Rudolph Philipp papers on Raoul Wallenberg

1933-1947

Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947), a Swedish diplomat serving in Budapest during World War II, was responsible for saving the lives of thousands of Jewish citizens during his tenure as Secretary to the Swedish Legation in Hungary, during the second half of 1944. Wallenberg defended Jewish Hungarians by issuing them Swedish "protective passports" indicating the bearers were under Swedish protection until such time as they could be returned to their purported native country of Sweden. While the passports were entirely extralegal, they were sufficient to deter German authorities from deporting these citizens and sending them to concentration camps.

Following the Soviet arrival in Hungary of January 1945, Wallenberg was taken into custody and ultimately transferred to Moscow, where he was held in Lefortovo Prison until 1947. Following that time, the mystery as to his fate begins, as reports differ as to whether he was sent to a Siberian labor camp, died in prison of natural causes, or was shot by members of the MGB (Ministry of State Security). The proposed reasons for Wallenberg's arrest also vary, but most agree on the Soviets' suspicion of espionage, either on part of the Germans--charges that he issued documents to fascist sympathizers--or on the part of the Americans--his service on the American War Refugee Board making him suspect.

Beginning in 1946, Wallenberg's half-brother Guy von Dardel began lobbying the American and Swedish governments for assistance in locating, and if possible, negotiating the release of his brother. While these efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, his persistence--including a legal case filed against the Soviet government in 1984--was rewarded decades later by a Russian-Swedish joint investigation into the events of 1945-1947. This committees' findings were illuminating, but ultimately inconclusive.

Rudolph Philipp's contribution to this history is in the form of his research and publications focused on Raoul Wallenberg. In 1946, Philipp published a biography of Wallenberg entitled Raoul Wallenberg: Diplomat, Kampe, Samarit, which was the first book to focus on his subject's heroic activities and mysterious disappearance. Following the publication of this book, Philipp continued to write articles on Wallenberg for publication in various international sources, translated his book into German and arranged to do the same into English, and assisted Guy von Dardel in his attempts to draw attention to Wallenberg's cause. His correspondence with Edith Wynner in connection with this collection represented his attempts to find an American publisher for his story.