The Envoy: The Epic Rescue of the Last Jews of Europe in the Desperate Closing Months of World War II by Kershaw Alex

Author:Kershaw, Alex [Kershaw, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780306819407
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2010-10-26T04:00:00+00:00

ANARCHY AND CHAOS ruled the streets. But Wallenberg’s presence still counted.29 Each evening, even though he was effectively on the run, Wallenberg would visit his protected houses and check on those he had saved. Thirteen-year-old Vera Herman was still hiding in the cellar of one of the protected houses with her parents, Emil and Margit. Several times, she saw Wallenberg arrive late at night and spend a few minutes playing with the young children in the cellar. “I think it was a relief from all the stresses and the tensions,” she recalled. “He loved children. His first goal was to save children.”

Vera could feel little except a constant aching hunger and a lingering fear. “There is a numbness that takes over. We went on day after day until we became a well-oiled machine, but numb. Then to see Wallenberg—it gave me an absolutely indescribable feeling of hope and of wonder. It was remarkable to see someone who thought your life was worth saving.”30

Wallenberg also found time each night to check in on his workers in Section C. The section had gone underground, moving from one building to the next, often a few hours ahead of Arrow Cross thugs intent on stopping the manufacture of Swedish protective passes. Because his staff might be seized at any moment, Wallenberg had insisted that they all wear sturdy boots, which were donated by a shoemaker, Miksa Boschan, who was later murdered by the Arrow Cross. “I witnessed the death marches to Hegyeshalom,” Wallenberg explained to his staff. “I saw how, after a few kilometers of marching, the shoes of men and women, which were not suitable for long marches, fell apart and thus the fate of the deportees was sealed. We never know whether there will be a repetition of these marches; everybody should be prepared for it.”31

One night, recalled twenty-four-year-old Agnes Adachi, who worked for Section C, she and her fellow Jews were based in a grand villa in Buda when Wallenberg showed up. To Adachi’s shock, Wallenberg announced that they were next to a building occupied by the SS.

“No talking,” he said, “and, please, write lightly.”

Adachi and the others would create the passes and then divide them among themselves and deliver them to Jews in hiding throughout the city. These deliveries were very risky: They would be shot on the spot if caught. But as Adachi recalled, “It was impossible for us to be afraid with Wallenberg as our leader because we thought that if he could take such risks, then so could we. His calm relaxed us, and I can remember thinking, ‘Boy! It would be easy to fall in love with a man like this.’”32

That night, Adachi gathered the passes, five hundred of them, and wished everyone in the room a good evening. Then she set out for Pest, on the other side of the Danube. All she could hear, she later recalled, was the sound of her “footsteps in the crisp snow.” She managed to deliver the passes, which included some for several of her friends.

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