The U.S. delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission here has called for an investigation into the case of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who saved the lives of some 100,000 Hungarian Jews during World War II and disappeared shortly after Russian forces entered Budapest in 1945.
Michael Novak, head of the U.S. delegation, brought up the Wallenberg case during a debate in the Human Rights Commission on persons who have disappeared under circumstances of a political nature. The U.S., backed by Sweden, proposed that the investigation be conducted by a special five-member UN working group. The head of the Soviet delegation, Valerian Zorin, had no immediate reaction to Novak’s proposal.
In 1957, the Soviet government told the Swedish government that Wallenberg died in 1947 in prison, probably of a heart attack. But there have been persistent reports since then that he is alive and has been seen in various Russian prisons or mental institutions. Wallenberg’s sister, Mrs. Nina Lagergren, said at a press conference here that the case should be publicized wherever possible but should not become a tool in the cold war.
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