Volume 48, Number 14 · September 20, 2001
The Truth about Wallenberg
By Amy Knight
Raoul Wallenberg: Report of the Swedish–Russian Working Group
Stockholm: Swedish Ministryfor Foreign Affairs, 206 pp.
Report on the Activities of the Russian–Swedish Working Group for Determining the Fate of Raoul Wallenberg (1991–2000)
Moscow: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 37 pp.
Reports by the Independent Consultants to the Swedish–Russian Working Group on the Fate of Raoul Wallenberg, January 12, 2001:
Liquidatsia: The Question of Raoul Wallenberg's Death or Disappearance in 1947
by Susan Ellen Mesinai
48 pp.
Cell Occupancy Analysis of Korpus 2 of the Vladimir Prison: An Examination of the Consistency of Eyewitness Sightings of Raoul Wallenberg with Prisoner Registration Cards from the Prison Kartoteka
by Marvin W. Makinen and Ari D. Kaplan
63 pp.
Swedish Aspects of the Raoul Wallenberg Case
by Susanne Berger
63 pp.
On January 13, 1945, the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, accompanied only by his chauffeur, left his legation in Budapest for a meeting with officers of the advancing Soviet army, which was then in the process of 'liberating' the city from the pro-Nazi government. Wallenberg's apparent purpose in seeking out the Soviets was to ensure the protection of Jews and their property in Budapest, and to make security arrangements for members of his legation. Wallenberg was not a career diplomat. He was a businessman with experience in Hungary who had, on the initiative of American officials, been appointed to work in Budapest as an employee of the War Refugee Board (WRB), an agency established by President Franklin Roosevelt for the purpose of rescuing Jews from the Nazis. To assist Wallenberg, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided him with a diplomatic passport and the rank of legation secretary at the Swedish legation. From July 9, 1944, the date of his arrival in Budapest, to the following December, Wallenberg saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from deportation to death camps, both by issuing them 'protective passports' (documents which gave the holder the protection of the Swedish legation) and in some cases by negotiating directly with the Nazis for their freedom in exchange for money.
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