Among the Arthur Millers and Gerald Fords to graduate from the University, it’s easy to overlook a young Swedish businessman who single-handedly saved the lives of thousands of Jews in the Holocaust.

His name is Raoul Wallenberg, and his short life as a humanitarian ended with a death veiled in mystery.

Wallenberg graduated with honors from the University’s architecture program in 1935. A member of a wealthy Swedish family, he was urged by his grandfather to look beyond his family’s fortune and pursue a course of study that exposed him to the world.

He quickly fell in love with America and became infatuated with the people and landscape of the country. After spending the academic year studying the art of developing buildings, Wallenberg spent the summer breaks hitchhiking across North America, enthralled with the foreign lifestyle, according to Scott Ellsworth, a lecturer in the University’s Department of Afroamerican and African Studies and leader of a campus group that raises awareness about Wallenberg.

A Michigan man

At the University, Wallenberg was popular among his classmates and was lauded for his gentlemanly demeanor.

Ellsworth shared a story when Wallenberg rode his bike to the home of a classmate’s mother, 50 miles north of Ann Arbor to have tea with her women’s society and discuss European affairs.

“He makes this appearance, and everybody falls in love with him,” Ellsworth said. “He was just this straight up guy who would deliver.”

When Wallenberg graduated from the University, he returned to Sweden “with a heavy heart” in hopes of securing an architectural position back home, Ellsworth said. The Great Depression had recently hit, and the effects were felt worldwide – making Wallenberg’s job hunt challenging.

He began working as a sales representative, and his work required frequent travel to Central Europe, including Germany, where Adolf Hitler had already taken over power. Wallenberg found himself frequently brushing shoulders with Nazi officials.

A special opportunity

As a non-Jew and Swedish citizen — a neutral country in World War II — Wallenberg was still able to travel and continue with his business affairs, particularly assisting clients who couldn't do business in Nazi controlled countries – including a Jewish businessman in Sweden who was unable to travel to his business in Hungary after it became aligned with Nazi Germany.

Hungary’s alliance with Nazi Germany led to a series of large-scale murders that ravaged the countryside and killed 400,000 Jews in six months.

The remaining Jews left in Hungary were concentrated in Budapest, and the United States decided to intervene.

According to Ellsworth, the United States Office of Strategic Services began searching for a diplomat who could use American funding to bribe Nazi officials in Budapest to protect the Jewish community. A tip led them to Wallenberg after they heard about his work assisting Jewish clients, and OSS officials asked the Swedish government if Wallenberg could work as a liaison with their organization.

Soon, Wallenberg was headed to Budapest with diplomatic credentials and a pocket full of American money.

This time it wasn’t for a business deal, but to fight Nazis.

Wallenberg’s first course of action was to purchase between 30 to 40 apartments and townhouses throughout Hungary, atop which he installed Swedish flags to disguise them as diplomatic safe havens.

He then began funneling Jews into the homes while concurrently working with the Nazis to ensure the diplomatic immunity of the safe houses.

However, Wallenberg couldn’t prevent the resurgence of violence as fascist groups began killing Jews on the streets of Budapest. Ellsworth said one of the fascists' favorite practice was to tie groups of Jewish citizens together, kill the ones in the middle of the group, and throw them into the Danube River to drown.