The Soviet Embassy refused to receive a petition of 8,000 names collected in Manchester and Leeds concerning the case of missing Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. The petition asked the Soviet Union to renew inquiries into the fate of Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews in wartime Hungary. There are reports that Wallenberg, who would be 69 years old next month, is still alive despite Soviet claims that he perished in a Moscow prison two years after the war.
The petition was brought to the Soviet Embassy last Sunday by Councillor Ronald Millett and his wife Kate, both prominent members of the Leeds Jewish community; and Joyce Marcus, secretary of Manchester’s Zionist Central Council. They were accompanied by Greville Janner, MP, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
Last January, 15,000 people signed a separate petition about Wallenberg. The Soviet Embassy refused that petition, too, although it did accept a letter addressed to President Leonid Brezhnev.
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