2 Friday November 9, 1985
,
THE
biY40. 1111 A" 461-2 1 FNTEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Solzhenitsyn Cleared of Anti-Semitic Charge, Commentary Recalled
Publication in French and Russian,
with the English translation due from Far-
rar Straus Giroux in March 1986, of the
expanded edition of August 1914 by the
Nobel Prize winning Russian author Alek-
sandr Solzhenitsyn, has revived discussion
of the charge that he is an anti-Semite.
His resort to ugly terms about Jews
was a chief cause of the charge. The debate
is renewed because the new Solzhenitsyn
text deals with the assassination of a Rus-
sian prime minister by the Jewish anarch-
ist Dmitry Bogrov. The prime minister in
question, Peter Stolypin, is referred to in a
New York Times comment by Richard
Grenier as having been given "new
amplitude to the debate that this assassi-
nation of 1911, little known to most Ameri-
cans, is considered a turning point in Rus-
sian history by Mr. Solzhenitsyn and other
Russian scholars. They believe that Stoly-
pin was the last liberal, dynamic Russian
leader (and benefactor of the Jews) who
might have 'saved' Russia from Bol-
shevism. It is also pointed out that Bogrov
was a renegade Jew and therefore was not
acting as a Jew in the Stolypin assassina-
tion."
Solzhenitsyn is defended by many
scholars against the charge of anti-
Semitism, notable among the defenders
being Elie Wiesel who had written on some
occasions about the Russian writer. When
told recently that Solzhenitsyn's attitude
is that "Jews are simply not his subject,"
Wiesel said, "Well, I understand that. As a
Russian, he is concerned mainly with Rus-
sians the way I am concerned mainly with
Jews."
Completely rejecting the charge of
anti-Semitism leveled at Solzhenitsyn,
Wiesel said, "He is too intelligent, too
courageous, too great a writer. For Sol-
zhenitsyn to be an anti-Semite would be
wholly out of character. I am only dis-
turbed by what seems to be an unconscious
insensitivity on his part to Jewish suffer-
ing."
In an essay about Solzhenitsyn,
Wiesel had expressed the hope that the
Russian writer would revise or at least ex-
plain his attitude "if for no other reason
than to reassure his Jewish admirers who
want to like and respect him without
reservations."
Significantly, the most impressive re-
pudiation of the anti-Semitic charge
leveled at Solzhenitsyn appeared on this
page ten years ago.
It was when the Russian Nobel Prize
winner associated with Raoul Wallen-
berg's mother, who was still alive at the
time in her mid-nineties, in behalf of one of
the greatest and now internationally-
honored heroes of World War II. That's
when the Russian author appealed to his
compatriots in Russia and to world public
opinion in Wallenberg's behalf. There was
growing belief at the time that Wallenberg
was alive in a Russian prison. His mother
adhered to that view. Solzhenitsyn concur-
red in it.
In the interest of the currently revived
discussion about Solzhenitsyn's attitude
about Jews and his treatment of them in
his novels, and especially in the obligation
to keep the Raoul Wallenberg story intact,
what appeared in this column a decade ago
must not become a literal burial of an im-
portant documentary.
Purely Commentary, The Detroit
Jewish News, June 20, 1975, carried the
story under the headline: "Raoul Wallen-
berg: Is Solzhenitsyn Message One of Hope
That He Lives?"
Here is the complete text of the Sol-
zhenitsyn appeal, and the involvement of
the Wallenberg family, as it appeared on
this page in 1975:
Raoul Wallenberg may be
•
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
alive, suffering in a Russian
prison.
This, at least, may be inferred
from a message by Aleksandr Sol-
zhenitsyn, who was interviewed
during his visit to Sweden by a
correspondent of "Russian
Thought."
That her son is alive has re-
mained the contention of Raoul's
mother with whom Solzhenitsyn
met and discussed the case of the
famous hero who rescued many
Jews. In the interview with Sol-
zhenitsyn, which was reprinted in
National Review in a translation
from the Russian by Alberg and
Tanya Schmidt, the number of
Jews Wallenberg had rescued in
Hungary in the last years of the
Nazi occupation of Hungary is
given as 20,000. Some have cre-
dited him with rescuing as many as
50,000 to 70,000.
The Swedish interviewer
asked Solzhenitsyn about Raoul
Wallenberg. It is evident that Wal-
lenberg's role as a rescuer of Jews
from the Nazis is not forgotten in
his native Sweden. There has been
no pressure upon the USSR to as-
certain his whereabouts because
involvements with the Soviet
Union are being avoided diplomat-
ically. Because of the great con-
cern in the Wallenberg case, the
Swedish interview merits widest
circulation to inspire renewed
interest in the fate of Wallenberg.
Solzhenitsyn thus recapitulates
the story of Wallenberg:
"In order to avoid trouble over
Wallenberg, Soviet authorities fal-
sified the records as follows: a cer-
tificate was allegedly found at the
Lubyanka prison in 1957 stating
that he had died in 1947, and they
tried to close the case in this fash-
ion.
"However, much of the infor-
mation in the possession of Wal-
lenberg's mother dates from later,
and even very recent times .. from
fellow prisoners who said he was
still alive in 1970. He is now 62
years old. We must hurry, hurry to
have him released. What is needed
for that is a powerful public opin-
ion movement able to force your
government and other govern-
ments to save this man. And here I
think that Jewish world opinion
Raoul Wallenberg
could be very helpful. Here is why I
say this: you probably know that
Wallenberg, as an official of the
Swedish Embassy in Budapest, re-
scued Jews from death by getting
them out to the West. According to
the data, he saved over 20,000 Jews
in this manner, and I think that
Jewish public opnion, which has
been so effective in defending
Jewish people in the Soviet Union
imprisoned for one, three, or five
years could come out strongly for
Wallenberg and save him."
How interesting, that Sol-
zhenitsyn should suggest Jewish
activism in Raoul's behalf!
The case has not been forgot-
ten. Wallenberg, a graduate from
the University of Michigan College
of Architecture, is honored an-
nually through the Wallenberg Ar-
chitectural Lectures in Ann Arbor.
But there has been little pressure
on Russia in recent years to ascer-
tain the fate of the libertarian.
Perhaps Solzhenitsyn has inspired
renewed activity for truth in the
case of a great humanitarian who
is martyred in Russia.
USSR Guilt .. .
Ignoring Wallenberg
The constant renewal of interest in the
fate of Raoul Wallenberg is an emphasis of
the public interest that never wanes, must
never wane, in such matters. The latest
evidence was an editorial in the Wall Street
Journal, Nov. 18, dealing with the
Reagan-Gorbachev summit and the hopes
that human rights will not be abandoned
in dealings with Russia. Headlined "The
Wallenberg Cover-Up," the Wall Street
Journal asserted:
The weekend announcement
that the Soviets may release some
Americans' spouses now held be-
hind the Iron Curtain will be good
news when it happens. There's
rarely been any apparent political
reason for the Soviet practice of
dividing American and Russian
spouses. It's important, however,
that some distinction be made be-
tween such welcome gestures and
human-rights issues that raise
more acute questions about the na-
ture of the Soviet system.
One profoundly symbolic
human-rights case is especially
poignant. In World War II, the
Russians took Hungary from the
Nazis. They also took political
prisoners in order to make the
country safe for communism. One
of those imprisoned was Raoul
Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat
who managed to save 100,000 Hun-
garian Jews from the Nazis by
granting them Swedish passports
and otherwise whisking them out
of Nazi control. Such a human-
rights campaigner would have
caused trouble for the to-
talitarianism being implemented
in Hungary.
Mr. Wallenberg was taken
prisoner by the Soviets in 1945, but
in 1947 they denied any knowledge
of his case. In 1957, the Soviets ad-
mitted he had been imprisoned (by
a Stalinist, they said) but claimed
he had died in 1947. Dozens of cit-
ings by gulag survivors have
raised hope in the West that Mr.
Wallenberg might still be alive. The
Research Center for Soviet Con-
centration Camps, an Israel-based
group, contacts all Soviet emigres
coming into Israel, and reports cit-
ings of Mr. Wallenberg up to 1982.
He would be 73 years old if alive.
The Soviets consider the case
closed. They refuse to accept in-
quiries made by Sweden or the
U.S., which granted Mr. Wallen-
berg honorary citizenship in 1981.
Out of desperation, Mr. Wallen-
berg's half brother and legal
guardian asked a U.S. court to get
the Soviets to account for Mr. Wal-
lenberg. Despite the usual rules
about immunity for sovereign na-
tions, U.S. District Judge Bar-
rington Parker recently ruled that
"while the U.S.S.R. has con-
tinuously represented that Wal-
lenberg died in 1947, those repre-
sentations are inconsistent with
and at odds with credible and un-
controverted evidence."
Judge Parker found that the
Soviet Union "has always had
knowledge and information about
Wallenberg; that it has failed to
disclose and has concealed that in-
formation; and that otherwise, de-
fendant's representations are sus-
pect and should be given little, if
any, credit." The Soviets were told
to explain their "gross violation" of
international law.
The judge may have to wait a
long time for the Soviets to comply
with a report on who's languishing
where in the gulag. For one thing,
unaccounted-for prisoners are an
extremely touchy subject for the
Soviets' Eastern European "al-
lies." The exact figures are hard to
come by, but in 1972 the Senate
Judiciary Committee reported
there were tens, perhaps hun-
dreds, of thousands of Eastern
Europeans in Soviet gulags. Poles
were sent during World War II,
Hungarians after their 1956 revolt,
Czechs -after theirs in 1968 and
Poles during the Solidarity era.
Nonetheless, the Soviets still
even deny the 1940 Katyn Forest
massacre of 15,000 Polish officers
and grviceA-ten.So it's entirely un-
likely that the Soviets will ever tell
the full story of what happened to
Mr. Wallenberg. It would be
encouraging to see this week's
summit prove otherwise.
This is another powerful appeal to
L
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