Left to the Mercy of a Rude Stream by Stanley A. Goldman

Left to the Mercy of a Rude Stream by Stanley A. Goldman

Author:Stanley A. Goldman [Goldman, Stanley A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO006000 Biography & Autobiography / Historical, HIS043000 History / Holocaust
Publisher: Potomac Books


Masur’s Role in the Sending of Wallenberg

On April 18, 1944, a year and a day before his own treacherous journey to meet Himmler, Masur sent a letter to Stockholm’s chief rabbi, Marcus Ehrenpreis, suggesting that it was time to find a non-Jew who is “clever, with a good reputation, [and] willing to travel to Romania/Hungary to lead a rescue mission.”47 He went on to propose that the man would need to be provided with a Swedish diplomatic passport and be assigned by the Foreign Ministry to the legation in Budapest. Masur added that even large sums of money could be provided, as they would come from American Jewish sources, as needed. He believed, given such a position, the right man could save hundreds of lives.48 Other than his underestimation of how many lives the actual emissary would in fact save, his sage-like suggestion proved prescient.

Rabbi Ehrenpreis immediately recognized the wisdom in Masur’s plan and asked the advice of the well-connected Koloman Lauer, a Calvinist Hungarian businessman of Jewish parentage who had escaped to Stockholm but whose relatives were still living precariously in Budapest. Lauer suggested that the youthful and energetic Wallenberg fit the description.49 A Lutheran, Raoul Wallenberg was the great-great-grandson of Jews who had settled in Sweden. Though only one-sixteenth Jewish, he was known to refer to himself as being a half Jew.50 At the time of the war, “his family controlled the Eskilda Bank, a financial institution that continued to deal with both the Allies and the Axis.”51

In April 1944, Iver C. Olson was designated as the American War Refugee Board’s attaché in Sweden with responsibility for refugee issues. As the Jewish situation rapidly deteriorated in Hungary, the Americans had also been hoping that the Swedish Foreign Ministry might strengthen its diplomatic representation in Budapest. As luck would have it, soon after hearing from Rabbi Ehrenpreis, Koloman Lauer encountered Olson and recommended that the United States urge the Swedish Foreign Ministry to dispatch the energetic and willing Wallenberg on the diplomatic assignment Masur had suggested.52



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