A 1p  document in Hungarian, known as a Schutz-Pass or protective passport, issued by the Royal Swedish Legation in Budapest, Hungary on October 22, 1944. The carbon copy bears the stamped full official signature of Secretary of the Royal Swedish Legation Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1945) as "RWallenberg" at the lower right. A German subheading is found in the upper left, and a contemporary German handstamp reading "Königl. Schwedische Gesandtschaft in Budapest" [Royal Swedish Legation in Budapest] can be found at the lower left. The passport holder's name is handwritten on line 4. Docketed with an original manuscript marking at upper right. Expected wear including folds and wrinkles, with isolated minor closed tears found along the right edge. Lightly toned, else very good. 8.25" x 5.75."

Schutz-Pass No. 51/81 was issued to "Dr. Petö Béla." The document is translated from the Hungarian in part as: "The Royal Swedish Embassy certifies that the Protective-Pass in the possession of Dr. Petö Béla, represents a valid passport…"

The fate of Dr. Petö Béla remains unknown. His name is not found in the Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database curated by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Peto" is a nickname for Peter, so perhaps he can be found under a slightly different name.

Raoul Wallenberg had been appointed Secretary of the Royal Swedish Legation in July 1944 at the request of various Jewish organizations. The "Swedish Schindler" was tasked with saving--through ingenious and diplomatic means alike--as many Hungarian Jews as he could from certain death. Wallenberg did so by allocating 32 buildings in Budapest as extraterritorial, thus allowing them to serve as Jewish safehouses; and by distributing as many Swedish passports to members of the Budapest Jewry as possible. The Schutz-Pass, or "Wallenberg Passports" as they became known, offered invaluable protection to Jews by extending Swedish citizenship rights to them. The sovereignty of Sweden, then a neutral nation, as well as that of its citizens, both native-born and honorary, went unchallenged. Estimates vary as to how many Hungarian Jews Wallenberg and his team saved, but it is conservatively in the tens of thousands.

The Wallenberg-issued certificates were truly life-saving. The Nazis had occupied Hungary from March 1944, escalating their deportation of Hungarian Jews throughout that spring. At its peak, the Nazis were deporting approximately 12,000 Hungarian Jews each day to Auschwitz and other concentration and death camps. Nearly 500,000 Hungarian Jews had already been deported by the time Wallenberg's appointment began, with an estimated 220,000 Hungarian Jews left behind and in immediate danger.

Raoul Wallenberg chose to remain in Budapest when hundreds fled in advance of the encroaching Soviet Army, in order to safeguard the remaining Jews in the city. He was charged with espionage and disappeared after going to Soviet headquarters at Debrecen in mid-January 1945. Reports indicate that he died at Lubyanka Prison on July 17, 1947.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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