It has been over 60 years since that fateful day in January 1945 when Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved ten of thousands of Jews from deportation to Nazi concentration camps, was taken by force to Russia. He has not been seen or heard from since that day, and his whereabouts are still unknown. The burning question remains, ”What was the fate of Raoul Wallenberg?” So far, no one has given a decent answer to explain if and how his life ended.
This question is constantly being asked by relatives of Wallenberg, as well as the members of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, which has recently launched the international campaign ”Let’s bring Raoul Home,” which calls for distinguished personalities to write letters to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin asking for the release of vital information on Wallenberg’s case. ”There is one man in the universe who may solve the mystery,” writes Baruch Tenembaum, the founder of the IRWF, ”This person is you, Mr. President.”
In a letter to the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, Andrey Denisov, Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, writes that the current government of Russia has little to do with the disappearance and death of Wallenberg, as the ”responsibility for the death of Raoul Wallenberg rests with the USSR top government officials of that time, [specifically former dictator Joseph Stalin].” He also states, ”No documents proving the fact of death of the Swedish diplomat in the USSR were ever found,” but ”circumstantial evidence collected shows that Raoul Wallenberg lost his life in the USSR on July 17, 1947.”
Scholars and researchers agree that the answer should be more precise and offer real evidence. Whether Wallenberg is alive or not, he deserves to return home.
Years may pass, but the questions remain. As Yuan T. Lee, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry, writes, ”The past is never dead, it is not even past. Only by repairing the past can we start life again. [Putin’s] role in this task could be not only decisive, but historic as well.” Shimon Peres agrees, stating, ”For humanitarian motives, and in order to allow the Wallenberg chapter in history to be closed in as dignified a manner as befits a personality of [his] caliber,” the world appeals to Putin to do what is right and to ”heal an open wound” caused by Wallenberg’s disappearance.”
