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New research into the Raoul Wallenberg case shows that – contrary to previous claims – the Swedish government’s lack of decisive action on Raoul Wallenberg’s behalf after his disappearance in the Soviet Union in January 1945 was not merely due to a tragic confluence of individual factors, such as the chaotic post-war conditions, the failure of the Swedish administrative apparatus, individual incompetence, Wallenberg’s status as an „outsider“ or Sweden’s overwhelming fear of the Soviet Union. Instead, the new findings suggest that the Swedish government’s extreme passivity in the Raoul Wallenberg case was in many ways a deliberate decision by a select group of Swedish officials who prioritised Sweden’s national, economic and political interest, as they defined it, over the need to resolve the fate of their own diplomat.
Recently discovered documents in the official personnel file of Staffan Söderblom (Sweden’s ambassador to Moscow in 1945/46) at the Swedish Foreign Ministry raise new questions about what exactly led to Söderblom’s severe nervous breakdown, which he suffered in 1951 and which ultimately led to his early retirement. The ambassador’s controversial role in the Raoul Wallenberg case may not have been the only reason for his condition, which in turn raises important new questions for Wallenberg research.
The Raoul Wallenberg Research Initiative 70 (RWI 70), which has set itself the task of uncovering the truth about the fate of the diplomat who disappeared in Budapest in 1945, is currently publishing the new research findings of Susanne Berger and Vadim Birstein on its website.