Soviets lied over Wallenberg death: researchers
Source: thelocal.se
Two researchers have said there is strong evidence to suggest that Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg was still alive after the date on which the Soviet Union claimed he had died of a heart attack.Censored documents came to light this week casting doubt on Soviet claims about the wartime fate of the Swedish Holocaust hero, who went missing in January 1945.
A recently surfaced document indicates that Wallenberg may have been alive a week after Soviet officials said he had died of a heart attack, the researchers said.
Vadim Birstein, a researcher with the Swedish-Russian working group on Raoul Wallenberg, called the document "very, very important."
"It shows that what the Soviets said for 60 years was basically lies," the Russian-born US researcher told AFP in a telephone interview.
Wallenberg, who was working as a diplomat in Nazi-occupied Budapest when he managed to rescue tens of thousands of Jews destined for death camps, went missing after his arrest by Soviet forces in Hungary on January 17, 1945.
Since 1957, Soviet and later Russian officials have claimed the Swede died in Soviet custody on July 17, 1947.
His body was never recovered, and for decades, his family and loved ones, as well as experts around the world, have rejected the official Soviet version of his death.
Now Birstein and his German colleague Susanne Berger believe they could be close to proving the official account was a lie.
The pair had for years been receiving copies of heavily censored documents in response to requests for information from the Russian FSB security service archives.
Then suddenly last November, they received a document clearly stating that Wallenberg was "with great likelihood" the same person as a "Prisoner number Seven" interrogated at the Lubyanka prison in Moscow on July 23, 1947.
"The circumstantial evidence seems to be rather strong" that Wallenberg was indeed prisoner number seven," Berger told AFP.
He pointed out that the man in charge of Wallenberg’s case had carried out the 16-hour interrogation of number seven, along with Wallenberg’s presumed cellmate and his driver.
Although a few possible extra days added to Wallenberg’s life may not seem like a big deal, Birstein and Berger said the information was momentous, since it makes a range of alternative fates possible.
"If it is confirmed that prisoner number seven was Wallenberg, all options are again on the table," Berger said.
The Swede could, for example, have died during the July 23 interrogation; been sentenced and transferred to another prison or work camp; or executed.
The Swedish-Russian working group said in a 2001 report that Wallenberg may have been kept alive in Soviet prisons as a possible bargaining chip with the West, even though there was no hard evidence to support that suggestion.
Reported sightings in Soviet prisons over the years fuelled rumours that he could still be alive.
If still alive, Wallenberg would today be 97 years old.
Article from: TheLocal.se
"Raoul Wallenberg (August 4, 1912 – July 17, 1947?)was a Swedish humanitarian who worked in Budapest, Hungary, during World War II to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. Between July and December 1944, he issued protective passports and housed Jews, saving tens of thousands of Jewish lives.On January 17, 1945, he was arrested in Budapest by the Soviets after they wrested control of the city from the Germans, and was reported to have died in March. The exact circumstances of his death have long been in dispute. In 1957, the Soviets claimed that Wallenberg had actually died of a heart attack in 1947 at the age of 35. There had been reports, however, from prisoners in the same facility, that he was seen alive long past 1947.
In 1991, Vyacheslav Nikonov was assigned by the Russian government to find out the truth; he concluded that Wallenberg did indeed die in 1947, executed while a prisoner at Lubyanka. Associated Press reported in April 2010, that newly discovered evidence shows "with great likelihood" that Wallenberg was alive after the date the Soviets claimed he died.
Wallenberg has been honored numerous times. He is an honorary citizen of the United States, Canada, Hungary and Israel. Israel has also designated Wallenberg one of the Righteous among the Nations. Monuments have been dedicated to him, and streets have been named after him throughout the world. A Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States was created in 1981 to "perpetuate the humanitarian ideals and the nonviolent courage of Raoul Wallenberg" and gives out the Raoul Wallenberg Award to that end."
On February 6, 1957, the Soviets released a document dated July 17, 1947, which stated "I report that the prisoner Wallenberg who is well-known to you, died suddenly in his cell this night, probably as a result of a heart attack or heart failure. Pursuant to the instructions given by you that I personally have Wallenberg under my care, I request approval to make an autopsy with a view to establishing cause of death... I have personally notified the minister and it has been ordered that the body be cremated without autopsy."
The document was signed by Smoltsov, then the head of the Lubyanka prison infirmary, and addressed to Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov, the Soviet minister of state security. In 1989, the Soviets returned Wallenberg’s personal belongings to his family, including his passport and cigarette case. Soviet officials said they found the materials when they were upgrading the shelves in a store room.
In 1991, Vyacheslav Nikonov was tasked by the Russian government to investigate Wallenberg’s fate. He concluded that Wallenberg did indeed die in 1947, executed while a prisoner in Lubyanka.
In Moscow in 2000, Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev announced that Wallenberg had been executed in 1947 in Lubyanka prison. He claimed that Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former Soviet secret police chief, told him about the shooting in a private conversation. The statement did not explain why Wallenberg was killed or why the government had lied about it.
Pavel Sudoplatov claimed that Raoul Wallenberg was poisoned by Grigory Mairanovsky.
In 2000, Russian prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov signed a verdict posthumously rehabilitating Wallenberg and his driver, Langfelder, as "victims of political repression". A number of files pertinent to Wallenberg were turned over to the chief rabbi of Russia by the Russian government in September 2007.
They will be housed at the Museum of Tolerance in Moscow, scheduled to open in 2011.
From: Wikipedia
"The Case of Raoul Wallenberg - Saviour and Victim" Trailer
Video from: YouTube.com
Video from: YouTube.com
