Wallenberg A Hero's Story [DVD]

There were thousands of largely forgotten heroes of the second world war, particular individuals who displayed enormous courage in the face of acute danger in Nazi occupied countries where the safest thing to do was to keep your head down and keep your mouth shut. There were fewer greater heroes than the Swedish diplomat, Raoul Wallenberg who, with other neutral Swedes saved thousands of Jews in Nazi occupied Hungary from extermination. Hungary was initially allied to Germany in the war and the Hungarian government sent thousands of men to fight alongside the German army when they invaded Russia in June 1941 but later in the war, as was the case in Vichy France, the Germans occupied the country and set up their own puppet regime. As with countries they occupied earlier in the war, one of the first things the Nazis did in Hungary was to round up Jews and transport them to Auschwitz in huge numbers to be murdered. In fact during mid 1944 the gas chambers were at the busiest they ever were during the war when the last great Jewish population that had previously escaped the attention of the Nazis because they were living in Hungary were transported there after the Germans took over Hungary. Most Hungarian Jews were gassed and on some days 20,000 per day were murdered and only a few that were transported managed to survive.

Raoul Wallenberg and other Swedes worked tirelessly in Budapest to save as many Jews as possible by issuing papers placing them under the protection of neutral Sweden and for a time they worked with Adolf Eichmann who headed the Nazi anti-Jewish operation in Hungary who for reasons of his own decided to do this. Wallenberg saved many Jews before it became increasingly difficult and dangerous. On one occasion he personally rescued hundreds of Jews who had been loaded onto a train that was due to depart to Auschwitz later that day.

As the Germans began to lose the war and the Red Army moved westwards and eventually liberated Hungary, Wallenberg thought his task was completed, that he was safe and he could return home to Sweden but tragically this did not happen. Instead he became one of the last victims of the Holocaust and one of the first victime of the cold war between Russia and the West. An enduring mystery was created about his fate that to this day has never been satisfactorily explained.

Richard Chamberlain turns in a superb performance as Wallenberg and the conditions in Nazi occupied Hungary are brilliantly reconstructed in the film. After you have watched the film you will inevitably wonder what happened to Wallenberg but for that question to be answered you will have to look elsewhere.

Wallenberg was a hero in the second world war this was a very good film that shows what this great man did.

In the winter of 1944, the American, British and Canadian armies were advancing eastwards towards the German border and the Red Army was advancing westwards towards Germany and Hungary, which was allied to Germany and participated with them in the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Within the country the right wing regime of the dictator Admiral Horthy was losing control and Germany became so disillusioned with its unreliable ally that it encouraged the fascist militia, the Arrow Cross to topple Horthy and after the Nazis threatened to kill his son Horthy was swept from power and the Arrow Cross took over. The Jews of Hungary were already being rounded up by the Nazis under the direction of Adolf Eichmann with the enthusiastic co-operation of the Arrow Cross and after Hothy's fall more Jews than ever were deported. Although it was clear that the end of the war was only a matter of time it did not prevent the final solution in Hungary from going ahead.

Raoul Wallenberg was the son of a prosperous Swedish banker and with the backing of the Americans and the World Jewish Congress agreed to become the Second Secretary in the Swedish Legation in Budapest and was given the dangerous task of saving as many Jews as possible by issuing permits placing them under the protection of the Swedish Government with a view to eventually taking them to safety in Sweden. He managed to save many Jews with a mixture of charm, bribery and sheer nerve and making threats that whoever was involved in rounding up Jews would be hunted down by the allies and tried as war criminals but as the Red Army approached Budapest his task became ever more perilous. At one point he managed to save a number of Jews by going to the railway terminus itself where they were about to be transported to Auschwitz and he took many of them off the train. On 17 January 1944, the Red Army arrived in Budapest - for the Jews it was the end of their terrible ordeal but for Wallenberg liberation by the Russians proved to be fatal.

Richard Chamberlain delivers a fine performance as the brave but doomed Wallenberg and Lamont Johnson reconstructs the wartime conditions in Budapest with great authenticity. The supporting cast are also impressive and the film is a powerful and absorbing work about a true hero who paid with his life after saving hundreds of Jews from certain death at the hands of the Nazis.