The 47-year-old mystery of Raoul Wallenberg may soon be solved.
A positive response was elicited from Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev when the subject was raised by European Community officials here, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has learned.
According to E.C. sources the European commissioner for external relations, Franz Andriessen, told Kozyrev during a meeting in Brussels last week that the E.C. wanted the Wallenberg case to “be solved once and for all.”
The Russian minister’s answer “seems to warrant a certain optimism,” an E.C. Executive Commission spokesman said.
Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat posted to Budapest during World War II, is credited with saving the lives of thousands of Jews slated for deportation during the final year of the war.
He disappeared when the Red Army entered the Hungarian capital in January 1945 and was never heard from again.
The Soviet Union first disclaimed knowledge of Wallenberg and then said he died in a Moscow prison in 1947 of a heart attack.
But reports persisted that Wallenberg was seen alive by prisoners released years later. With the demise of the Soviet Union, the case may now be unravelled by its successor.
Kozyrev came to Brussels to meet U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and Japanese officials for the purpose of planning an international center of science and technology in Moscow. Its purpose would be to induce former Soviet nuclear experts to stay at home instead of accepting job offers from Third World countries.
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.
