In the Moscow studio were Anatoly Prokopenko, former chairman of the Special Section of the State Central Archives of USSR; Ilia Altman, Director of the society “Holocaust”.
The title of the session was “Raoul Wallenberg’s fate” and the parties agree that more needs to be done in order to ascertain the fate and whereabouts of the Swedish hero.
Anatoly Prokopenko remarked “And as you know the Commission included people from the KGB, as it was called then.
Thomas Bertelman,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Ambassador of Sweden to the Russian Federation
Dr. Vasily S. Khristoforov Director, FSB Archives Directorate
Federal Security Service
Bolshoi Lubyanka Street, House 2 Moscow, Russia 101000
In re: Your article about Raoul Wallenberg in “Vremya” of January 19, 2009
Dear Vasily Stepanovich,
All of us, as former members and consultants to the Russian-Swedish Working Group, were very pleased to read your thorough and very interesting article about the many puzzling questions that still remain in the case of the missing Swedish diplomat Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg. We believe your outline of some of the key issues that remain unresolved will help researchers such as ourselves to formulate incisive questions that can be followed up further in Russian archives. We welcome your article also because it provides an opportunity for a more direct exchange of views.
One of the central problems in establishing all the facts of Wallenberg’s imprisonment in the Soviet Union, including the main question ‘What happened to him?’ once his trail breaks off in the Spring of 1947, is, as you stress, the problem of missing documents. But your article also helps us to identify areas of research where progress may well be possible.
Google translation from russia:
In the historical center of Budapest, on the street Dohoney is an unusual monument – a weeping willow. Her thin metal branches – leaves-plate engraved with the names of Hungarian Jews – Holocaust victims. Near willow plaque of black granite with the names of people fleeing the Nazis were doomed to inevitable destruction of the Jews. The first name on the list – Raoul Wallenberg. Thanks to Swedish diplomat Wallenberg, who worked in the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944, sent to death camps escaped several thousand people. January 17, 1945 Raoul Wallenberg was arrested in Budapest by Soviet troops and disappeared.
Determining the fate of Raoul Wallenberg for many years by specialists from different countries. Nearly a decade led the search for historical records joint Russian-Swedish Working Group, established by intergovernmental agreement. We investigated many versions examined hundreds of volumes of archival documents, held meetings with dozens of people. But the researchers did not find the answers to critical questions: why the Soviet secret services was needed Wallenberg, what are the details of his stay in Soviet prisons, finally, what is the real reason and the date of his death? Documents related to Raoul Wallenberg, access is limited. Materials stored in the Central Archives of the Federal Security Service, in conjunction with the report of the Russian-Swedish group, and other documentary sources, allow to some extent to recreate a historical retrospective.
February 27 (Itar-Tass) – Representatives of the Romanov House have asked the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to send to court their appeal about rehabilitation of Russia’s last Tsar Nicholas II and members of his family.
A lawyer of Imperial House head Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, German Lukyanov, told Itar-Tass on Monday that “we have repeatedly sent documents to the Prosecutor General’s office addressed to the Prosecutor General with the request to send the rehabilitation case to court with a summary of the Prosecutor’s Office”.
The lawyer cited an article of the law on rehabilitation of victims of political reprisals, according to which a rehabilitation case, if it is turned down, must be sent for a court review.
By William Korey
April 26, 2002
In early September 1973, 35 prominent Jewish activists drafted and distributed throughout Moscow an extraordinary “open letter” in which they publicly identified themselves with physicist Andrei D. Sakharov, the Soviet Union’s leading dissident, as he faced ferocious hate-propaganda campaigns organized by the Kremlin. The letter sought to assure him of “our moral support and deep respect.” Additionally, a few days later, the leading Jewish scientist-refuseniks, including the distinguished Veniamin Levich (who would later teach at the University of Tel Aviv and at the City University of New York), joined in a statement denouncing the propaganda campaigns as “intimidation of all free thinkers and preparation of public opinion for future repression.”
Google translation:
The case of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saves the Hungarian Jews in 1945 and then disappeared in the depths of the Soviet secret police, will continue.The Swedish government announced the creation of a new commission to assess the actions of the country following the arrest of Wallenberg and find out whether everything was done for the salvation of national hero.
The story that more than half a century is hardly a major stumbling block in relations between Moscow and Stockholm, the Russian side is settled. In January, the two capitals was published by the Russian-Swedish report, endowed almost a decade to work together to determine the fate of Wallenberg. Conclusions of the Russian part of the commission are clear: the Swedish diplomat “has died or is likely died July 17, 1947, and responsible for it” the then top state leadership of the USSR. Shortly before the publication of the report prosecutors Russia Wallenberg rehabilitated as victims of repression. Swedish experts, in turn, noted that “many important questions remain unanswered and the Wallenberg case” can not be closed. ” In Stockholm suspect that in Russia there are still documents, access to which the commission has not received.
Google translation from russia:
Today in Stockholm will be published so-called White Paper on the case of Raoul Wallenberg. This is the fruit of a decade of Russian and Swedish experts who have studied the circumstances of the disappearance in 1945 in Budapest, the Swedish diplomat who saved from deportation to death camps thousands of Hungarian Jews. Over 55 years of business Wallenberg remains one of the main irritants in relations between Moscow and Stockholm.
As announced last week the Swedish co-chairman of the joint commission, Hans Magnusson, Russian and Swedish experts have not agreed on a unified version of what happened, so each side will present its version. Russian interpretation is as follows: Raoul Wallenberg, who was arrested by Soviet troops in Hungary, was a victim of Stalinist repression and, obviously, was executed in the Lubyanka prison in July 1947. Last December, the Russian prosecutor general’s office exonerated Wallenberg. (Until 1957 the Soviet Union in general, denied that the detention Swede, then came the version that he died in prison of a heart attack in July 1947 the second.)
In the Swedish report focuses on the fact that no conclusive evidence of Wallenberg’s death in 1947 is still there, and thus make such a conclusion impossible. In other words, the Swedes believe that there is no answer to the main question: what really happened to Wallenberg.
Google translation from russia:
Attorney-General has decided to rehabilitate the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and his driver Vilmos Langfeldera. This RIA Novosti reported in the Office of Information and Public Relations Prosecutor General’s Office.
After verification, prosecutors concluded that the two Swedes “were repressed by Soviet authorities for political reasons.” In this regard, they are subject to a Federal Law “On Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression on Oct. 18, 1991.
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg was arrested by Stalin’s regime during the Second World War. He worked at the Swedish embassy in Budapest. Using diplomatic status, Wallenberg saved the Nazi-occupied Hungary, Jews who were sent to concentration camps. He gave them Swedish passports, hiding them in the imaginary Swedish missions, bribed and intimidated the occupation authorities.
Last colleagues saw Raoul Wallenberg 17 January 1945, when he went to meet with the commander of Soviet troops in Budapest. Initially, the Soviet Foreign Ministry claimed that Wallenberg is under the protection of Soviet troops. Then, in a personal note, Ambassador of Sweden, on August 18, 1947 reported the death of Wallenberg in Budapest during the battle for the city.
In 1991 he established the Russian-Swedish commission of inquiry into the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg.