A major challenge for researchers in the Raoul Wallenberg case has always been how little original documentation about the young Swedish diplomat survives from his adult life before 1944. Few personal letters or other documents have been preserved.
In particular, such papers would fill in important information about Wallenberg’s personal and professional contacts before he was sent to Hungary in July 1944 on a humanitarian mission to aid its Jewish population. Hungary had been formally allied with Nazi Germany since 1940, but Germany had nevertheless moved to occupy the country on March 19, 1944. In a short few months, almost 500,000 Jews were deported to exterminations camps in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Anatoly Prokopenko, who headed the Special Archive concerning documents from 20 different countries in Europe, says in 1991, he saw files in the KGB archive concerning Raoul Wallenberg and count Mikhail Tolstoy-Kutuzov, who followed Raoul Wallenberg to report to his handlers…
On August 28 Dr. Guy von Dardel, Raoul Wallenberg’s maternal half-brother, died peacefully in Geneva, Switzerland, having just reached his 90th birthday. On September 3, at a simple but elegant ceremony at the Eglise Evangelique, von Dardel’s notable contributions were celebrated in a heartfelt eulogy. However, his death received little coverage in his native Sweden, despite his membership in the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences and previous position as Professor of Physics at Lund University.
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 and Maj von Dardel, 1975, Expressen
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.
Prof. Guy von Dardel, a well known figure at CERN and in the international particle-physics community Image credit: Len Sirman Press
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).
He also requested for Raoul Wallenberg being rehabilitated, which was approved by the Russian Government in 2000.
Since 2001, in spite of Prime Minister Persson’s apology, the family has not seen any change of attitude by the Swedish Foreign Office regarding the Raoul Wallenberg case. The same year Guy von Dardel made a report summarizing the research that has been done.
In March 2003 the first independent, non-governmental Commission in the Raoul Wallenberg case presented its findings in Stockholm.1 Headed by Ingemar Eliasson, a centrist politician and the current Swedish ‘Riksmarskalk,’ the group had the task of examining the Swedish political leadership’s actions in the Raoul Wallenberg case from 1945-2001.
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.
Talk about Raoul Wallenberg, Buenos Aires, 1998-11-17
On behalf of my brother Raoul Wallenberg and our family I would like to thank the Argentinian authorities, Casa Argentina, and all the groups and individuals who took the initiative and realised the beautiful monument we see before us. We are grateful and proud to see Raoul remembered this way. I also speak on behalf of the thousands who lives were saved by Raoul Wallenberg and his colleagues in Budapest.
I am deeply touched by the interest hi case still attracts in a distant country, after half a century.
It is necessary that we always remember. Remembrance enables us to learn from the past and it is my hope that coming generations will be inspired by Raoul Wallenberg’s deeds and accomplishments. Perhaps most of all it is the spirit of his actions that we should remember and that we celebrate today. Raoul Wallenberg and those who worked with him showed all of us what it means to take responsibility personally. Personal committment, combined with utter determination and resourcefulness are what made Raoul Wallenberg’s efforts so effective.
Raoul Wallenberg: saved thousands of Jews from Nazis
Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov has said the Russians have done everything possible to discover the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazi holocaust.
Wallenberg disappeared in 1945 after being arrested by occupying Soviet troops. He was aged 32.
Mr Primakov, for the first time, described Wallenberg’s arrest as “criminal”. But he said there was no reason to doubt that Wallenberg died in a Moscow prison in 1947 of a heart attack.
Many people, including his family, question the official version of his fate. There were a number of unsubstantiated reports of sightings of Wallenberg into the 1970s. This led to the belief that he may have survived.
If he were alive now, he would be 85. But another suspicion is that he may eventually have been executed by Soviet security forces.
