Exceedingly rare Schutz-Pass initialed by Swedish Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg to protect Dr. Andreas Glucksthal from wearing the yellow star.

Document signed Schutz-Pass, in frame, (a protective "pass" functioning as a Swedish passport), in Hungarian, initialed by Raoul Wallenberg along the bottom left corner with his iconic "W", pen stroke, and "R", one page by sight 7.75" x 12.25".  Completed in typescript and inclusive of black and white ink stamped photo. Dated "August 26, 1944". Expected folds, else near fine with slight toning.  Accompanied by three modern color Photocopies, one depicting the Hungarian word "Masolat" (copy) stamped in blue ink or scripted along the top, and two with "Hitelesites A Tuloldalun" (translates to Authenticated on the face), stamped in blue along the bottom edge. The versos of all three modern photocopies maintain an original signed certification stamp which loosely translated states the signatory is signing a copy and has seen the original document.

An exceptional document signed by one of the 20th-centuryÂ’s greatest humanitarians, created in response to efforts to save Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. Jews in Hungary had been subjected to discrimination and anti-Semitic laws. But because of Hungary's alliance with Germany, Hungarian Jews had, until that point, been insulated from the horror experienced by Jews in other parts of Europe. That was to change drastically - (der fuhrer) had begun to distrust the Hungarian leader Miklos Horthy and on 19 March 1944, German forces occupied Hungary. In the weeks and months that followed, hundreds of thousands of Jews across Hungary were rounded up, moved into ghettos and forced on to deportation trains. With the help of the Hungarian government, the Germans deported 440,000 Jews from Hungary in the space of two months - most were sent to the largest and most infamous death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. So in the summer of 1944, Sweden - with US backing - agreed to use its diplomatic mission in Budapest to help Hungary's remaining Jews.

Thirty-one-year-old businessman Raoul Wallenberg came from one of Sweden's wealthiest and most important families - he had no diplomatic experience and had studied architecture at university, but his charisma marked him out. Before Wallenberg's arrival, the Swedish embassy in Budapest was already issuing travel documents to Hungarian Jews - these special certificates functioned as a Swedish passport. The papers had no real authority in law but the Swedes managed to persuade the Hungarian authorities that people holding them were under their protection.

When Wallenberg arrived, he decided that the certificates needed to look more official so he redesigned them. He introduced the colors of the Swedish flag, blue and yellow, marked the documents with government stamps and added Swedish crowns. It was known as a Schutz-Pass or protective pass. This document is one such rare example. Armed with such documents, Jews fell under the protection of Sweden, an officially neutral nation.

These priceless lifesaving documents, granting escape from otherwise certain death, were paid for dearly with the life of one of the greatest humanitarians of the 20th century. “When the Soviet army was closing in on Budapest and the other diplomats left the city, Wallenberg chose to remain there in order to protect ‘his JewsÂ’ in any eventuality which might arise. He went to the Soviet headquarters in Debrecyn for that purpose; all trace was lost of him and he was never seen again alive” (Encyclopedia Judaica). 

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