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Tuesday

What would a man have to do to make the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum put his name in its address? Raoul Wallenberg is personally credited with saving the lives of 100,000 Jews. By the time the Swedish businessman arrived in Budapest in July of 1944, more than 400,000 of the city’s 630,000 Jews had already been deported to death camps. Wallenberg’s first device to save the rest was a magnificent hoax: The Swedish protective pass, with its coat of arms, stamps, and signatures, capitalized on German and Hungarian reverence for official-looking documents. Ultimately, Wallenberg employed 400 Jews in setting up hospitals, safe houses, and soup kitchens in two ghettos, where 130,000 Jews were still alive at liberation. Liberty didn’t come for Wallenberg, however—he went to negotiate the rebuilding of Budapest with the Russians and was never seen again. Agnes Adachi, a Hungarian Jew who worked for Wallenberg, will discuss their rescue work at 7 p.m. at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW. Free. (202) 488-0400. (Janet Hopf)