Per Anger (1913–2002)

Per Anger was born in Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden, and studied law at the University of Stockholm and the University of Uppsala. He graduated in November 1939, just after the start of World War II, and was drafted into the Swedish army. A few months later, the Foreign Ministry offered him a trainee position in the diplomatic corps. He was sent to the Swedish legation in Berlin, where worked on trade between Sweden and Germany and was an eyewitness to the Nazi regime. In 1941, he returned to Stockholm and became an official Swedish diplomat. He worked on relations between Sweden and Hungary until March 1942. Then he was appointed second secretary at the small Swedish legation in Budapest, Hungary. The two years until the German invasion and occupation of Hungary were relatively peaceful. Anger married Elena Wikstrom in 1943. After the arrival of the Nazis, Jews sought the aid of embassies of neutral countries to save them from deportation and death. Those with relatives or business associates in Sweden started to line up in front of the Swedish legation, asking for help. Per Anger came up with the idea of issuing provisional passports to protect the bearers as though they were Swedish citizens. Overwhelmed by the demand, the legation requested immediate staff reinforcement from Stockholm. Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish architect and businessman, arrived as legation secretary in July 1944 to begin a rescue operation. Anger sometimes went to the train station to directly save Jews from deportation. As the war drew to a close, despite the bombs falling and shooting going on around them, Anger, Wallenberg, and colleagues remained in the legation to continue their rescue work. After the arrival of the Red Army in January 1945, Anger was one of the last to see Wallenberg before he was was taken away by the Russians. Anger and the other members of the Swedish legation also were detained by the Soviets but released in April 1945. He returned to Stockholm but began searching for Wallenberg, as well as spreading the news of his heroic acts. He continued his diplomatic career, and later served as Sweden's ambassador to Australia, Canada, and the Bahamas. In 1956, from his post in Vienna, he helped thousands flee to Austria after Hungary's failed uprising against the Soviet Union. He went to Moscow to personally appeal on Wallenberg's behalf to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who showed no interest. Per Anger was awarded as a "Righteous Among the Nations" by the State of Israel and Yad Vashem in 1982. In 1995, he received the Order of Merit from Hungary. The first book about him was A Quiet Courage -- Per Anger, Wallenberg's Co-Liberator of Hungarian Jews (1997), by Elisabeth R. Skoglund.