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Raoul Wallenberg

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:5,000.00 - 7,000.00 USD
Raoul Wallenberg

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Auction Date:2020 Mar 04 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Rare DS in German and Hungarian, neatly signed by Raoul Wallenberg in the lower right, one page, 8 x 11.75, November 4, 1944. A two-language "legitimation" document certifying George Vertes as a member of the Swedish Red Cross under the protection of the Royal Swedish Embassy. The right side features an affixed portrait of Vertes as well as the signature of a delegate. Signed in the lower right corner in fountain pen by Wallenberg, with both the "R" and the "W" legible. In very good to fine condition, with some creasing, and several stains, heaviest at the top.

Wallenberg arrived in Hungary in July 1944 as the country's Jewish population was under siege. Nearly every other major Jewish community in Europe had already been decimated, and the Nazis were dispatching more than 10,000 Hungarian Jews to the gas chambers daily. With time of the essence, he devised and distributed thousands of 'Schutz-Passes'—official-looking, but essentially invalid, Swedish passports granting the Hungarian bearer immunity from deportation. Nazi officials readily accepted the paperwork, leading to the escape from certain death for thousands of Hungarian Jews.