Raoul Wallenberg Biography

Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish architect, diplomat, and businessman. He gained much attention after rescuing several Hungarian Jews during Second World War. Following that, he disappeared and was eventually reported to have been killed in July 1947 while in a prison in Moscow. The son of a naval officer, Wallenberg received several humanitarian honors posthumously. In 1981, he was made an honorary citizen of USA, becoming the second individual to obtain this honor. Born in a wealthy family, he was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother following his father’s death when he was just a few months old. After completing a compulsory eight-month service in military, Wallenberg moved to Paris to pursue further education. In 1931, he enrolled in the University of Michigan and eventually graduated with a degree in architecture in 1935. A year later, he became the foreign representative for the Central European Trading Company. Although Wallenberg reportedly died in 1947, several testimonies of former prisoners claimed that he had been seen alive in later years.