In the summer of 1944, nearly 200,000 Jews were still left in Budapest, and the authorities planned to deport them too. Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish businessman with no diplomatic experience at all, arrived on July 9 as a diplomat at the Swedish legation. He started handing out certificates of protection that put Jews under neutral Sweden’s care. He set up hospitals, nurseries, a soup kitchen, and more than 30 safe houses. When thousands were forced on marches toward the Austrian border, Wallenberg often went in person to get people with papers pulled out of the columns. When Budapest was liberated, more than 100,000 Jews were still alive there, mostly because of him and his colleagues. God can use someone who feels unqualified. He just needs someone willing to show up.
