THE STORY

Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg
A light in the darkness

“Wallenberg helped me feel like a human being again. For the first time I had hope. And really everything changed after he arrived. He showed us that we are not animals, that someone cares about us. The most important thing was that he came personally.”

A survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary

Childhood and education

Maj von Dardel shortly after the birth of her son Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg on 4 August 1912

Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg was born on 4 August 1912 near Stockholm shortly after the early death of his father Raoul Oscar Wallenberg. The Wallenberg family is one of the most renowned families in Sweden. Raoul’s grandfather founded the Stockholm Enskilda Bank (SEB). From 1914 to 1917 his son Knut Agathon was the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs. Raoul’s grandfather, Gustaf Wallenberg, a diplomat, took on the education of Raoul. He made sure that after completing his military service in 1931, Raoul went on to study at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Raoul chose to study architecture and graduated in spring 1935.

After graduation, Raoul Wallenberg returned to Sweden and then went to South Africa.  In 1936 he spent a few months in Palestine where his grandfather had found him a job at a bank in Haifa. It was there that he met refugees from Nazi Germany. He wrote to his grandfather saying that the people did not speak much about the past but almost only about the future of Palestine. He also admitted to his grandfather that he felt that banking was not the right career for him. He said that a bank director should be judgelike, calm, cold and cynical. But Raoul Wallenberg wanted to do positive work and not just sit around and say “no” to people. Once he also wrote that in photos his father looked so distinguished and self-sacrificing and that he felt like a bad replacement.

Raoul Wallenberg during his stay in the United States (1931-1935)

In 1941, after returning to Sweden and various business activities, Wallenberg became a business partner of Kálmán Lauer, a Jew from Hungary. In March 1944 German troops occupied Hungary. Jews were first imprisoned in ghettos in the countryside and from May 1944 they were deported. This was when Raoul Wallenberg tried to travel to Budapest and help Lauer’s relatives.

At that time the US War Refugee Board was trying to encourage neutral states to help Jews in Hungary. Sweden was prepared to help and the 31-year-old businessman Raoul Wallenberg became a diplomat. He went to Budapest as Secretary to the Swedish Legation. By 6 September 1944 he had helped some 650 Jews who had either personal or business connections with Sweden. Wallenberg arrived in Budapest on 9 July 1944. By then over 437,000 Hungarian Jews had been deported. Wallenberg found out what efforts had already taken place to rescue Jews and contacted, among other people, the Swiss Vice-Consul Carl Lutz who was representing British interests and was thus responsible for migration to Palestine. Wallenberg quickly realised that a large number of persecuted people would require his help over a long period of time.

The Swedish humanitarian rescue operation in Hungary in 1944

The Swedish protective passport, a “Schutzpass”, which Wallenberg impressively designed himself, formed the heart of the rescue operation. The passport contained a photo of the holder, the appropriate stamps and was signed by Ivan Danielsson, the head of the Swedish legation in Budapest. In both German and Hungarian the passport stated that the bearer would travel for repatriation to Sweden and until departure was under the protection of the legation. The number of people granted protective paperwork is estimated to be about 4,500 individuals. This high number led the Swiss Vice-Consul Lutz to think that there was a risk to the letters of protection that he had issued to non-Hungarian citizens. Only later did he realise how important it was to issue thousands of protective documents to Hungarian Jews and followed Wallenberg’s example.

Swedish protective passport signed by the Swedish Minister in Budapest, Ivan Danielsson

Some Hungarians criticised Wallenberg because he appeared too obviously in public with his “protected Jews”. They were housed in 32 rented buildings and together with his department Wallenberg ensured that they were looked after. In November 1944 Wallenberg and his fellow campaigners saved hundreds of Jews from the so-called death marches. Adolf Eichmann threatened to shoot the “Jew dog Wallenberg”. This was followed by an official complaint. It was then stated that Wallenberg’s work meant that he used completely unconventional methods and absolutely illegal means. Wallenberg sent a message to General Gerhard Schmidhuber, the supreme commander of German forces in Hungary, and prevented the liquidation of the Budapest Ghetto with its 70,000 inhabitants. Some 119,000 Jews survived the German occupation of Budapest, thousands of whom were saved by Raoul Wallenberg.

Raoul Wallenberg’s contact to the Red Army and his disappearence

It was Raoul Wallenberg who looked to contact the Red Army and present, among other things, his reconstruction plan for Jews in Hungary. After the Red Army had marched in, Sweden had asked Moscow to protect the staff at the legation. This seemed obvious as Sweden was officially representing Soviet interests in Hungary. On 16 January 1945 the Soviets reported that Raoul Wallenberg had been taken into Soviet custody. A short time later the Russian ambassador informed his mother that her son was safe in Russia. This was followed by incredible confusion, a morass of Russian disinformation and untruths. Sweden’s behaviour, however, was also very strange.

In late 1945, for example, Staffan Söderblom, the Swedish Ambassador in Moscow, urged the Russians to issue a statement that Wallenberg had died. He claimed that this would be better for Wallenberg’s mother who was wasting all her strength in a hopeless search. And in March 1946 after an inquiry into Wallenberg’s fate, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that he had disappeared on 17 January 1945 and was probably no longer alive.

Arrest warrant for R. Wallenberg, signed by the Deputy Minister of Defence Nikoli Bulganin, 17 January 1945

On 15 June 1946 the Swedish ambassador held a personal audience with Stalin which had terrible negative consequences. Söderblom stated his conviction that Wallenberg had either fallen victim to an accident or been killed by robbers. Stalin had reserved an hour for the meeting but it lasted a mere five minutes. Prior to the meeting Soviet statements had signalled that Wallenberg could be exchanged for, among others, a Russian girl, a minor, who was in Sweden. In January 1946, in a similar deal, Switzerland had secured the release of two diplomats seized in Budapest. Like Wallenberg they had been taken to Moscow on 17 January 1945 after Nikolia Bulganin, Deputy Defence Minister, had ordered their arrest.

On the basis of documents and witness statements it appears that Wallenberg was first taken to Lubyanka prison and then in late May 1945 to Lefortovo prison. In March 1947 he was in Lubyanka again where he was questioned for only the fifth time. Up to February 1957 Moscow denied that Wallenberg had been arrested. Then they claimed that Wallenberg had probably succumbed to a heart attack in Lubyanka prison on 17 July 1947. In 1964 it was stated that that was definitely the date of his death. This was still claimed even after Glasnost and the handover of items belonging to Wallenberg which had allegedly been found by chance in 1989. This is also the date of death in the official Russian decree of rehabilitation for Raoul Wallenberg at the end of 2000.

Prisoner number 7

In 2001, a Swedish-Russian committee did not come to a common result. All the more spectacular was the announcement made by the independent Wallenberg researchers Susanne Berger and Vadim Birstein in March 2010. Archivists of the Russian intelligence agency FSB had told them in November 2009 that, with great likelihood, Wallenberg was “Prisoner number 7” in Lubyanka prison. This person had been interrogated there on 22 and 23 July 1947. The Russian side thus cautiously adjusted the alleged date of death. Any hope for a turn in the case of Wallenberg did not materialise. There was neither confirmation nor was any other person named as “Prisoner Number 7”. In November 2012 a conference was held in Vienna to mark the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg. At the conference, Vasilij Christoforov, the director of the Central Archives of the FSB, continued to maintain that Wallenberg had died in July 1947, a few days before or after 17 July 1947. Mr Christoforov did not produce any evidence.

From the interrogation register at Lubyanka prison in Moscow, 23 July 1947. The entry for a prisoner number 7, who together with Wallenberg’s chauffeur Vilmos Langfelder, was interrogated for sixteen hours that day, remains strictly censored.

Swedish Professor Nanna Svartz brought news that Raoul Wallenberg may well have been alive after 1947. She stated that at a medical conference in Moscow in 1961, her Russian colleague, Professor A. L. Myasnikov, had said that Raoul Wallenberg was either in a psychiatric clinic or prison (“mental hospital”). In order to discuss how they should proceed, Professor G. Danischewskij was consulted. After the Swedish government became involved, Mjasnikov was instructed by senior Russian figures to deny everything. In 1965 Sweden managed to arrange a talk between Svartz and Mjasnikov but they could not agree. It is unclear why Professor Danischewskij was not involved. Did Sweden only have half-hearted interest?  There is a document according to which, on 26 May 1964 in the preparations for a state visit, the Swedish ambassador Gunnar Jarring spoke in favour of new inquiries into the fate of Raoul Wallberg. However, he also said that this could just produce the same results as in 1957. The longer that Wallenberg may have actually lived, the more uncomfortable the questions Sweden had to be asked became.

Hertha Voigt, a former prisoner in Lubyanka prison, stated that after she arrived at Lubyanka prison, she was in contact with Raoul Wallenberg – after July 1947. There were no official Swedish interviews with her. Demands are still being made on Russia to reveal the truth about the fate of Raoul Wallenberg.

The right to truth

Guy von Dardel and Nina Lagergren in Moscow 1989, with Raoul Wallenberg’s Swedish diplomatic passport.

Still today, the family of Raoul Wallenberg unwaveringly continues to search for the truth about the real circumstances of his fate. Since 2015 this has been actively supported by the international research project “The Raoul Wallenberg Research Initiative” (www.rwi-70.de).

In 2017 Raoul Wallenberg’s niece Marie Dupuy filed a lawsuit against the Russian secret service (FSB) because of its refusal to allow Wallenberg’s family access to important documents. In October 2019 researchers and Wallenberg’s family made a new application to Russian archives. In early February 2021 the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov informed the Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde that new documents had been found in the archives of the Russian Foreign Ministry and that these documents would soon be given to Wallenberg’s family.

Author: Christoph Gann

Translation: Patricia van den Brink

Contact: info@fritz-bauer-forum.de

Sources:

Christoph Gann: Raoul Wallenberg. So viele Menschen retten wie möglich, 2. Aufl. München 2002.

Christoph Gann: Hinweise, “Zeugen”, Widersprüchliches – Eine Chronik der Spurensuche, in: Stefan Karner (Hrsg.): Auf den Spuren Wallenbergs, StudienVerlag Innsbruck/Wien/Bozen 2015.

Header-Image: ©Mika (Unsplash)