Raoul Wallenberg Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sweden

He was born in August 4, 1912, and grew up in the Wallenberg family, which is one of the largest and most famous families in Sweden. It is a family that has contributed to Swedish bankers, diplomats and politicians during several generations. Raoul's father, Raoul Oscar Wallenberg, was an officer in the navy, and cousin to Jacob and Marcus Wallenberg, two of Sweden's most famous bankers and industrialists.

Other Wallenbergs were diplomats and bishops of the Lutheran Church.

Answer: His grandfather

Gustav Wallenberg had a background in international policy after serving as a trading partner and industrialist in China. After World War I, he was appointed to the position of Swedish minister in Turkey, working with a vastly different government than the formerly ruling Ottoman Empire.

He was later the Ambassador to the Swedish embassy in Japan. Raoul's grandfather helped him be the man he became. He taught him many languages and took care of his education. Gustav continually tried to teach Raoul the nature of business, it was young Raoul's interest in architecture that caused a conventionally minded elder to worry.

Answer: United States

He went to the US in 1931 to study architecture at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He graduated 3 and a half years later.

Answer: Budapest

In July 1944, Raoul was sent to the Swedish Embassy in Budapest to start a rescue operation for the Jews. By this time 400,000 Jews had been deported from Hungary. There were about 230,000 Jews left when Wallenberg arrived.

Answer: 100,000

Raoul saved about 100,000 Jews in Hungary during WW2. He did heroic things like building up two ghettos that housed about 97,000 Jews and stood up against Nazis such as Adolf Eichmann and Heinrich Himmler.

Answer: Soviet Union

The Soviet army entered the General Ghetto to find 69,000 Jews alive there. In the International Ghetto they found 25,000. On the Buda side, another 25,000 had emerged from hiding places in Gentile homes, monasteries, convents and church cellars. In all, 120,000 had survived. When the Russians "liberated" the city, they raped, looted and terrorized many of its inhabitants.

Answer: Swedish protective passports

He had the passports printed in yellow and blue, the Three Crowns of Sweden in the middle, and added the appropriate stamps and signatures on it. First he managed to make 4,500 protective passports and then Wallenberg managed to make more than three times as many passports. Thanks to Raoul and his co-workers, the Jews didn't have to wear the degrading yellow star.

Answer: Russian prisoners that were held in Sweden

Sweden said no to this offer. They thought that Raoul Wallenberg was the United States' problem. However, the US said they didn't have anything to do with Wallenberg so he was left alone somewhere in Europe.

Answer: Russia

A man in a Russian prison said he spoke to Raoul in 1957 after the Russians declared him dead on July 17, 1947. There are many theories about Raoul's disappearance. The Russians claimed for 55 years that he died of a heart attack in 1947, but Alexander Yakovlev, the head of a presidential commission, started to investigate Wallenberg's fate.

He announced that the diplomat had been executed by Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former Soviet secret police chief. Some think he was arrested because the Russians thought he was an American spy.

There are still many investigations going on concerning the truth about Raoul Wallenberg.

Answer: USA, Canada, and Israel

In 1981, he became an honorary citizen of the United States, in 1985 in Canada, and in 1986 in Israel.