With the support of the World Jewish Congress and the American War Refugee Board, the Swedish Foreign Ministry sent Wallenberg to Budapest in July of 1944 to help protect the 200,000 Jews left in the capital. Wallenberg saved Jews by issuing thousands of protective documents, by securing the release of Jews from deportation trains, death march convoys, labor service brigades, and by establishing the International Ghetto, a network of 31 protected houses in the capital. Wallenberg was detained by Soviet agents on January 17, 1945 and was never heard from again.

(Photo credit: Courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives)

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