August 26, 2002

Swedish Holocaust Heroe dies

New York – The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation regrets to announce with profound sadness the death of its Honorary Member, Per Anger at the age of 89.

Speaking in New York, Baruch Tenembaum, founder and president of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation said:

”The loss of Per Anger deprives us of not only one of our truly distinguished members, a fine diplomat whose work places him among the best of his generation, but furthermore of one of the great heroes of the troubled XXth century”, Tenembaum remembered Anger as ”A man who personally risked his own life on numerous occasions to save the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews threatened with a certain death at the hands of the Nazi regime. For that alone he should be remembered as a man who made a difference.”

Per Anger was a Swedish diplomat who assisted Raoul Wallenberg in the struggle to save Hungarian Jews in Budapest during the Second World War. He died in Stockholm on August 26 2002 of injuries suffered in a fall at his home.

An Honorary Member of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation since 1998, Anger had a distinguished diplomatic career spanning over forty years in which he never ceased to search into the fate of his friend who disappeared after being captured by the Soviets in 1945 and was never seen again.

Although the life of Per Anger is indelibly linked with Raoul Wallenberg, both his life-saving exploits and his humanitarian efforts were internationally recognized as an Honorary Citizen of Israel since September 2000.

Finally, Tenembaum stated that Anger´s legacy will live on in all those men and women who risked their lives to save others facing persecution.

Acceptance letter to join the IRWF handwritten by Per Anger to Father Horacio Moreno

Menton, 12/4/1998

Dear Mr. Moreno

Thank you for your kind letter of March 11, 1998 inviting me to join the Wallenberg Committee of Argentine House.

As Wallenberg´s co-liberator of Hungarian Jews I am very honored to participate.

Yours sincerely
Per Anger
Ambassador