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March 31, 2010
Raoul Wallenberg
was Prisoner # 7!
Courtesy of Susanne
Berger, a former independent consultant to the Swedish Russian
Working Group, member of the Independent Investigation of Raoul
Wallenberg's fate. Dr. Vadim Birstein is a former member of the
Swedish-Russian Working Group.
Source: Searching for Raoul Wallenberg
Dear Mrs. von
Dardel, dear Marie and Louise,
We are writing to
you to share the information enclosed below. As you know, over the
last few years, we have continued an often slow but productive
exchange with the archives of the Federal Security Services of the
Russian Federation (FSB). The latest round of discussions, in
November 2009, have yielded a resounding surprise. In a formal reply
to several questions regarding Russian prison interrogation
registers from 1947, FSB archivists stated that "with great
likelihood " Raoul Wallenberg became "Prisoner No. 7" in Moscow's
Lubyanka prison some time that year. The archivists added that "Prisoner No. 7" had been interrogated on July 23, 1947 which - if
confirmed - would mean that the Soviet era claims of Wallenberg's
death on July 17, 1947 are no longer valid. Never before have
Russian officials stated the possibility of Raoul Wallenberg's
survival past this date so explicitly.
The Swedish
Ambassador, Tomas Bertelman, and his staff responded quickly to the
new information. In a letter addressed to Yuri Trambitsky, head of
the FSB's Central Archive, dated December 9, 2009, Bertelman asked
Mr. Trambitsky for clarification, writing that "if this hypothesis
is confirmed, it will be...almost sensational."
We have also sent a
detailed follow-up request to FSB officials, asking for more precise
information about "Prisoner No. 7," including procedural details
pertaining to the assignment of numbers to prisoners under
investigation, as well as possible steps to be taken to verify "Prisoner No. 7's" identity and his fate after July 23, 1947. So
far, Russian officials have not presented any additional information
for their claim that "Prisoner No. 7" could be identical with Raoul
Wallenberg.
We stress that an
in-depth verification of the new information has to take place
before any final conclusions can be drawn, but if indeed confirmed,
the news is the most interesting to come out of Russian archives in
over fifty years.
Here now some
further details:
The new information
concerns a previously unknown "Prisoner No. 7" who was questioned
on July 23, 1947, for more than 16 hours. The interrogation was
conducted by S. Kartashov, head of the 4th Department, MGB's (State
Security Ministry) Third Main Directorate (military
counterintelligence). This was the unit which investigated Raoul
Wallenberg in 1947. Over those 16 hours, Kartashov also interrogated
Wallenberg's driver, Vilmos Langfelder and Langfelder's presumed
cellmate, Sandor Katona. In the letter, Russian officials refer to a
notation in the Lubyanka interrogation registry entered behind the
names of all three men which reads "proshel", "came through" (the
prison's checking post.) The archivists write that regarding
Prisoner No. 7, "with high probability the note...could apply
only to Raoul Wallenberg." We are waiting to see the full
interrogation list from July 23, 1947, which has so far only been
available in strongly censored form. It is becoming clearer,
however, why that documentation may have been withheld all these
years
The full reasons for
FSB archivists' conclusion that Raoul Wallenberg may be identical
with the Prisoner No. 7 who was interrogated in Lubyanka on July 23,
1947 remains unclear. There exists, however, strong circumstantial
evidence in support of such an assessment. Since the discovery in
1991 of Wallenberg's transfer document [by Birstein], it has been
believed that Raoul Wallenberg had been placed in cell No. 7 in
Lubyanka after his move from Lefortovo prison in March 1947 (see
Vadim Birstein, "The Secret of Cell No. 7," Nezavisimaya Gazeta,
1991). These two prisons, Lubyanka and Lefortovo, were the
investigation, not punishment, prisons where SMERSH/MGB conducted
investigation of their arrestees. Also, Boris Solovov, one of the
former interrogators of the 4th Department, MGB's Third Main
Directorate, when interviewed by the Working Group in the mid
1990's, stated that Raoul Wallenberg was possibly known as "Prisoner
No. 7" under investigation in Lubyanka prison at that time.
Equally important to
know is that on July 22 and 23, 1947, almost all of Raoul
Wallenberg's former cellmates were also questioned , including
Gustav Richter, Walter Schlueter-Scheuer and Willi Rödel (see
enclosed table below). Afterwards all of them were placed in severe
isolation, often for months at a time. If - as the Russians now
suggest - Raoul Wallenberg himself, as "Prisoner No. 7", was part of
this interrogation line-up, it would mean that after 53 years,
Russian officials have finally provided information that renders the
Soviet claim of the so-called Gromyko Memorandum from 1957, that
Wallenberg died on July 17, 1947, invalid. The official explanation
for isolating all prisoners who had been in contact with Wallenberg
before July 23, 1947 has always been that Wallenberg most likely had
died shortly before, on July 17, and Soviet officials wished to
erase all traces of his past time in prison. In light of the new
information, this rationale will also have to be more closely
examined. The letter that Minister of State Security Viktor Abakumov
wrote to Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov on July 17, 1947
too may acquire new meaning. If Prisoner No.7 is Raoul Wallenberg,
Abakumov on that day could not have reported Wallenberg's death, but
must have outlined instead how he intended to proceed with his case.
This can be a reason why the text of the letter has never been
released.
What happened to
Katona, Langfelder and "Prisoner No. 7" after July 23, 1947 is
unclear, but none of the men were ever released. The Russian side
has stated that its archives contain no further information about
Sandor Katona. Katona, a Hungarian citizen, is known to have been
arrested in October 1944 in Bulgaria, where he worked as driver at
the Hungarian Legation. The only information available about the
further fate of Vilmos Langfelder is a Soviet government
communication to Hungary stating that he supposedly died on March 2,
1948. The Soviet or Russian authorities have not presented any
documentary evidence for his death. Taking into consideration that
at the time, on the Poliburo's order, the KGB released false dates
of death of the executed prisoners or prisoners who died during
their imprisonment, the stated date of Langfelder's death is highly
questionable.
In this connection,
another new piece of information provided by FSB archivists is also
of interest. They report that on July 24, 1947, the day after the
lengthy interrogation, on the order of Lubyanka prison's deputy
head, Langfelder received his belongings from the prison's storage,
which means that he, possibly, left Lubyanka at that time. As in the
case with many other records carrying Wallenberg's and Langfelder's
names in prison registers, this record was blacked out. Here too we
are waiting for a copy of the actual document. But if the
information is confirmed, it would suggest that Langfelder survived
the 16 hour long interrogation ordeal on July 23, 1947. It remains
to be seen if Sandor Katona and Prisoner No.7 also claimed their
possessions at this time. The Russian side provided no information
on this point, and it is one of many questions we have submitted in
the follow-up request.
Could the 'Prisoner
No. 7′ who was interrogated on July 23, 1947 be a different person
than Raoul Wallenberg? This possibility cannot be completely
excluded. It is very important to understand that the designation of
certain prisoners by numbers while under investigation happened
usually only for a very limited time, so there could have been
several Prisoners No. 7 for the year 1947 under investigation in
Lubyanka prison. For example, the Swedish Working Group Report from
2001 states - (in connection with interrogator B. Solovov's remarks
about handling a package in 1947 marked "detainee No. 7") - that
"[Prisoner] No. 7 has been identified as Russian." (p. 127). The
report, however, gives no further details about either the precise
timing of this identification, who made it, or whether archivists
checked further to confirm the man's personal data and history. We
also do not know if this particular "Prisoner No. 7" was ever
interrogated on July 23, 1947. That is why the interrogation
schedule is vitally important, because it shows that the Prisoner
No. 7 interrogated on July 22/23, 1947 must have been at the very
least very closely linked to the closest circle of Raoul
Wallenberg's fellow inmates. As the FSB archivists have concluded,
the man was "most likely" Raoul Wallenberg.
There are numerous
testimonies from witnesses who reportedly met or heard of Raoul
Wallenberg after 1947 in various Soviet labor camps and prisons.
However, there is no information that he or Langfelder had ever been
sentenced. Without sentencing they could not be placed in camps or
prisons. In light of the new information provided by FSB, these
witness reports must receive closer scrutiny. In particular, the
many open questions raised in the 2001 Swedish report of the Working
Group and by other researchers have to finally be addressed.
It appears that
during Russian President Medvedev's visit to Stockholm on November
18, 2009 the Wallenberg case was discussed in general terms, but the
issue of "Prisoner No. 7" was not formally mentioned. Nor was the
matter raised during the recent return visit by Swedish Foreign
Minister Carl Bildt and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in Moscow
on March 11, 2010. There has been no reply to Ambassador Bertelman's
letter as far as we know.
Over these last
months, the Russian side has been very helpful, answering many of
our questions in great detail. Let us hope that this new information
will provide much needed additional impetus for in-depth research
and further release of documentation from Russian archives.
With best wishes,
Dr. Vadim Birstein
Susanne Berger
Enclosures:
- Letter from Swedish Ambassador Tomas Bertelman to Yuri Trambitsky,
Chief of FSB Archive Directorate, December 9, 2009;
- Lubyanka
Interrogation Register for July 23, 1947.
LIST OF PRISONER
INTERROGATIONS FOR JULY 22 - 23, 1947
I. Investigator A.
Kuzmishin, head, 3rd Section, 4th Department, 3rd MGB Main
Directorate
Lefortovo Prison,
July 22, 1947
- V. Langfelder
21:30 to 22:00
- S.Katona 22:00 to 22:10
- G. Richter 22:10
to 22:30
- [B. Rodde] ?
- E. Pelkonen 22:50 to 23:006. H.
Kitschmann 23:00 to 23:20
- [E. Krafft] ?
- R. Stahel 23:40
to 24:00
II. Investigator S.
Kartashov, head, 4th Department, 3rd MGB Main Directorate
Lubyanka Prison,
July 22, 1947
- Prisoner Number 7
18:50 to 19:25
- W. Roedel 19:20 to 19:35
- [O. Hatz] ?
- W. Schlitter-Scheuer 20:15 to 20:35
- E. Huber 20:20 to 22:40
III. Investigator S.
Kartashov, head, 4th Department, 3rd MGB Main Directorate
Lubyanka Prison,
July 23, 1947
- Prisoner Number 7
1:50 to 18:30
- V. Langfelder 2:15 to 18:30
- S. Katona 2:35
to 18:30
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