This is a schutzpass for Tivadar Foldes, issued in Budapest on September 26, 1944. The schutzpass was a letter of protection invented by Raoul Wallenberg. The document is written in German and Hungarian and bears two stamps and the picture of three crowns, the national emblem of Sweden. The top-left box contains identifying information such as name, place of residence, date of birth, and hair colour. The top-right box contains a picture of the bearer of the schutzpass and his signature. In the bottom left-corner is the signature “W” of Raoul Wallenberg.
Although he had no authority to grant protection to Jews, Raoul Wallenberg created a colourful, seemingly official document stating that the bearer had immunity from deportation to the death camps. Among his other activities to save Jews, Wallenberg issued 20,000 such passes and handed them out indiscriminately to Jews in Hungary. The Foldes family thus lived for a while in a safe house, but on January 8, 1945, they were arrested, presumably betrayed. Most of the family was taken to the Budapest ghetto, but Tivadar and his brother were taken to the banks of the Danube River and shot. Their bodies were never found.
Would You Like To Know More?
Raoul Wallenberg – Raoul Wallenberg was born in Sweden on August 4, 1912 to a prominent family with distant Jewish roots. After serving in the Swedish Army and studying architecture at the University of Michigan, he worked in South Africa and Mandatory Palestine, where he met German Jewish refugees. When the Nazis occupied Hungary, the United States looked for ways to organise a rescue programme for the country’s Jews. Wallenberg was chosen to lead the mission and arrived in Budapest in July 1944, when 400,000 Jews had already been deported. Under the ruse of working for the Swedish Embassy, he was responsible for saving as many as 100,000 Jews. One method for protecting Jews was the schutzpass, a document he invented that stated that the holder was under the protection of the Swedish government. The schutzpass is credited with saving 20,000 people. Budapest was liberated in February 1945 by the Soviet Army. Wallenberg was last seen on January 17, 1945 accompanied by Soviet officials. The Soviets took him for a spy, and after being taken in for questioning, he was never seen again. The date and circumstances surrounding his death are unknown.
The Jews of Hungary During the Holocaust – In the years before World War II, the Jews in Hungary comprised five percent of the population. They were very successful, and many belonged to the commercial, political, academic, and social elites. Their success caused much resentment, and there was widespread anti-Semitism including the passing of anti-Jewish laws and the emergence of fascist parties such as the Arrow Cross Party. Under the rule of Miklós Horthy (1920–1944) Jews lost most of their rights and were called up to serve in unarmed labour service units, where many died due to the difficult conditions. In March 1944 the Nazis took over Hungary, and Jews were rapidly rounded up and sent to ghettos. The deportation of Jews to Auschwitz began in May 1944 under the supervision of Adolph Eichmann with the assistance of the Hungarian authorities. Ninety percent of the Hungarian Jews were killed upon arrival. Few efforts were made by the Hungarians to rescue the Jews, however international efforts by the US president and the Swedish king urged a halt to the deportations, and diplomats such as Raoul Wallenberg, Carl Lutz, and others took heroic steps to protect Jews. Finally Horthy ordered the discontinuation of the deportations, and Eichmann left Hungary. The situation for the Jews remained dire, and the Jews of Budapest were sent to live in the ghetto. Thousands of Jews were murdered on the banks of the Danube and others forced to march to the Austrian border. In all around 565,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered, most of them in a short period of eight weeks.
