Voting Station

Raoul Wallenberg

Please vote to see the next celebrity.

Hero

The Resume

    (August 4, 1912-circa July 16, 1947)
    Born in Lidingo, Sweden
    Sent by Sweden to Hungary under diplomatic cover to help rescue the country's Jewish population
    Received financial backing from the US through the War Refugee Board
    Disappeared with his driver on his way to a meeting with the Soviet army commander (January 17, 1945)

Why he might be annoying:

    When he was unable to get work as an architect, his uncle got him a job in the family banking business.
    He was sent on his mission despite not speaking Hungarian.
    Claims that he directly confronted Adolf Eichmann appear to be a myth.
    Some complain that the focus on Wallenberg obscures the efforts of other people -- as many as 350 -- to rescue Hungarian Jews.
    The Soviets so thoroughly obscured his fate that during the more open glasnost era even they had trouble determining the truth.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He issued thousands of Swedish visas to Hungarian Jews and organized a network of 34 safe houses protected by the Swedish embassy.
    Witnesses reported several occasions where he negotiated the release of Jews from trains about to depart for the concentration camps.
    A conservative estimate of the number of people he saved is 15,000.
    His sister Nina said, 'He could not only speak perfect German, he could scream it.'
    He slept in a different location each night to avoid being arrested or killed by the Nazis or Hungarian fascists.
    He most likely was murdered in 1947 on Stalin's orders.
    He was named an honorary citizen of the US (1981), Canada (1985), Israel (1986) and Budapest (2003).
    The portion of 15th Street in Washington, DC, where the Holocaust Memorial Museum sits was renamed Raoul Wallenberg place.
    Congressman Tom Lantos, one of the Jews he saved, said, '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.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 17 Votes: 5.88% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 70.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 6 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 25 Votes: 32.00% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 151 Votes: 50.33% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 193 Votes: 44.04% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 6592 Votes: 23.68% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 11 Votes: 45.45% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 100 Votes: 45.00% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 157 Votes: 64.97% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 24 Votes: 29.17% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 75 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 172 Votes: 44.19% Annoying