6, 1944
Soviet Army enters Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

October 6-7, 1944
Jewish Sonderkommando [those working in the gas chambers and crematoria] managed to smuggle in gunpowder and blow up one of the gas chambers at Birkenau.

October 14, 1944
German armored division enters and occupies Budapest. Hungarian Prime Minister Lakatos is removed. Ferenc Szálazi, head of the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross party, is appointed Prime Minister.

War Refugee Board hears rumors of Jews being concentrated outside of Budapest for deportation. The WRB warns the Arrow Cross, “None who participate in these acts of savagery shall go unpunished…All who share the guilt shall share the punishment.”

October 15, 1944

Hungarian Arrow Cross and Nazis introduce new reign of terror and murder tens of thousands of Budapest Jews; death marches to Austria instituted; Lutz, Wallenberg, Perlasca, Born and Rotta succeed in stopping death marches and protecting their safe houses; by the end of the war, the courageous diplomats are able to save the lives of 124,000 Jews in Budapest.

October 20, 1944
SS troops under Eichmann round up 27,000 Jews in Hungary who were marched to the Austrian border, bound for deportation. Raoul Wallenberg and other neutral diplomats in Budapest follow behind these death marches and manage to rescue thousands of people. Occasionally, an entire death march column is rescued and returned to Budapest. The SS and Arrow Cross are greatly chagrined. Szálasi lodges a protest with the neutral legations for “sabotaging the Hungarian-German war effort.”

October 23, 1944
Adolf Eichmann leaves Budapest along with his SS troops.

October 27, 1944
Hungarian Regent Horthy resigns.

October 31, 1944
Himmler orders the murder of Jews at Auschwitz-Birkenau to cease. The SS begin dismantling the camp.

November 1944
Wallenberg and his diplomatic staff and Jewish aids rescues hundreds of Budapest Jews from infamous German death marches.

Acting under the protective umbrella of the Swedish legation, the Chalutzim youth continue to distribute thousands of forged protective letters to Jews in the death marches, saving them.

Occasionally, an entire death march column is rescued and returned to Budapest. The SS and Arrow Cross are greatly chagrined. Szálasi lodges a protest with the Swiss and Swedish governments for “sabotaging the Hungarian-German war effort.” Nazi minister Veesenmayer asks Berlin for permission to kill the Consul Lutz.

Raids are conducted in the Swiss-and Swedish protected buildings, looking for persons in possession of forged protective letters. Some are forced to go to Óbuda brickyards and on the death marches. Consul Lutz and his wife, Gertrud, frequently intervene and save people.

November 4, 1944
Jewish, Nazi, and other allied leaders meet in Switzerland in a proposed rescue effort of Hungarian Jews.

November 8, 1944
Beginning of death marches of approximately 40,000 Jews from Budapest to Austria.

Himmler orders the end of the death marches in mid-November. Eichmann is summoned to Berlin and is confronted by Himmler, who orders him to stop all murder actions. Himmler orders all killing in the extermination camps to cease.

German Consul Gerhard Feine, Director of the Jewish Department of the German Plenipotentiary of Budapest, secretly informs Swiss Consul Lutz of Veesenmayer’s and Eichmann’s plans to deport and murder the Jews of Budapest.

November 10, 1944
Refusing to recognize the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross regime, the Swiss government recalls head of legation Maximilian Jaeger from Budapest. As Lutz’s supervisor, Jaeger has been active until then in protesting the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz.

November 13, 1944
In Budapest, a ghetto is set up for Jews without protection of neutral nations.

November 23-27, 1944
Swiss diplomats Leopold Breszlauer and Ladislaus Kluger issue 300 protective papers to Hungarian Jews at the Austro-Hungarian border.

November 26-29, 1944
Pest ghetto, with 63,000 Jews, is established. The ghetto contains 293 houses and apartments, with up to 14 persons per room.

December 1944
All foreign representatives are ordered to leave Budapest. Wallenberg stays on with the intention of protecting thousands of Jews in the international ghetto. This area is under the protection of various neutral governments. He stays on as “a matter of conscience.” Arrow Cross bands attack and destroy the Swedish Legation. Swedish Minister Carl Ingvar Danielsson barely escapes death.

Dr. Harald Feller assumes post as Swiss Interim Chargé d’Affaires to Budapest, replacing Maximilian Jaeger. Feller works closely in support of Consul Lutz’s rescue activities. He personally hides 32 Jews in his own home.

Under pressure from the Allies and the Red Cross, SS General Kurt Becher allows the Allies and relief agencies to supply medical and food supplies to inmates in concentration camps.

December 25, 1944
Soviet army encircles Budapest. Consul Lutz and refugees are besieged in the residence of the British Legation in Buda. Lutz is cut off from his office at the American legation in Pest. Lutz appoints Swiss lawyer Peter Zürcher to be his temporary representative. Zürcher persuades SS commanders, on threat of war crimes prosecution, to protect the Jews of the Pest ghetto. As a result, most of the 70,000 Jews of the Pest ghetto survive.

January 1945
Lutz and Wallenberg thwart Nazi plans to blow up the Pest ghetto with 70,000 Jewish inhabitants.

January 5, 1945
Five thousand Jews are taken from Swedish protective houses and moved to the central Pest ghetto.

January 7, 1945
Arrow Cross attacks Swedish protected houses on Jokai Street, Pest ghetto.

January 16, 1945

Soviets liberate and occupy Budapest.

January 17, 1945
Wallenberg was last seen in the company of Soviet soldiers; he said: “I do not know whether I am a guest of the Soviets or their prisoner;” he has not been seen as a free man since.

Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp is closed and evacuated; 66,000 prisoners are taken away on a series of death marches.

January 18, 1945
Soviet Army liberates and occupies Pest.

January 27, 1945
Soviet troops enter Auschwitz concentration camp. Seven thousand remaining prisoners are free.

February 13, 1945
The German troops in Budapest surrender to Marshall Malinovsky of the Soviet Army.

February 1945
Soviets arrest Swiss Minister Dr. Harald Feller and send him to Moscow, where he is imprisoned for more than a year in the Lubianca prison.

March 8,1945
Soviet-controlled Hungarian radio announced that Wallenberg and his driver had been murdered on their way to Debrecen, suggesting that they had been killed by the Arrow Cross Party or the Gestapo. Sweden's foreign minister, Östen Undén, and its ambassador to the Soviet Union, Staffan Söderblom, wrongly assumed that they were dead.

March 17, 1945
New Hungarian provisional government rescinds anti-Jewish laws.

April 25, 1945
US and Soviet troops link up at Torgau, Germany, on the Elbe River.

The United Nations meeting in San Francisco, California, drafts charter of the United Nations.

April 30, 1945
Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin.

May 2, 1945
Berlin falls to the Soviet Army. The German troops defending Berlin surrender.

May 8, 1945
Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day): German General Alfred Jodl surrenders at Eisenhower’s headquarters, the end of the Third Reich.

The German army in northeast Germany surrenders to Field Marshal Montgomery.

55 million people are dead. Nearly half are civilians.

More than six million Jews and five million others have been murdered. Two thirds of the Jewish population of Europe is murdered. 90% of the Jewish Polish population has been murdered. However, in more than half of the countries in Europe, 50% or more of the population of Jews survives. These include the countries of Denmark, Bulgaria, Italy, France, Germany, and Austria.

July 17-August 2, 1945
A conference is convened in Potsdam, Germany, between Stalin, Churchill (Attlee), and President Truman.

October 24, 1945
The United Nations comes into formal existence after its charter is ratified in New York City.

November 22, 1945 – August 31, 1946

Nazi war leaders are put on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, for crimes against humanity. They are tried by the International Military Tribunal (IMT). The IMT rules that obedience to superiors’ orders is insufficient defense for crimes against humanity.

1945-1950

It is estimated that 250,000-350,000 Jews are liberated from the concentration camps. 1.6 million come out of hiding. The first wave of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust emigrate to Palestine (142,000), the United States (72,000), Canada (16,000), Belgium (8,000), and other places (10,000), including Central and South America and Australia. A very few stay in Europe.

1947
Raoul Wallenberg has been incarcerated in Soviet prisons since January 17, 1945. Various accounts disagree as to the fate of Raoul Wallenberg. The Soviets claim that he was murdered while in their custody in 1947. There has been much controversy as to whether this account is true.

1948
Wallenberg is nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1948 by more than 50 qualified nominators and in 1949 by a single nominator At the time, the prize could be awarded posthumously.

April 12, 1951
The Israeli parliament establishes an annual commemorative memorial day to honor victims of the Holocaust.

1953

Establishment of a Holocaust Museum in Israel. It is called Yad Vashem [Hebrew for place and name], the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.

The state of Israel passes a law to honor those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust; a commission was established to recognize Righteous Among the Nations.

November 6, 1957
A memorial to “Christian Heroes who helped their Jewish Brethren escape the Nazi terror” is dedicated in New York City by the Anti-Defamation League and B’nai B’rith.

April 1960
Former SS officer responsible for the deportation of Jews to death camps, Adolf Eichmann, is captured by Israeli agents in Buenos Aires, Argentine.

May 1960
Adolf Eichmann trial opens in Jerusalem, Israel.

December 15, 1961

Adolf Eichmann is convicted by an Israeli court and sentenced to death.

1962
Israel’s Holocaust museum inaugurates the Avenue and Forest of the Righteous. Carob trees are planted in honor of individuals who saved Jews during the Shoah.

1963

Israel honors first of the Righteous Among the Nations. Every person honored for saving Jews receives a tree planted in his or her name and is awarded a certificate and medal.

1966

Wallenberg awarded Righteous Among the Nations medal by Yad Vashem.

April 1974
Israel’s Holocaust museum holds a major conference entitled Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust. The conference papers are published in 1977.

February 13, 1975
Wallenberg’s associate in the rescue of Jews in Budapest Carl Lutz dies in Berne at age 80.

1981
US Congress gives Raoul Wallenberg honorary citizenship.

1984
Raoul Wallenberg: Buried Alive
documentary is released.

1985
Guy von Dardel as a private person, sues URSS.

Raoul Wallenberg is made honorary citizen of Canada, and the government declares January 17, the day he disappeared, as "Raoul Wallenberg Day" in Canada.

The portion of 15th Street, SW in Washington, D.C. on which the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is located, was renamed Raoul Wallenberg Place by Act of Congress.

The made-for-television movie Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (1985), starring Richard Chamberlain, is released.

Raoul Wallenberg documentary Between The Lines is released.

1986
Raoul Wallenberg is made honorary citizen of Israel. Other tributes to Wallenberg in Israel include at least five streets named after him. On Raoul Wallenberg Street in Tel Aviv, a statue identical to one in Budapest was installed in 2002 made by the sculptor Imre Varga.

1989
Soviet Union returns to the Wallenberg family his diplomatic passport, an ID, a diary; a golden cigarette case and money in old dollars and Hungarian pengos).

1990
The Soviet Union collapses.

East and West Germany are reunited.

Wallenberg Forest in Riverdale, Bronx, is established and named Wallenberg Forest in 1996.

Joint Soviet-International Commission to Establish the Fate and Whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg that is formed and headed by Dr. Guy von Dardel, arrived to study the registration cards of the prisoner in the Vladimir prison. It confirms the presence of witnesses who had given their testimony about the presence of Raoul Wallenberg at the prison. After consultation of the register cards there were many unanswered questions about a prisoner nr 7.

The University of Michigan awards the Wallenberg Medal annually to outstanding humanitarians who embody the humanitarian values and commitment of its distinguished alumnus. The first Wallenberg Medal was presented to Elie Wiesel.

Swedish production Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg, featuring Stellan Skarsgård is released.

1992

Samuel and Pearl Oliner publish The Altruistic Personality. This book outlines the psychological and social characteristics of Holocaust rescuers.

1993
The Vatican recognizes the State of Israel. It exchanges ambassadors with Israel.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center opens its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, California. A major component of this museum is on the Holocaust.

Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List is released. This popular motion picture tells the story of a German rescuer during the Holocaust. This film increases public awareness of rescue during the Holocaust.

June 1994
Congress adopts a resolution "to accept a bust of Raoul Wallenberg and to place the bust in an appropriate location in the Capitol" (H. Con. Res. 222). The bust was donated by Mrs. Lillian Hoffman of Denver, Colorado, the organizer of the Colorado Committee of Concern for Soviet Jewry and chairperson of the Raoul Wallenberg National Commission. On November 2, 1995, it was dedicated at a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.

1996

Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats Project premieres exhibit depicting diplomatic rescuers of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.

1997

The United States Postal Service issues a stamp in honor of Wallenberg. Representative Tom Lantos, one of those saved by Wallenberg's actions, said: "It is most appropriate that we honor [him] with a U.S. stamp. In this age devoid of heroes, Wallenberg is the archetype of a hero – one who risked his life day in and day out, to save the lives of tens of thousands of people he did not know whose religion he did not share.

Angelo Rotta, the Vatican Nuncio in Budapest, is awarded Righteous Among the Nations medal.

Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens at the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and at the Holocaust Museum Houston.

Book on Ambassador Per Anger, A Quiet Courage: Per Anger, Wallenberg's Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews, by Elizabeth R. Skoglund, is published.

February 1997
Monument for Raoul Wallenberg is dedicated in London, England, by Scottish sculptor Philip Jackson is located at Great Cumberland Place in London's Marble Arch district, outside the Western Marble Arch Synagogue. It was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997, in the presence of the President of Israel, Ezer Weizman, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and survivors of the Holocaust. A separate monument stands near the Welsh National War Memorial in Cathays Park, Cardiff. A bronze briefcase monument by Gustav Kraitz with the initials RW is located in the garden of the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre near Laxton in Nottinghamshire.

March 1997
93 million dollars is allocated for the preservation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau site.

1998

A major monument honoring Raoul Wallenberg is dedicated in New York City, in front of the United Nations world headquarters. The Swedish consulate commissions the piece. It is created by Swedish sculptor Gustav Kraitz and painter Ulla Kraitz (1998). The sculpture, Hope, is a replica of Wallenberg’s briefcase, a sphere, five pillars of black granite, and paving stones (setts) which were formerly on the streets of the Budapest ghetto.

A monument in honor of Wallenberg at a park in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is a replica of the London monument by Philip Jackson.

Exhibit honoring Raoul Wallenberg and other diplomats opens in Bern, Switzerland. In attendance is the President of Switzerland.

Alexander Kasser, Swedish Representative for the Red Cross in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45, receives the Righteous Among the Nations award. Kasser passes away shortly thereafter. Kasser’s wife Elizabeth served as interpreter for Raoul Wallenberg.

Swiss diplomat in Budapest Peter Zürcher is designated Righteous Among the Nations.

April 1998
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, with tour of diplomats’ families. Israel issues commemorative stamp in honor of Righteous Diplomats.

October 1998
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit is translated into German and opens at Berlin City Hall.

1999
The European version of the Visas for Life exhibit begins tour of cities throughout Switzerland and Europe.

May 31, 1999
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens in Budapest, Hungary, at the National Library. Attended by the President of Hungary and the diplomatic corps. Wallenberg is honored in the exhibit.

2000
At the request Guy Von Dardel, the Russian Government rehabilitate Raoul Wallenberg.

January 2000
Raoul Wallenberg is honored at the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust. Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens at the International Forum. This program is attended by 40 heads of state and the exhibit is visited by the King and Queen of Sweden.

Chaim Roet attends the exhibition and is inspired to create a committee to honor Jewish rescuers, called the Jews Rescuing Jews Committee.

The Visas for Life now tells the story of more than 50 diplomats.

November 2000
Documentary film on diplomatic rescue, Diplomats for the Damned, premieres at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Theater. Film is distributed along with student guide to schools and airs on the History Channel.

April 2000
Raoul Wallenberg is honored at a Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats exhibition at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Nana Annan, niece of Raoul Wallenberg and wife of Kofi Annan, is a speaker.

May 2000
Visas for Life exhibit opens at the national convention of the American Jewish Committee. Dinner attended by U.S. Secretary of State, the Prime Minister of Sweden and the President of Germany.

July 2000
Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats exhibit opens at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Exhibit is sponsored by the Secretary General and the Chief of Protocol, Mehmet Ülkümen.

August 2000
Visas for Life exhibit opens at the National Museum in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In attendance is the President of Slovenia.

September 2000
Swedish Ambassador Per Anger becomes honorary citizen of the state of Israel.

November 2000

Documentary film on diplomatic rescue, Diplomats for the Damned, premieres at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Theater. Film is distributed along with student guide to schools and airs on the History Channel.

January 2001
Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson formally apologizes to Raoul Wallenberg’s family for the country’s handling of his case. In spite of Prime Minister’s apology, the family has not seen any change of attitude by the Swedish Foreign Office regarding the Raoul Wallenberg case. The same year Guy von Dardel made a report summarizing the research that has been done.

January 12, 2001

The Eliasson Report is released. It is a 700-page report released under the auspices of the Swedish Foreign Ministry. It is the result of a ten-year investigation into the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg. It outlines the failure of the Swedish government to intervene on behalf of Raoul Wallenberg. It also exposes the complicity of the Swedish government in its failure to recover Raoul Wallenberg from Soviet imprisonment. The report acknowledges significant mistakes were made by Sweden.

August 2001
Monument dedicated to Raoul Wallenberg is unveiled in Stockholm, Sweden. It is unveiled by King Carl XVI Gustaf, at a ceremony attended by then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and his wife Nane Maria Annan, Wallenberg's niece. At the unveiling, King Carl XVI Gustaf says Wallenberg is "a great example to those of us who want to live as fellow humans". Kofi Annan praises him as "an inspiration for all of us to act when we can and to have the courage to help those who are suffering and in need of help".

October 2001
Raoul Wallenberg is honored at a Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats exhibition at the Jewish Holocaust museum in Paris at the Memorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu at the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine in Paris, France. Exhibit opening ceremony takes place at the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) of Paris. Louise von Dardel, daughter of Guy von Dardel (Raoul’s brother), represents Raoul Wallenberg’s family.

2001
Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson apologizes to Raoul Wallenberg’s brother and sister by telephone.

2002
Ambassador Per Anger, Raoul Wallenberg's colleague in Budapest, Hungary, 1944-45, passes away.

The Visas for Life Project sponsors commemorative medals honoring Raoul Wallenberg and Carl Lutz. These medals are issued by the Israeli State Coins and Medals.

April 2002
Visas for Life exhibit opens at the London Jewish Cultural Centre. Many European ambassadors are in attendance. Several new European diplomatic rescuers are discovered.

August 4, 2002
Raoul Wallenberg’s 90th birthday is celebrated. Renewed interest in his rescue story is generated.

October 2002

Visas for Life exhibit shown at Boston University, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee.

Visas for Life exhibit shown at Rider College, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, New Jersey.

US Congressman Tom Lantos from California and his wife, Annette, become honorary Chairmen of the Visas for Life Project. They were rescued by Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944-45.

November 2002
Visas for Life exhibit opens at St. Mary's College in San Antonio, Texas.

Visas for Life exhibit opens at the Cape Town Holocaust Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, and then tours to Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa.

2003

Raoul Wallenberg is made an honorary citizen of Budapest, Hungary.

Searching for Wallenberg documentary is released.

September 7, 2003
Visas for Life exhibit opens at the City Hall in Vienna, Austria.

October 2003
Visas for Life exhibit shows in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC, sponsored by Congressman Tom Lantos and Senator Charles Schumer.

Visas for Life presents commemorative medals and books to US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a special ceremony at the State Department. Letter requesting opening of archives and cooperation of countries to determine the fate of Raoul Wallenberg. Louise von Dardel presents a letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell asking for the United States to provide information on Raoul Wallenberg’s disappearance and the failure of the US government to take action on his behalf. The US State Department acknowledges that, in essence, it cannot do anything.

Members of the Visas for Life families attend tribute to Holocaust survivors in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Present diplomatic commemorative medals to the Director of the museum.

Three new diplomats are discovered during the week-long festivities. They are honored in the exhibition and program.

Petition is written and circulated to determine the ultimate fate of Raoul Wallenberg.

October 2003
Louise von Dardel presents a letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell asking for the United States to provide information on Raoul Wallenberg’s disappearance and the failure of the US government to take action on his behalf. The US State Department acknowledges that, in essence, it cannot do anything.

December 11, 2003
Raoul Wallenberg is honored at a Visas for Life exhibition in Miami, Florida, at the at the Arts and Cultural Center sponsored by the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center in North Miami, Florida. Guests of honor were the Mayor of Hollywood, Florida, and former US Attorney General Janet Reno.

January 2004
Exhibit entitled Raoul Wallenberg – One Man Can Make a Difference opens in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Jewish Museum. This exhibit is produced by the Jewish Museum in Stockholm.

February 2004

Raoul Wallenberg is honored at the annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee in Jerusalem, Israel. Visas for Life exhibit opens at Binyaneh Ha’oomah, Jerusalem. Wallenberg medals are presented to VIPs.

The Visas for Life Project gives the One Person Can Make a Difference award to Mr. Chaim Roet and the Jews Rescuing Jews Committee. Presentation is made at Yad Vashem. Also honored is Mr. Max Grunberg, of the Raoul Wallenberg Honorary Citizenship Committee, who has also worked tirelessly to bring Raoul Wallenberg home.

July 26, 2004
Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats exhibition opens at the Hungarian Foreign Ministry building in Budapest. This is for a gathering of Hungarian diplomats in honor of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic rescue in Budapest.

September 20-24, 2004
Louise von Dardel, representing the Wallenberg family, appeals to members of the US Congress to intervene with various governments to provide access to primary government documents that would reveal the fate of Raoul Wallenberg in the Soviet gulags.

September 27, 2004
Raoul Wallenberg is honored in Budapest, Hungary, in the presence of the Swedish State Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Hans Dahlgren. An international conference of scholars is convened to discuss Raoul Wallenberg and his rescue mission.

December 2004
Yad Vashem agrees to present Father Gennaro Verolino, Secretary to Angelo Rotta, with letters of commendation for saving Jews during in Budapest.

The Israeli Knesset agrees to continue investigation regarding the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg in the former Soviet Union. The Knesset also will establish an educational curriculum to honor the rescue activities of Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest.

January 17, 2005
Raoul Wallenberg is commemorated all over the world on the 60th anniversary of his disappearance.

September 19, 2005
Simon Wiesenthal dies at his home in Vienna at the age of 96. He is buried in Israel.

February 3, 2007
Historical seminar on Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is conducted in Budapest sponsored by the Swedish Foreign Ministry. Raoul Wallenberg’s niece, Louise von Dardel, attends.

March 24, 2007
Dedication of Raoul Wallenberg Street in Paris, France.

May 25, 2007
A Memorial to Raoul Wallenberg is dedicated near the Haga Church (Hagakyrkan) in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is a 2.45-meter-high monument, made of graphic concrete and of bronze. It is created by Charlotte Gyllenhammar of Stockholm, Sweden. It was unveiled by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

March 30, 2008
The Visas for Life exhibit is shown at the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration. It features, among others, the role of Raoul Wallenberg and the many other diplomats who rescued Jews in Budapest, Hungary.

2009
After being displayed in the Capitol's first-floor small House rotunda for 14 years, the Raoul Wallenberg bust was placed in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center.

A Hero's Many Faces: Raoul Wallenberg in Contemporary Monuments by T. Shult is published.

"The Wallenberg Curse: The Search for the Missing Holocaust Hero Began in 1945. The Unending Quest Tore His Family Apart" is published by the Wall Street Journal.

August 28, 2009
Guy Fredrik von Dardel, brother of Raoul Wallenberg dies at his home in Geneva after an illness at the age of 90. He was an honorary chairman of The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States. It was due to his efforts that the first International Commission on the Fate and Whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg was established and that this group did groundbreaking work in Russian prison archives. He left 85 archive boxes after a lifetime research on his brother.

November 2009
In a reply to several questions from the Independent researchers regarding Russian prison interrogation registers from 1947, FSB archivists states that “with great likelihood” Raoul Wallenberg became “Prisoner No. 7” in Moscow’s Lubyanka prison some time that year.

2010
Raoul Wallenberg Unit of B'nai B'rith in Melbourne, Australia, with Max Stern & Co, a leading stamp dealer in Melbourne, and Australia Post, releases a limited-edition Raoul Wallenberg Stamp Sheet and Envelope Set to mark the Unit's 25th anniversary in 2010. The Stamp Sheet shows a photo of Raoul Wallenberg together with a brief outline of his life,

July 26, 2012
Wallenberg was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress "in recognition of his achievements and heroic actions during the Holocaust".

August 4, 2012
Raoul Wallenberg’s 100th birthday is commemorated worldwide.

July 2012
Hungary pays tribute to Raoul Wallenberg in a ceremony at Budapest's Holocaust museum, marking 100 years since his birth.

2013
A memorial to Raoul Wallenberg is dedicated in the capital city of Lima in Peru. It is a public park and is located in the San Miguel District.

Guy von Dardel receives posthumously the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Human Rights Award endowed by Alexandra Hildebrandt. The award is given annually in recognition of extraordinary, non-violent commitment to human rights.

January 17, 2013
Canada releases a postage stamp in honor of Wallenberg. It is the 68th anniversary of Wallenberg's arrest by Soviet troops.

April 2013
Wallenberg was named Australia's first honorary citizen in during his centenary year. Frank Vajda was saved by Wallenberg in 1944 from the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party and campaigned for decades for him to be recognized with the award. A ceremony at Government House, Canberra, to mark the occasion was held on May 6, 2013, and was attended by Governor-General Quentin Bryce, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

2014
The Hero of Budapest: The Triumph and Tragedy of Raoul Wallenberg, by Bengt Jangfelt is published.

July 20, 2014

In a special ceremony in the rotunda of the U.S, Capitol, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is awarded a Congressional Gold Medal given to him by the United States Congress in recognition of his heroic activities in aiding thousands of Jews in Budapest, Hungary. Wallenberg’s sister is in attendance and receives the medal for the family.

October 5, 2015
Raoul Wallenberg postage stamp and associated philatelic items are released by Australia Post, one of three to by honored by Australia; the other two are Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.

2016
Raoul Wallenberg: The Heroic Life and Mysterious Disappearance of the Man Who Saved Thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust by Ingrid Carlberg is published (English edition).

2017

The Wallenberg family declares that Raoul Wallenberg no longer alive. They still intend to determine his fate.

27,680 individuals are recognized by Yad Vashem and the State of Israel for rescuing Jews in the Holocaust.

2019
Stalin's Double-Edged Game: Soviet Bureaucracy and the Raoul Wallenberg Case, by John Matz is published.

April 9, 2019
Nina Viveka Maria Lagergren (née von Dardel; a Swedish businesswoman and the half-sister of Raoul Wallenberg, and the leading force to find out what happened to him after his disappearance. Dies. She was the founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Academy. She was the mother-in-law of Kofi Annan.

2021

Yad Vashem officially recognizes 50 international diplomats who were involved in the aid and rescue of Jews in the Shoah.

As of January 2021, Yad Vashem has recognized 27,921 individuals as Righteous Among the Nations. (https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/statistics.html)
 


Updated September 26, 2021