World War II or the Second World War was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the majority of the world’s countries including all of the great powers,forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. The war involved more than 100 million personnel from over 30 countries, exploiting their economic, industrial, and scientific resources. The war caused circa 80 million fatalities, with a majority of civilians. During the war tens of millions of people died in genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massacres, and disease.
The novel The Wallenberg Dossier covers mainly the period from 1939 to the end of the Second World War.
The Kingdom of Hungary was a member of the Axis powers with a nationalistic foreign policy throught the Thirties, attempting to incorporate ethnic Hungarian areas in neighboring countries into Hungary. Hungary benefited territorially from its relationship with the Axis. Settlements were negotiated regarding territorial disputes with the Czechoslovak Republic, the Slovak Republic, and the Kingdom of Romania. On November 20, 1940, Hungary signed the Tripartite Pact and became the fourth member to join the Axis powers. The following year, Hungarian forces participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and the invasion of the Soviet Union.
At the same time he waged war against the Soviet Union, Prime Minister Miklós Kállay also engaged in peace negotiations with the United States and the United Kingdom. In March 1944 German forces occupied Hungary. When Soviet forces began threatening Hungary, an armistice was signed between Hungary and the USSR by Regent Miklós Horthy. Hungarian and German forces in Hungary were defeated by advancing Soviet army.
Most Jews in Hungary were protected from deportation to German extermination camps for the first few years of the war, although they were subject to a prolonged period of oppression by anti-Jewish laws that imposed limits on their participation in public and economic life. After the German occupation of Hungary in 1944, Jews and Roma were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Wallenberg’s actions in the second part of the war saved tens of thousands of Jewish families from deportation.