Official protection document (Bescheinigung) issued by the Swedish Embassy in Budapest; signed by Raoul Wallenberg. Budapest, August 15, 1944. German and Hungarian.

Official document, certifying that Mrs. Eva Terner is the wife of Wilhelm (Vilmos) Terner – an employee of Raoul Wallenberg at the Swedish Embassy in Budapest. Printed in Hungarian and German, with official embassy stamps.

In the margin of the German text appears the full handwritten signature of Righteous Among the Nations Raoul Wallenberg (an additional signature, in a single line without a clear form, appears next to the signature).

The name Wilhelm Terner (Wilhelm-Vilmos Terner) is mentioned in several official documents from the period of Wallenberg's activity to save Hungarian Jews:

• A recorded embassy protocol from January 1, 1945, mentioning Terner as one of the managers of the protected house on Revaigatan Street (the protocol notes that Terner refused to disclose the location of two Jews to members of the Arrow Cross Party after they threatened to execute him).

• An official request by the Swedish Embassy to release detained officials and holders of protective passports, in which Terner is mentioned as one of the detainees (October 21, 1944).

The activity of the Swedish Embassy in Budapest to save Hungarian Jews began shortly after the German occupation of the country in 1944. The Swedish ambassador, Danielsson, issued temporary Swedish passports to Hungarian Jews who had family or business ties with Swedish citizens. In July 1944, when many Hungarian Jews had already been deported to Auschwitz, Raoul Wallenberg was sent by the Swedish Foreign Ministry to Budapest to assist in saving the Jews who remained in the city. The Hungarian and German authorities generally respected the authority of the Swedish Embassy, and Wallenberg managed to issue thousands of "protective passports" which protected Jews from deportation eastward, despite these documents not having legal validity.

Wallenberg did not limit himself to issuing passports and worked in additional ways to save Hungarian Jews. Among other activities, he established safe houses for Jews and pressured senior Nazi officials to stop the deportations of Jews to Auschwitz. According to testimonies, he would even arrive at the station where Jews were gathered for deportation to Auschwitz, demanding that those supposedly holding protective passports be taken off the train. In 1966, Raoul Wallenberg was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.

[1] leaf, 29.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Fold lines. Minor creases. Tears along fold lines. Handwritten inscription (Swedish?).

See:

• Jenö Lévai, Raoul Wallenberg, Hjälten i Budapest, Stockholm: Saxon & Lindströms, 1948 (p. 198).

• László Karsai, Zsidósors Budapesten a nyilas uralom idején, (in: Vádirat a nácizmus ellen, Vol. IV, Budapest: Balassi, 2014 [p. 142]).