Raoul Wallenberg’s family, the von Dardel
Actions done by Raoul Wallenberg’s nearest family.
Maj Wallenberg’s husband Raoul died when she was pregnant and gave her new born baby the same name as his father, Raoul. Maj Wallenberg married Fredrik von Dardel some years later.
When Raoul Wallenberg diseapared in the URSS Maj together with her husband’s, Fredrik von Dardel, fought daily to get her son Raoul back home.
Fredrik von Dardel considered him as his son and was of a very precious help to his wife’s fight. He wrote a diary, with detailed historical facts about their fight.
Fredrik and Maj got two children Guy and Nina, married to Gunnar Lagergren.
Nina Lagergren has been much engaged at the Raoul Wallenberg association in Stockholm and has been very active with education at school with the Raoul Wallenberg Acadamy for young leaders.
Guy von Dardel, Raoul Wallenberg’s half brother, elementary partical physicist at CERN, fought since his abduction to get his brother home. It was due to his efforts that the first International Commission on the Fate and Whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg was established and that this group did groundbreaking work in Russian prison archives.
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Fredrik von Dardel’s diary
Fredrik von Dardel wrote a diary about their fight to bring their son home in 1952 up to 1978, the year before he passed away.
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Guy von Dardel passed away in August 28 2009, after having hoped up to the last day to get the truth about his brother’s Fate. Guy von Dardel often said “The truth can and will be found and it will be, as the Romans said long ago, « a monument more durable than marble. »”. He left 85 archive boxes after a life long research for his brother. Writing letters to Swedish, American, Russian, Israelis Prime Ministers, Ministers, Presidents (his first was to President Truman) and other personalities.
Guy von Dardel as a private person, sues URSS in 1984. Five years late, in 1989 Guy von Dardel and his sister Nina Lagergren receives Raoul Wallenberg’s belongings at the time of his arrest (diplomatic passport; an ID, a diary; a golden cigarette case and money in old dollars and Hungarian pengos).
In 1990 the Joint Soviet-International Commission to Establish the Fate and Whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg that was formed and headed by Dr. Guy von Dardel, arrived to study the registration cards of the prisoner in the Vladimir prison. It confirmed the presence of witnesses who had given their testimony about the presence of Raoul Wallenberg at the prison. After consultation of the register cards there were many questions about a prisoner nr 7.
He also requested for Raoul Wallenberg being rehabilitated, which was approved by the Russian Government in 2000.
Guy von Dardel’s last letter was the Open letter to Dr. Vasily S. Khristoforov Director, FSB Archives Directorate Federal Security written together with the Independents Working Group, followed by the answer about the prisoner nr 7 who might have been Raoul Wallenberg.In november 2009 in a formal reply to several questions from the Independent researchers regarding Russian prison interrogation registers from 1947, FSB archivists stated that « with great likelihood » Raoul Wallenberg became « Prisoner No. 7″ in Moscow’s Lubyanka prison some time that year.