סיפור מרתק. במיוחד עבורי שעל השנה הראשונה לחיי אפילו מהורי לא יכולתי לשמוע כי הם לא היו אתי והם גם לא היו בבודפשט. הסיפור מרתק אבל הכתיבה גרועה, סנסציונית, נצלנית, רשלנית, אין בה שום מחקר מקורי כי אם איסוף ממאות ספרים אחרים, והטקסט מלא שגיאות. ( )

This is not a book that will be on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's favorites list, nor any of the other Holocaust deniers, because it goes into great detail about the rounding up of Jews in Europe toward the end of WW II.

There are many books about Nazi war crimes and the Holocaust, but this one centers to a large part on the heroic efforts of Sweden's Raoul Wallenberg. A wealthy Swede, he had himself appointed as a diplomat to Hungary. Working in Budapest, he became the "angel of mercy", saving, according the Guiness Book of Records, more Jews from the death camps than any other individual. Wallenberg defied nazi officials, giving diplomatic protection to thousands of Jews, risking his life in the process. He ultimatly was arrested by the invading Soviets and apparentlhy died in obscurity in a soviet prison. Wallenberg was subsequently honored by our Country by being named an Honorary Citizen of the United States, an honor he shared only with Winston Churchill. For all his heroism, Wallenberg's story is not well known, making this book a valuable addition to the stories of WWII. ( )

I have had this book for a long time. I thought it was a novel. I was surprised. It is history and what a read! I have heard of Raoul Wallenberg but more as an afterthought. He was no afterthought. He was brave and willing to risk his life to save Hungarian Jews towards the end of WWII. THE ENVOY tells the story of what he and other diplomats from neutral countries did to help save as many people as they could. This book gives all the sides from the Nazi side to the Jewish side to the Hungarian Arrow Cross side to the Soviet side.

I was sickened by Eichmann and his words and actions. I felt sorrow for those who could not be saved. I also felt hope for those who were saved and survived the war. I felt anger for the Wallenberg family and their not being able to get the truth from the Soviets and for the lack of compassion shown by the Swedish diplomatic corps. Raoul was a good man who deserves his story told and his family deserves to know what really happened to him. ( )

The Envoy: The Epic Res­cue of the Last Jews of Europe in the Des­per­ate Clos­ing Months of World War II by Alex Ker­shaw is a non-fiction book telling the story of Swedish diplo­mat of Raoul Wal­len­berg. Mr. Wal­len­berg is cred­ited with sav­ing thou­sands of Hun­gar­ian Jews by grant­ing them visas and exit­ing the Reich.

The Envoy: The Epic Res­cue of the Last Jews of Europe in the Des­per­ate Clos­ing Months of World War II by Alex Ker­shaw takes place around 1944, when the Ger­mans brought in Adolf Eich­mann to begin orches­trat­ing the mur­der of Hun­gar­ian Jews. The Jews in Hun­gry lived in rel­a­tive safety until then, but the writ­ing was on the wall.

Mr. Wal­len­berg could not stand idly by watch­ing one of the great­est crimes of the 20th Cen­tury tak­ing place, and took it upon him­self to pro­vide Jews with Schutz­passes, doc­u­ments which show that the bearer is a Swedish cit­i­zen and hence should not be trans­ferred to a con­cen­tra­tion camp. Try­ing to go against the Ger­man Reich was not a safe endeavor at the time, even for a diplomat.

The book fol­lows Raoul Wal­len­berg and Eich­mann after World War II ended. The story of the cap­ture of Eich­mann is well doc­u­mented in many other sources and hence only told briefly in the book. Mr. Wal­len­berg was jailed by the Rus­sians, who thought he was a Ger­man spy since he pos­sessed the con­tact infor­ma­tion for Eich­mann. Accord­ing to the Rus­sians he died in 1947 of a heart attack, a state­ment Mr. Wallenberg’s fam­ily challenges.

The book also pro­files sev­eral per­sons Mr. Wal­len­berg saved, the efforts to kill the Jews and the coura­geous efforts it took to save them.

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The back cover proclaims that the hero of this book, and of real life events, saved more people that Schindler. By the time you have finished the book you realise that this is an understatement. Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who, under his own steam, took to Hungary near the end of WWII to do something to stop or slow the massacring of the Jewish people. Unable to bear witness any longer to such death under the eyes of an apathetic international community, he negotiated funds from his government and an 'anything goes' game plan to head to Budapest to beg, steal, borrow or bribe his way into getting Jews released.

His plan was as follows: create a pass with coats of arms, stamps and signatures galore, to which the gestapo would bow down to in their need to obey officialdom. The pass gave the holder of it residency and therefore protection by Sweden, who were neutral in the war. Distribute these passes to any Jewish person who had any tie to Sweden whatsoever (and later, just any Jewish person). These new Swedish citizens did not fall under Germany's criteria for Jews who could be deported, and so were safe. Wallenberg was to open up 'safe houses' where they lived, and assist in food and transportation out of Hungary and away from the Reich's rule. Wallenberg cultivated official relations with senior gestapo leaders, in his meetings he advocated for the protection of 'his people' (the new Swedes), and in doing so risked death and worse many times.

He would show up where people were being rounded up, and call out some common Jewish names as if he had specific people in mind. Those who came forward were declared Swedish citizens in a hastily prepared document and in some cases were pulled from the trains just in time. He would have his colleagues secret food to the doomed he was unable to help, and in general showed compassion, resourcefulness and a willingness to break laws and rules in a time when the allies were hamstrung by following them.

The last section of the book deals with Wallenberg's fate. He was not received well by the Soviet liberators and the direct dealings he had with the Germans were to come back to haunt him. ****spoilers****
Wallenberg was taken prisoner accused of being a German collaborator. He was never officially charged and his fate, beyond that of being a Russian prisoner of war, remains unknown. The Soviets simply could not see why someone would take that much risk for personal gain that was limited to the satisfaction of helping those in dire need. The Swedish government was paralysed by its neutrality and refused to fight for his release. What a terrible destiny for such a hero. Another sad book in which the actions of a kind and brave man go unrewarded. ( )