I hope it’s obvious that I’m not necessarily posting the most important documents every day. The WRB is incredibly busy in the summer of 1944, so for each day, I have about 130 documents to choose from–and consequently 130 story lines I could explain to you. Sometimes I’m picking a fun document over a pivotal one, so if you know that something happens and I don’t mention it, please don’t assume I don’t know about it. I’m trying to get a cross-section of locations, types of documents, and authors.
This is a cable that represents the beginning of an incredibly important story line that most people don’t realize relates to the War Refugee Board. Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish businessman, went to Hungary in early July 1944 to effect relief and rescue while acting as an attaché of the embassy in Budapest. He was selected by the War Refugee Board and financed largely by the Joint. (See pages 3-4 of this cable).
