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The search for Raoul Wallenberg
has been long and tiring for all of those involved. It has been
fifty-three years since his disappearance and if alive he would now
be eighty-five years old. Within the past half of a century, many
developments have risen concerning just what happened to Raoul and
his driver Vilmos Langfelder. Confidential, documented interviews of
prisoners from various prison camps in the Soviet Union have sited
Raoul Wallenberg alive, as recently as 1990. Hope still remains for
the release of Wallenberg or at least, knowing the true
facts surrounding his fate.
Arrest by the NKVD
So far, it can be concluded that Raoul Wallenberg and Vilmos Langfelder were arrested by a Russian NKVD officer a few days after they met at Soviet headquarters. After the arrest, they were both imprisoned in a prison in Budapest. They were then brought by train to Moscow. Wallenberg was arrested upon suspicion of espionage and spying for the United States and Great Britain. Though no proof of this existed, the Soviets were suspicious of a neutral diplomat on a purely "humanitarian" mission that was funded by the American War Refugee Board. It was common for Soviets to camouflage spying missions as humanitarian work.
Imprisonment in the
Gulag
On January 31, 1945, Raoul Wallenberg and Vilmos Langfelder entered Lubianka Prison where they were separated from one another. On March 18, Langfelder was transferred to Lefortovo Prison. The following May, Wallenberg was transferred there as well. In Lefortovo Prison, rumors of the Swede circulated through the walls through a system of knocking.
In February 1945, the Russian Ambassador to Stockholm assured Mrs. Von Dardel that her son was alive and well in the Soviet Union; however, warned her against making a big fuss about his release. The Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister also related these sentiments to Swedish Foreign Minister, Soderblom.
In December of 1945, Vilmos Langfelder was transferred out of cell 105 at Lefortovo Prison. This is where our knowledge of him ends.
On July 27, 1947, all prisoners in both prisons that had shared a cell with either of the Swedes were intensely questioned by the secret police. They wanted to know details of everything that Wallenberg or Langfelder had ever told them. After the interviews, some were put into solitary confinement for months. Exact reasons for these interrogations are unknown.
Russian Denial
The month following the interviews, on August 18, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Vishinsky, sent a note to the Swedish Minister Soderblom that said "As a result of careful investigation, it has been established that Wallenberg is not in the Soviet Union and that he is unknown to us." Then, on February 6, 1957, the Soviet government once again stunned the diplomatic community. In a memorandum to Ambassador Rolf Sohlman in Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko produced a handwritten document dated July 17, 1947 that indicated that Wallenberg "died suddenly in his cell last night probably as the result of a myocardial infarction [heart attack]." Instructions on the bottom of the note order cremation of the body without a post-mortem examination.
Witnesses tell a different
story
However, witnesses that have been released from Soviet Prisons after the 1950's, have testified to have seen Wallenberg in many different prisons all over the Soviet Union many years after 1947. In January, 1961, personal Doctor of Maj Von Dardel, Dr. Nanna Svartz, was invited to a conference in Moscow. There, she met Russian colleague, Dr. Alexander Miasnikov. Dr. Svartz inquired quietly to Dr. Miasnikov if he knew of Raoul Wallenberg. Dr. Miasnikov admitted that he knew of Wallenberg and said privately that he was in very poor condition and in a mental hospital. Dr. Svartz was ecstatic to find that after such a long time, Raoul was alive! Dr. Svartz pursued the issue with the Swedish government which contacted Soviet officials on the matter. The Russian premier, emphatically denied the accuracy of the testimony and insisted that Wallenberg had died in 1947. Dr. Miasnikov later told Dr. Svartz that she never should have reported their conversation to the Swedish officials. Dr. Miasnikov died suddenly in 1965 of an alleged heart attack.
The Search
Continues
More reports continued to surface from various parts of the globe from former gulag prisoners. One intriguing testimony came from Yefim Moshinsky, ironically, the same officer that had arrested the Swedes in 1945. He claimed that he had been imprisoned with Wallenberg in a top secret camp 30 miles within the Arctic Circle called Wrangel Island. The camp was reserved for those prisoners who were considered "legally" dead. Its purpose was to hide them from society. Many other prisoners have emerged throughout the years, but closure to the case has not. Maj Von Dardel's only hope before her death was to see her Raoul returned to Sweden. Unfortunately, Maj and her husband, Raoul's stepfather Frederick, died within four days of one another in 1979. Their children, Nina Lagergen and Guy Von Dardel have continued to carry out the wish of their dying mother, which is to never stop searching for Raoul.
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