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Wallenberg’s Fate?

KGB diary says Stalin ordered
Holocaust hero’s execution.

Times of Israel

J

Yad Vashem

oseph Stalin ordered the “liquida- then foreign minister.
tion” of Swedish diplomat Raoul
In his diary, Serov mentioned the
Wallenberg — who saved tens of
interrogation of his predecessor as
thousands of Hungarian Jews during the head of Soviet state security Viktor
Holocaust — in 1947, according to the
Abakumov, who was tried and executed
diary of a former KGB chief.
in 1954. Abakumov revealed to Serov
The document offers
that Stalin had ordered the killing
a first confirmation that
of Wallenberg.
Wallenberg, who disap-
Serov wrote that he was asked
peared in 1945, was executed
to investigate what had hap-
by the Soviet Union.
pened to the Swede by Stalin’s
A young architect and
successor. The former spymaster
businessman educated at
admitted he could find no evi-
the University of Michigan,
dence that Wallenberg had been
Wallenberg volunteered to
involved in espionage.
Raoul
travel to Hungary in 1944
For decades, historians have
Wallenberg’s
as a special envoy to aid a
searched in vain for any official
passport photo
U.S. effort to rescue Jews
Soviet documents referring to
from extermination at the hands of Nazi Wallenberg. Not even a prisoner file
Germany.
exists for Wallenberg. But the file once
Wallenberg used his position to save
existed and is mentioned in Serov’s
tens of thousands of Jews by issuing
diary. It was apparently destroyed in a
them protective passports in the final
Soviet effort to cover up the young dip-
months of World War II.
lomat’s death.
But in January 1945, while the Soviets
Marie Dupuy, Wallenberg’s niece, cast
were engaged in a prolonged and bloody doubt on the documentation, writing on
battle with the Germans over Budapest, her website that Serov’s “notes include
the 32-year-old diplomat was called in
a number of factual errors which cast
for questioning at the Russian head-
some doubt on the reliability of at least
quarters in Debrecen over allegations
part of his recollections.”
of espionage. He was never heard from
The remarkable document that
again.
revealed the long sought-after secret
In 1957, the Soviet Union released a
of Wallenberg’s death was discovered
document saying Wallenberg had been
four years ago in the garage of Serov’s
jailed in the Lubyanka prison, the noto- only grandchild who had inherited the
rious building where the KGB security
dacha (seasonal home) located in north-
services were headquartered, and that
western Moscow, from her infamous
he died of heart failure on July 17, 1947. grandfather.
But the account has been questioned,
When workers tore into one of the
with some historians maintaining
internal walls during renovations, they
Wallenberg was executed.
happened upon several suitcases.
In 2000, the head of a Russian com-
Nikita Petrov, a historian with the
mission of investigation conceded
Moscow-based Memorial organization,
Wallenberg had been imprisoned in
told the Times the diary had probably
1947 for political reasons by KGB agents been buried in the walls around 1971,
in Lubyanka, where he eventually died,
when the former spymaster came under
but declined to provide hard evidence
state surveillance.
or elaborate on the circumstances of his
The book containing Serov’s diary
death.
is called Notes From a Suitcase: Secret
The evidence ultimately came to light Diaries of the First KGB Chairman,
when the diary of the first KGB chief,
Found Over 25 Years After His Death.
Ivan A. Serov, was published in Russia
Wallenberg’s family has never
in June.
received an official explanation as to
“I have no doubts that Wallenberg
why he was arrested by Soviet forces
was liquidated in 1947,” wrote Serov,
shortly after they captured Hungary
according to report in the New York
from the Nazis or information on what
Times on Aug. 7.
happened to him after his arrest.
The order to execute the Swedish dip-
Last year, his relatives asked Swedish
lomat apparently came from the leader
authorities to declare him dead, and in
of the Soviet Union himself, Joseph
March the government complied with
Stalin, as well as Vyacheslav M. Molotov, their request.

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38 August 11 • 2016

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