Wallenberg: A Hero's Story

My hommage to Richard Chamberlain continues.

Chamberlain plays the eponymous real-life hero, who disappeared in 1947. No one is sure when he died.

The film shows Wallenberg's tireless work to save Jews while holding the position of Sweden's special envoy in Budapest between July and December 1944. The Nazis called it "turning Jews into Swedes" because he issued "protective passports" that identified the carrier as a Swedish subject. He housed Jews in rented buildings.

The movie has a quasi romance between Wallenberg and Baroness Elisabeth Kemeny (Alice Krige) which was probably false. However, she believed in Wallenberg's work and was instrumental in encouraging her husband, the Hungarian minister for Foreign Affairs to have travel passes honored when the Germans declared them invalid.

Any film showing the plight of the Jews is harrowing and tragic. This is no different, with dialogue from Eichmann (Kenneth Koley) and others showing their contempt and inhumanity.

In Chamberlain's earnest portrayal, he exhibits no understanding of such cruelty, and his attempts to reason with the Germans leave him baffled. They think nothing of exterminating Jews, even young children.

Sadly I was reminded of today, when some people are lumped together in one group and no longer thought of as human beings. What emerged for me was the despair that we've learned nothing.

My only problem was all the accents. When your in a foreign country, you don't walk around speaking English with a foreign accent. You speak your own language. Though this was set in different places, Wallenberg understood other languages, and would have been speaking in them. Accents are not necessary. Otherwise, Romeo and Juliet would be speaking with Italian accents.

A compelling, thought-provoking film, with a strong performance by Chamberlain as a righteous among nations.

Super outstanding film dealing with the exploits of Swedish diplomat, Raoul Wallenberg. He saved a great number of Hungarian Jews marked for extermination during the Holocaust.

Richard Chamberlain was never better in any of his mini-series. Proudly nicknamed the king of mini-series, Chamberlain etched an unforgettable portrayal of this hero for all times.

The story begins as Chamberlain, a young Swedish college student from an affluent family, mocks Adolf Hitler. Truth be told, the world didn't know the horrors that this all-time modern madman would heap on modern civilization.

How Chamberlain (Wallenberg) ran with Swedish documents and passed them out to Hungarian Jews was memorable. Instantaneously, the Hungarian Jews were Swedish citizens and therefore protected under Swedish authority.

Remember the miracle when, at the end of the war, many Hungarian Jews lost their protection and were placed in a barn that the Nazis were ready to blow up. Who can forget their faces as they huddled together and chanted the "shema" to sanctify the al-mighty's name? It would be left to Wallenberg to rescue them at the last minute from certain death.

Needless to say, the world was a much poorer place when Wallenberg was arrested by the Soviets,imprisoned, and never heard from again.

He is certainly a leading member of the righteous-those Christians who risked their lives to save Jews during the darkest period of history in this century.

Chamberlain gave a phenomenal performance which will long be remembered.

Maybe little bit romanced but real story. I know because my mother was saved by him (by giving her a Swedish passport) and my grand-uncle (brother of my grand-father) worked with him. He worked in very difficult conditions and did not hesitate to put his life in danger in order to save Jews.

In Haifa, where he worked for a while in a bank before returning to Sweden and subsequently being assigned to Hungary, his house (on Arlozoroff street 17) has a commemorative sign. In Hungary he has only a Tiny street named after him.

The Nazis arrived only towards the end of war. The Hungarians were the German ally but were less aggressive towards the Jews as the Germans. The Germans, knowing they will soon lose the war, went to Hungary to at least finish the extermination, or so they thought, especially Eichmann (later found by Israel to live in South America, kidnapped, and brought to Israel for trial). The German were awfully efficient at it, as they are.

This is a fantastic movie and another that seems impossible to locate. I recommend the movie as being one of Chamberlain's best. I would like to think that the man, Wallenberg, will not be forgotten. He was truly a hero and Chamberlain did an excellent portrayal.

This is an excellent movie about one of the finest heroes of the 20th century. An attractive young scion from an old Swedish banking family reaches the point where he can no longer tolerate what he sees happening to Jews in Europe during WW2, and decides he has to do something about it. Conferring with a senior Diplomat, he gets himself some minor position in the Diplomatic Corp. and immediately begins to use that position to do something about it. What he does, and how he does it, is so simple, yet so amazing, and most of all, surprising, even shockingly successful.

Totally Politically Incorrect. Can we expect Hollywood, who dissed "The Passion", utterly, to appreciate this piece of work, either, and help market it? I think the fact that others have found this work so unavailable, from a proved actor of the caliber of Richard Chamberlain speaks volumes. This miniseries made many powerful enemies in its day. Sometimes if you bombard the classic movie channels with requests for an "oldie", they will eventually play it, perhaps a year later.