NEWS

As the world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, we draw renewed attention to the most protracted missing person case of the Cold War: The fate of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who was arrested in Hungary and taken to the Soviet Union in 1945, remains unknown.
After a ten-year study, the Swedish-Russian Working Group in 2001 presented the findings of its official investigation into the Wallenberg case. In addition, we, as independent consultants to the Working Group, issued our own research reports that summarized our findings in greater detail.
Our work has focused on reconstructing Raoul Wallenberg’s path through captivity from a wide variety of records. Through our research a number of concrete questions and precise leads have been developed, which, if answered, would almost certainly provide incisive clues about his disappearance in Soviet captivity.

On April 19, in an interview with Svenska Dagbladet, German Filmmaker Klaus Dexel described his disappointment at the reaction of Peter Wallenberg when some years ago he asked him about a document containing new information about actions the Wallenberg Family had taken in the 1950’s in the Raoul Wallenberg case. Peter Wallenberg simply chose to ignore the question. But Klaus Dexel is right: The document does deserve serious attention.

The paper sheds important light on the behind-the-scenes role in the Raoul Wallenberg investigation by one of the most elusive parties in the case, the Wallenberg family. It is an internal interview report from SÄPO, (dated September 15 and 22, 1954 respectively) which was forwarded to UD by SÄPO’s Chief Inspector  Otto Danielsson. A Swedish businessman by the name of Ernst Natander had reported an unusual conversation he had had in March 1954 with one of Jacob Wallenberg’s close associates, Carl Hardeberg, then a director in Industri-Diesel. According to Natander, Hardeberg had told him that a Major “Tärnström” (sic) of the Swedish Defense Staff was “traveling around Europe to establish contact with firms which had connections to Russia.” Through these contacts, Hardeberg added, “Tärnström” “hoped to obtain information about Raoul Wallenberg.” Would Natander support these efforts? Most interestingly, Hardeberg indicated that ” …the Wallenberg Family was ready to make a large sacrifice for discovering what happened to Raoul.”

Dear President Katzav Our stay in Israel and our meeting with both you and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was very important to our family. For the first time in many years we felt a strong, personal commitment for finding the… 

Press release from the Prime minister’s Office:

02/02/2005 Photo by GPO02

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, at his Knesset office, met with family members of Raoul Wallenberg. Minister Natan Sharansky attended the meeting.Prime Minister Sharon thanked Raoul Wallenberg’s nieces for their uncle’s many efforts to save Diaspora Jews during the Holocaust and commended them for coming to Israel.

(Comments prepared for delivery to the Raoul Wallenberg Symposium, January 18, 2005,

Osgoode Hall, York University, Toronto, Ontario)
by David Matas

The panel I have been asked to moderate is titled “Combatting Racism, Intolerance and Human Rights Violations”. This panel occurs in the context of a symposium titled “Raoul Wallenberg Day International Human Rights Symposium”. The symposium, according to the program, is intended to serve four purposes. One of these is to celebrate Raoul Wallenberg’s extraordinary life and humanitarian contribution. Another is to educate the next generation of Canadian leaders about human rights issues.

Leonid Ragozin writes at BBC News; “In 1998, I spent four days working as a translator for a research group trying to find evidence supporting reports that Wallenberg may have still been alive long after 1947 when, according to the… 

Uttalande
Utrikesdepartementet 17 januari 2005

Laila Freivalds, Utrikesminister

Sextio år har idag förflutit sedan den dag, den 17 januari 1945, då Raoul Wallenberg arresterades.

Redan under vårvintern 1944 hade de första provisoriska passen utfärdats av den svenska legationen i Budapest under ledning av Ivan Danielsson och Per Anger. Med Raoul Wallenbergs ankomst till Budapest i juli 1944 intensifierades de svenska räddningsaktionerna.

Exakt hur många judar som kunde räddas undan Förintelsen tack vare den svenska legationens och Raoul Wallenbergs insatser kommer vi antagligen aldrig att få veta. I ett historiskt perspektiv saknar detta dock betydelse. Viktigt att minnas är att här fanns en människa som var beredd att ägna all sin kraft åt – och till sist också fick offra sin frihet för – en stor humanitär gärning. Eller som det i några korta ord har sagts om Raoul Wallenberg: “En enda människa kan göra en skillnad”.

In 1991, at the request of Raoul Wallenberg’s brother, a  joint Swedish-Russian Commission was set up to investigate the fate of missing Swedish Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. The commission discovered that 3 Hungarian numbered prisoners secretly held in Vladimir prison, Soviet Union had been…