Per Anger, who helped Raoul Wallenberg save Hungarian Jews during World War II, died Monday at 88.
Anger and Wallenberg, Swedish diplomats stationed in Hungary, handed out diplomatic passes that eventually allowed more than 30,000 Hungarian Jews to survive.
In 1983, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial named Anger a Righteous Gentile for his efforts, and in 2000 he was named an honorary citizen of Israel.
After orders from Sweden’s ambassador to Hungary, Carl Danielsson, in March 1944, Anger began issuing the passes.
But after Wallenberg arrived in Budapest in July 1944, he and Anger began planning how to save more Jews. From July until the end of that year, they intensified efforts, eventually saving approximately 33,000 Jews.
In some cases, the two went out to Jews who were facing deportation and handed out the passes.
Anger acknowledged that Wallenberg was the driving force behind their activities.
Anger saw his friend and colleague for the last time on Jan. 10, 1945, a week before Wallenberg disappeared. After the war, Anger dedicated himself to finding out what happened to Wallenberg, who is believed to have died in a Soviet labor camp.
Anger was born in Goteborg, Sweden. He studied law at universities in Stockholm and in Uppsala, Sweden.
He began his diplomatic career in Berlin in 1940, and became an attache at the Swedish Embassy in Budapest in 1942.
Anger is survived by his wife, Elena, and three children.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
