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The Red Army found Wallenberg on 13 January 1945, on 16 Benczur
Street in Budapest. They reported this to headquarters in Moscow. 17
January Wallenberg was taken into Soviet custody, after which he
mysteriously disappeared. A document from the Swedish Embassy in Moscow,
written 31 December 1944, found in the archives of the Soviet Foreign
ministry, ensures that the USSR knew about Wallenberg's activity. This
very document includes a list of all the members of the Swedish Legation
in Budapest (Wallenberg included) and a request from the Swedish Foreign
Ministry asking the Soviet military to give these people protection as
they entered Budapest . The Russian historian Vladimir Galitsky, accounts
for the extreme suspicion by the Soviet leadership regarding the Eastern
Front. Any detained person with connection to the front line was taken to
SMERSH (Soviet military counter intelligence, later known as the KGB) and
then usually sent to prisoner of war camps. Detainees of special interest
were taken to Moscow for questioning and eventual imprisoning despite
their status of "prisoner of war". A huge amount of
war-prisoners were taken behind the Soviet front lines and little was
required for being arrested. Agents at SMERSH were known for their extreme
suspicion. Any prisoner who had been in the British occupation zone would
be accused of espionage for the British. The Soviet military leaders,
including increasingly paranoid Josef Stalin, were sceptical of the
operation led by the Swedish Legation. Evidently they never considered the
Swedish request of protecting Wallenberg. Instead, an arrest order, not
containing any actual reason, was issued by the Russian Deputy Defence
Minister and sent to the Ukrainian front the 17th of January 1945 .
Wallenberg was to be sent to Moscow. There is clear evidence of SMERSH
being involved in this arrest . An interesting fact is that similar arrest
orders were sent regarding two Swiss diplomats, Max Meier and Harald
Feller, performing similar missions in Budapest as Wallenberg .
According to Dr György Gergely, employed at
the special department of the Swedish Legation, Wallenberg had been under
Soviet surveillance from 12 January. Supposedly, he had been well treated
by the Soviets and was therefore attempting to contact them in order to
discuss a possible improvement of conditions for Jewish people. He left
with his chauffeur, Vilmos Langfelder, for an arranged meeting 17 January,
bringing three suitcases and a large amount of money. Another member of
Wallenberg's staff, Béla Révai claims that Wallenberg never was escorted
to this meeting, but immediately arrested after meeting the Soviet army
officials. Two German fellow-prisoners of Wallenberg (Ernst Huber and
Gusav Rischer) at the Lubianka Prison in Moscow, recount what Wallenberg
supposedly told them: Wallenberg and Langfelder (the chauffeur) were
stopped in their car, which had got its tyres punctured by Russian
soldiers. One must consider that the stories of Huber and Rischer are oral
statements made more then 10 years after the actual event. There might be
elements of misunderstanding and failing memory decreasing the reliability
of the Huber and Risher's recounts. Anyhow, they continue by describing
how Wallenberg and Langfelder were taken to a provisional prison in
Budapest to later be deported to Moscow by railway. In Moscow they had
been told not to regard themselves as prisoners but as in protective
custody. They were shown the Moscow metro-system and walked on foot to the
Lubianka Prison. Meanwhile, a Russian officer in Budapest told the rest of
the staff that Wallenberg was in their care and would soon return to
Stockholm.
Even though the arrest order officially came
from the Soviet Deputy Minister of Defence, Bulganin, who usually never
issued any orders to the front line, it is not yet fully clear who
actually ordered this arrest. When asked, Ambassador Hans Magnusson,
formerly responsible for the Wallenberg Dossier at the Swedish Foreign
Ministry, promptly answers that it was a command from Stalin himself. He
bases this argument on recovered papers about the two Swiss diplomats,
whose arrest appeared to have originated from Stalin directly. Assuming
that the document is originated Stalin, one might find a connection
between the three diplomats. The Soviet leader may have decided to arrest
diplomats from neutral countries still operating in Budapest, for some
reason. |
