A Soviet diplomat and a state prosecutor hinted here Friday that Raoul Wallenberg probably died years ago at the orders of Lavrenti Beria, and they made it clear that their government now deeply regrets his fate.
In fact, the Soviet Union would like to “sanctify his memory,” reporters here were told.
The remarks were the first on record by Soviet officials that refer to the Swede who saved tens of thousands of Jews from Nazi extermination camps when he was attached to the Swedish legation in Budapest during the final years of World War II.
The references to Wallenberg were made here by Ambassador Viktor Kashlev, chief of the Soviet delegation to the 35-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe — also known as the Helsinki Conference — and Vladimir Andreyev, a member of the delegation.
Andreyev, a deputy to the Soviet Union’s prosecutor-general, told a news conference, “We regret deeply the death of this noble person but we know nothing more concerning his fate.”
He said his office investigated Wallenberg’s death and it “now is certain that he died in prison” in the immediate post-war years.
“He was not the only such victim — many others died with him during those somber years,” Andreyev added.
Kashlev said the investigation into Wallenberg’s death would continue. He promised that “should we learn something, we will make the facts known at once.”
“We would like to know more details about how this man (Wallenberg) died so that we could sanctify his memory,” the Soviet envoy said.
Kashlev offered little hope to those who believe Wallenberg is alive.
“The people who destroyed Wallenberg also destroyed all the documents relating to him before being destroyed in their turn,” he said.
Observers here saw that as a direct reference to former secret police chief Beria, who was killed in the power struggle that followed Stalin’s death.
It also seemed to observers that according to what Kashlev said, the Soviet government’s most recent investigations confirmed Wallenberg’s death.
Wallenberg was arrested when the Red Army entered Budapest in January 1945 and not heard from since. Reports persist he is alive, though Soviet sources insist he died in Lubyanka prison over 40 years ago.
During the first session on human rights at the conference, Kashlev said that exit visas would not be denied to any Soviet citizen who had not engaged in sensitive defense work for more than five years.
“This period would be the absolute limit for refusing visas,” he said.
The Soviet delegate also noted that more than 100,000 Soviet citizens were allowed to emigrate in 1988, which was 18 times more than in 1986 and nearly three times more than in 1987.
Kashlev did not break the figure down by nationality or country of destination.
He said the Soviet Union favors a consular convention binding on the 35 nations that signed the Helsinki accords to provide for a uniform code for exit and entry visas.
Several Western delegations said they would oppose such a move because each country should have the right to determine its own policy on granting visas.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
