PRESS RELEASE ** PRESS RELEASE **
PRESS RELEASE ** PRESS RELEASE ** PRESS RELEASE
30 June, 2006 For
immediate release
We, the former independent consultants to
the Swedish-Russian Working Group on the Fate of Raoul
Wallenberg (1991-2001), are today releasing an Open Letter to the G8 Summit.
The letter has the full support of Raoul Wallenberg's
family and is signed by international Wallenberg experts, historians and other
prominent individuals. In
The letter requests the participating
leaders to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to
reveal all facts about Raoul Wallenberg's fate.
We cite compelling evidence that
Raoul Wallenberg's arrest sixty-one years ago by Soviet
forces in
The enclosed Open Letter may be published
immediately. The full text of the document is being delivered by email to all
G8 leaders:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper (
President Jacques Chirac (
Chancellor Angela Merkel (
Prime Minister Romano Prodi (
Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi (
President Vladimir Putin
(
Prime Minister Tony Blair (
President George W. Bush (
as well as the following officials in
Prime Minister Göran
Persson
Foreign Minister and head of the U.N.
General Assembly, Jan Eliasson
Cabinet Secretary Hans Dahlgren
For further information, go to www.raoul-wallenberg.asso.fr or
please contact:
Susanne Berger sberger@prodigy.net
Susan E. Mesinai
smesinai@hotmail.com
Marvin W. Makinen
makinen@uchicago.edu
* OPEN LETTER * * OPEN LETTER ** OPEN LETTER ** OPEN LETTER ** OPEN LETTER ** OPEN LETTER ** OPEN LETTER ** OPEN LETTER *
TIME FOR A BOLD MOVE - OPEN LETTER TO THE
G8
Fifty years after Nikita Khrushchev's
famous speech condemning Stalin's crimes, full access to all documentation in
Russian archives could finally solve the question of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg's fate.
But a two weeks before the eight strongest
industrial nations gather against this magnificent backdrop, the new
We suggest instead a simple thing
President Putin can do that would secure
The Russian government claims Raoul Wallenberg died in Soviet captivity in 1947 but it
has never provided conclusive proof for this assertion. President Putin has expressed his respect for Wallenberg's
achievements while arguing that all direct evidence concerning Wallenberg's
fate has been destroyed long ago. That claim is firmly rejected by almost all
Wallenberg experts due to overwhelming evidence that
A decision by President Putin to reveal the true circumstances around Raoul Wallenberg's disappearance would be a courageous act
and would send a strong signal for greater openness, public accountability and
respect for international law, including minority and individual rights.
Sixty-one years after the event, no state secrets can possibly stand in the way
of telling Wallenberg's family and the world what really happened to a
compassionate and
heroic man who is an honorary citizen of the
The presence of Raoul
Wallenberg's next of kin in
There are three compelling reasons for
requesting such a review:
1. The discovery of Raoul
Wallenberg's personal belongings in Russian archives seventeen years ago raised
fundamental questions. The material is the strongest indication
to date that Wallenberg’s personal and investigative file/s still exist
today. More importantly, it may well be evidence that he lived longer: If Raoul Wallenberg died in 1947, his possessions and
valuables should have been confiscated by the Soviet state within six months of
his death. Instead, they were available in 1989 and, in a generous gesture,
were returned to his family by Soviet authorities.
2. Just as critical are numerous witness
testimonies, including that of a former female employee at
3. There is also important new
information, outlined by the Deputy Director of Russia’s 'Memorial' Society,
Nikita Petrov, in his recent book, "The First
Chairman of the KGB Ivan Serov," (Moscow/Materik, 2005). Petrov shows that
after years of insistent denials by the
Russian government, highly relevant information about Raoul
Wallenberg’s cellmate in Lefortovo prison in 1946/47,
Willi Rödel, a German
diplomat, survives today in Russian archival collections, as do important
investigative files of other prisoners linked with the Wallenberg case. Despite
repeated requests, these files were never made available to the Swedish-Russian
Working Group during its ten year investigation (1991-2001).
It is now clear that Rödel
was killed in October 1947, that his case was discussed at the highest levels
of the Soviet government and that the Russians have known about this for
decades. Yet, only a few documents were previously released, which stated that Rödel had died of natural causes.
If Russian officials as late as the 1990's
chose to actively mislead investigators, how can we believe that they have told
all they know and have on file about Raoul
Wallenberg?
Petrov's
and the previous findings all reinforce one central question: Is the flimsy
documentation of Wallenberg's alleged death in July 1947 really due to
destroyed or removed papers, and the wish to protect Soviet leaders who not
only knew of but who had ordered Wallenberg's arrest? Or - since key
documentation is preserved about the death of Wallenberg's cellmate and other
foreign diplomats, - do we not have a formal death certificate or autopsy
report for Raoul Wallenberg because he did not die at
that time?
For
President Putin
rightfully points with pride to a 70 percent approval rating and other
accomplishments, such as a steep drop in
By finally presenting the truth about Raoul Wallenberg, who has become a symbol of humanitarian
action, President Putin would let the world know
where he stands. The PR experts at Ketchum will have a hard time matching that.
Prof. Elena Cohen Imach [Psychologist and poet]
Ricardo A. Faerman [President,
Confederación General Economica]
Dr. Benjamín
Horacio Koltan [Psychologist]
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
Ricardo Monner
Sans [Human Rights Lawyer]
Jan Anger [Son of Swedish diplomat Per Anger]
J. S. Dammery
Dr Daniel Talmont
Frank Vajda [Raoul Wallenberg Committee]
Marcel Collet
[Director]
Prof. Irwin Cotler [former Canadian Minister of Justice]
Jacques Coutour
[Producer]
David Matas
[Human Rights lawyer]
The Raoul
Wallenberg International Movement for Humanity
Mart Laar [Former Prime Minister
of
Pentti
Peltoniemi [Journalist]
Louise von Dardel [Raoul
Wallenberg’s niece]
Marie Dupuy [Raoul Wallenberg’s niece]
Susanne Berger [Independent expert to the
Swedish-Russian Working Group]
Christoph
Gann [Author]
Wolfgang Kaleck
[Human Rights Lawyer]
Dr. Andras Kain
[President, Raoul Wallenberg Loge]
Eleonore
Kius [Wallenberg expert and Human Rights activist]
Pastor Annemarie Werner
[
John Le Carré
Gitta
Sereny
Dr. Gerard Aalders
[historian]
Israel
Casa
Argentina en la Tierra Santa
Solly Ganor, Holocaust survivor
Max Grunberg [Raoul Wallenberg Honorary Citizen Comittee]
Larry Pfeffer [
Malkiel Tenembaum [Casa Argentina
en Jerusalem]
Yoav
Tenembaum [Historian]
Dr. Ferenc Orosz [Presidium member,
The Raoul Wallenberg Association]
Dr. Pamela Rotner
Sakamoto [Author and historian]
Dr. Renata
von Hanffstengel, [Director of the Institute for
Intercultural Research Mexico-Germany]
Tracey Petersen,
Education Officer,
Dr Ivor Shaskolsky
Roger Älmeberg
[Editor]
Maria Pia Boëthius
[Historian]
Lena Einhorn
[Holocaust researcher and author]
Prof. Stig Ekman [Historian]
Ingemar
Karlsson [Editor and historian]
Prof. Georg Klein - [Scientist and author]
Gerald Nagler [Chairman of the Swedish
Anders Pers
[Former Editor-In-Chief of Vestmanlands Läns Tidning]
Arne Ruth [Former Editor-In-Chief of Dagens Nyheter]
Tuve
Skånberg - [Member of Parliament]
Per Tistad [NIR]
Prof. Dennis Töllborg
[
Claire Wikholm -
[Actress]
The
Angelo Roncalli International Committee
Charles Fenyvesi
[Journalist]
Klara Firestone - Founder and President
of Second Generation of Los Angeles (Children of Holocaust Survivors) and
community leader and activist
Renee Firestone - Holocaust Survivor, world famous Holocaust Lecturer, fashion
designer, community leader and activist
Alan and Sheila Granwell
Aaron and Courtney Cohen
Alexis Granwell
Marilyn Gilbert,
Attorney At Law, Civil Rights Litigation
Steven T Geiger, of Palo Alto, CA, USA, Retired Engineer, saved by Carl Lutz in
1944
Dr. Wayne Grossman
Zoe Grossman
Rabbi Irving Greenberg
Liebe Geft, Director of the
Dr. Amy Knight [Historian]
Dr. William Korey [American Jewish Committee]
Prof. Mark Kramer [
Prof. Marvin W. Makinen
[Independent expert to the Swedish-Russian Working Group]
Susan Ellen Mesinai Founder, ARK Project; Independent
expert to the Swedish-Russian Working Group]
Victoria Pope [Managing Editor, National
Geographic Magazine]
The Raoul
Wallenberg Committee of the United States, Ltd.
Eric Saul, [Director, Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats Project
Institute for the Study
of Rescue and Altruism in the Holocaust]
Prof. Christopher Simpson [The
Prof. Hugh J. Schwartzberg [Raoul Wallenberg Committee of
Kate
Wacz born Kadelburger,
Marissa
Roth, family saved by Raoul Wallenberg
Knud Dyby, Danish Rescuer of Jews and others
William
T. and Abigail Bingham Endicott [son-in-law and daughter of Diplomat Hiram
Bingham IV]
GILBERTO
BOSQUES TISTLER [Grandson of Mexican Ambassador Gilberto Bosques]
Rositta E. Kenigsberg, Daughter of a
Holocaust Survivor, Executive Vice President, Holocaust Documentation &
Education Center, Inc.
David
Rubinson, Executive Producer: SUGIHARA Conspiracy of
Kindness
Represenative Joel Judd, Colorado House District 5
Ferne Hassan, American Jewish Committee
Laurence Jarvik,
Producer-Director, Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die?
Peter
R. Rosenblatt [lawyer and former