Working in Budapest during WWII: She asked where Raoul Wallenberg was.

Anna Olrog

by Miranda Olrog, SB24

Miranda Olrog: How did your aunt get started on her career path?

Anna Olrog: She was a member of a student association when she was studying at Lund University, which led a man called Gunnar Jarring to notice her and a few other members. He ended up recruiting them to the military’s secret intelligence agency, and got them in contact with the ministry of foreign affairs. I think it was more or less of a coincidence that she got started on this path. She also liked adventure and the traveling part.

Miranda Olrog: If she was 28 years old in 1943 when she started working at the Swedish legation in Budapest, what did she work with before?

Anna Olrog: Immediately after she got her degree, she started working for the ministry of foreign affairs as a secretary at her first legation in Warsaw, her second one in Berlin, then possibly back in Stockholm before she went to Budapest. 

Miranda Olrog: What did her job as a secretary normally entail? 

Anna Olrog: Normally she would have helped with visas, passports, and with Swedes in trouble –– like you do at embassies. 

Miranda: What was unique about the job in Budapest during WWII?

Anna Olrog: The legation provided “Swedish houses” where the Hungarian and German Nazis left the Jews alone for most of the part. They also gave Swedish “protection passports” to a lot of Jewish people, which spared them from being sent to concentration camps and possibly got them out of the country. The idea was that the Swedish government vouched for them and the Nazis had to leave them be. This idea was basically made up by Raoul Wallenberg and Per Anger, but it still worked. 

Miranda Olrog: She also had a more secretive part of her life, tell me about that. 

Anna Olrog: The strange thing is that we knew nothing about this until we read it in the book “Sekreterarklubben” written by Jan Bergman (who’s a son to one of the women who worked undercover). What we found out from the book was that Margareta handled the connections between the legation and the military’s secret intelligence agency back in Sweden. Administrative connections, support, and courier business –– is me quoting her employment tasks stated in the book. 

Miranda Olrog: So she never told you about her undercover work?

Anna Olrog: No, this book was published after her death. Only the people involved knew.

Miranda Olrog: What happened on Christmas night 1944?

Anna Olrog: She got woken up by a Hungarian soldier (from the Arrow Cross Party) who told her to get dressed. It was apparently the doorman who had let the soldiers in. Her poor friend who hadn’t planned to be outside only had her pumps to walk in. When they got outside they marched in the cold for many, many kilometers together with sixteen other political opponents, Jews, spies, etc. When they got there they were lined up outside a military barracks where she saw corpses in the corner. She thought they were going to be executed. They then got moved to another courtyard where she saw a soldier who she thought looked a bit friendlier. So in broken Hungarian she told him that this is a mistake, and that they are real Swedish citizens. He then walked out. The group of people were moved outside and started marching towards a Jewish ghetto. During that walk a Portuguese diplomatic car drove by slowly, and the driver recognised Maragreta and started making some calls. She and her friend were released and picked up later because of the driver, who had gotten the word around to the Red Cross’s delegate who pulled some strings. 

Miranda Olrog: What was supposed to happen?

Anna Olrog: We still don’t know what would have happened next in the ghetto had she not had her diplomatic connections. Maybe the friendlier soldier also had something to do with them getting moved?

Miranda Olrog: Raoul Wallenberg also worked in Budapest during this time, did they know each other?

Anna Olrog: Yes, she worked closely with him and regularly went to the same dinner parties. She and her colleagues thought he had unconventional methods, was creative, and gave them a ton of work which kind of drove them crazy. But his work ethic went both ways, and she truly saw all the difference he made. 

Miranda Olrog: What happened after the war ended?

Anna Olrog: On March 15th, 1945, they could finally go home. The Soviets had control over Hungary by that time, and were the ones who permitted and provided their transport to Sweden. She and her colleague were ready to go when they wondered where Raoul was, so she asked about him. “He will get to Stockholm before you do, we have already taken care of him”, the Russian soldier said. They felt reassured by that. Even though he never got back to Stockholm….   

Miranda Olrog: What did your aunt do before retiring? 

Anna Olrog: She had a whole string of jobs after the war. For example she was secretary for Sweden’s consul-general in Stuttgart, and was sent back to the Budapest legation. I visited her there back in 1974 –– and 1975. 

Miranda Olrog: How did she feel in relation to work, after retirement?

Anna Olrog: I think she thought it was nice to retire. I told her several times, “How in the world did you manage a job like that?” I wouldn’t say that she missed her job, unlike some other people who retire, but rather that it was nice to come home after having lived such an eventful life.