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Overview
In March 1944, SS Colonel Adolph Eichmann, responsible for implementing the Final Solution, arrived in Budapest, Hungary, with his SS troops and the German Army with orders exterminate the last remaining Jewish community in Europe, which numbered in the hundreds of thousands, by shipping them to death camps or by simply murdering them in the streets.
Under dubious cover as a diplomat in the neutral Swedish Legation but actually working for the American War Refugee Board, Swede Raoul Wallenberg, a Gentile from the family of the Wallenberg business empire, left the safety of Sweden for Budapest in July 1944. His mission: stop the Nazi slaughter of Hungarian Jewry. Everyone responsible for arranging his mission knew that one man had no chance of success, but President Roosevelt had to show he was doing something. Colonel Eichmann dismissed Wallenberg as “just another weak-kneed aristocrat playboy,” finding out later how resourceful, brave and skillful the compassionate Wallenberg could be, setting the stage for one of the most dramatic, and seemingly unequal, confrontations of the war. It was the unarmed Swede, assisted by some of his legation colleagues, versus Eichmann, backed by the arms and might of the SS, the Gestapo and several German panzer divisions.
Wallenberg rescued Jews using his knowledge of the Nazi psyche and his artistic and architectural talents, language skills and acting ability. He designed an impressive protective passport with official seals, stamps and signatures for “his Jews,” one that gave even the feared Gestapo pause. Using his superb mastery of the German language, he could imitate the most authoritative Prussian general, a skill he used to face down the SS and Hungarian Nazis at railway terminals where Jews were loaded onto freight cars, along the route of forced marches of Jews to the death camps, and in the streets and homes of Budapest. He plucked Jews from the jaws of certain death and deposited them in his Swedish safe houses. Through the use of bribes and threats of postwar retribution by the Allies, he managed to enlist the aid of some of those sworn to carry out the Final Solution. His squad of partisans and Aryan-looking Jews, posing as the SS and Hungarian police, rescued Jewish children at orphanages, patients at Jewish hospitals and countless other Jews, about to be shot and thrown into the Danube.
Despite several attempts on his life by the Nazis, Wallenberg managed to frustrate the powerful SS and Colonel Eichmann for seven months until the final confrontation when Eichmann had most of the Jews of Budapest herded into the Central Ghetto and then ordered the German Army to annihilate the ghetto, presenting the Swedish diplomat with his greatest challenge. Amid the thundering artillery of the Soviet Army on the outskirts of Budapest, Wallenberg invited Colonel Eichmann to an elegant dinner to convince him to abandon his plans to massacre all the Jews in the ghetto. Wallenberg used his considerable intellect and debating skills to demonstrate to Eichmann the fallacies of the Nazi myths foisted on the German people by Hitler. Eichmann, however, while conceding the logic of Wallenberg’s arguments, refused to cancel his murderous plans, leading to Wallenberg’s breathtakingly audacious and climactic face-off with the German Army commander, General Schmidthuber.
This historical narrative, based on the author’s years of research, sets out in vivid detail the triumphs of the courageous Swede and the subsequent tragedy of his disappearance after incarceration by the Soviets.
Under dubious cover as a diplomat in the neutral Swedish Legation but actually working for the American War Refugee Board, Swede Raoul Wallenberg, a Gentile from the family of the Wallenberg business empire, left the safety of Sweden for Budapest in July 1944. His mission: stop the Nazi slaughter of Hungarian Jewry. Everyone responsible for arranging his mission knew that one man had no chance of success, but President Roosevelt had to show he was doing something. Colonel Eichmann dismissed Wallenberg as “just another weak-kneed aristocrat playboy,” finding out later how resourceful, brave and skillful the compassionate Wallenberg could be, setting the stage for one of the most dramatic, and seemingly unequal, confrontations of the war. It was the unarmed Swede, assisted by some of his legation colleagues, versus Eichmann, backed by the arms and might of the SS, the Gestapo and several German panzer divisions.
Wallenberg rescued Jews using his knowledge of the Nazi psyche and his artistic and architectural talents, language skills and acting ability. He designed an impressive protective passport with official seals, stamps and signatures for “his Jews,” one that gave even the feared Gestapo pause. Using his superb mastery of the German language, he could imitate the most authoritative Prussian general, a skill he used to face down the SS and Hungarian Nazis at railway terminals where Jews were loaded onto freight cars, along the route of forced marches of Jews to the death camps, and in the streets and homes of Budapest. He plucked Jews from the jaws of certain death and deposited them in his Swedish safe houses. Through the use of bribes and threats of postwar retribution by the Allies, he managed to enlist the aid of some of those sworn to carry out the Final Solution. His squad of partisans and Aryan-looking Jews, posing as the SS and Hungarian police, rescued Jewish children at orphanages, patients at Jewish hospitals and countless other Jews, about to be shot and thrown into the Danube.
Despite several attempts on his life by the Nazis, Wallenberg managed to frustrate the powerful SS and Colonel Eichmann for seven months until the final confrontation when Eichmann had most of the Jews of Budapest herded into the Central Ghetto and then ordered the German Army to annihilate the ghetto, presenting the Swedish diplomat with his greatest challenge. Amid the thundering artillery of the Soviet Army on the outskirts of Budapest, Wallenberg invited Colonel Eichmann to an elegant dinner to convince him to abandon his plans to massacre all the Jews in the ghetto. Wallenberg used his considerable intellect and debating skills to demonstrate to Eichmann the fallacies of the Nazi myths foisted on the German people by Hitler. Eichmann, however, while conceding the logic of Wallenberg’s arguments, refused to cancel his murderous plans, leading to Wallenberg’s breathtakingly audacious and climactic face-off with the German Army commander, General Schmidthuber.
This historical narrative, based on the author’s years of research, sets out in vivid detail the triumphs of the courageous Swede and the subsequent tragedy of his disappearance after incarceration by the Soviets.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940013024571 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | CARL STEINHOUSE |
| Publication date: | 11/20/2002 |
| Series: | Living History-The Holocaust , #1 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 887 KB |
About the Author
Carl Steinhouse, a retired lawyer, was a federal prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice for 15 years, conducting investigations and grand juries, trying criminal and civil cases, after which he went into private practice specializing in class actions, antitrust and RICO (racketeering influenced) cases, white-collar crime, and civil and criminal trials. In the early fifties, he served as an intelligence analyst in the Army Counterintelligence Corps.
Mr. Steinhouse was Vice Chairman of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association, and on the editorial boards of two Bureau of National Affairs publications in antitrust and RICO. He also wrote and edited books on grand jury practice, criminal trial practice, and criminal juries and was a frequent lecturer at ABA National Institutes and video courses on grand jury and criminal trial practice. He is a frequent contributor to the Naples Daily News writing about the humorous side of the law.
In the 80’s and 90’s he was active on an international level for the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, making several trips to Jerusalem and Helsinki on fact-finding missions and to the Soviet Union to aid Refusniks (those Jews the Soviets refused to let emigrate). A board member of the Cleveland Anti-Defamation League until 1999 and formerly on ADL’s National Legal Affairs and National Fact Finding Committees, he was active in ADL matters, including monitoring activities of hate groups.
Mr. Steinhouse, had lost family in German-occupied territory during World War II, and was personally affected by the Holocaust. He has published six books in his Holocaust series to rave reviews: Wallenberg is Here!, Righteous and Courageous, Improbable Heroes, Barred, We Shall Be Called Israel, and The Outfielder. The books received rave reviews from Holocaust scholars and authors. Harassment is Steinhouse’s first in his new legal thriller series, based on his experiences as both a prosecutor and defense attorney.
Mr. Steinhouse was Vice Chairman of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association, and on the editorial boards of two Bureau of National Affairs publications in antitrust and RICO. He also wrote and edited books on grand jury practice, criminal trial practice, and criminal juries and was a frequent lecturer at ABA National Institutes and video courses on grand jury and criminal trial practice. He is a frequent contributor to the Naples Daily News writing about the humorous side of the law.
In the 80’s and 90’s he was active on an international level for the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, making several trips to Jerusalem and Helsinki on fact-finding missions and to the Soviet Union to aid Refusniks (those Jews the Soviets refused to let emigrate). A board member of the Cleveland Anti-Defamation League until 1999 and formerly on ADL’s National Legal Affairs and National Fact Finding Committees, he was active in ADL matters, including monitoring activities of hate groups.
Mr. Steinhouse, had lost family in German-occupied territory during World War II, and was personally affected by the Holocaust. He has published six books in his Holocaust series to rave reviews: Wallenberg is Here!, Righteous and Courageous, Improbable Heroes, Barred, We Shall Be Called Israel, and The Outfielder. The books received rave reviews from Holocaust scholars and authors. Harassment is Steinhouse’s first in his new legal thriller series, based on his experiences as both a prosecutor and defense attorney.
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