I talk to veteran Jewish journalist Charles Fenyvesi about Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of thousands of Jews during World War II.
"People accused me of besmirching Wallenberg's name because I called him an American spy. The word 'spy' for a CIA asset was irresistable and my idiotic editor insisted on it. It was WW II. The guy was helping the Allies achieve victory over the Nazis. That would never occur to me that that was besmirching someone's name.
"I didn't go into the [American government] archives with the notion that I was going to prove he was an American spy. I found the material.
"Did I write my story about the fall of the Romanian regime with the idea that I would save Ceausescu or kill Ceausescu? No. It was a story that came to me."
"What do you think happened to Raoul Wallenberg?"
"That's a terrible story. I think Wallenberg survived until the 1990s."
"In Soviet prisons?"
"Yes."
"Even after the fall of the Soviet empire?"
"Yep."
"He died of old age?"
"We don't know. He would be 92. Yesterday was his birthday.
"In 1995, he no longer knew who he was because of all the drugs and all the treatments given to him by the KGB.
"The man who was convinced that Wallenberg was alive [in 1995] was his best friend from Budapest Per Anger (a modest, self-effacing man who never claimed anything for himself). Per started out giving passes to Jews, a piece of paper that said this person was connected with the kingdom of Sweden. He gave about 100 or so to people who had something to do with Sweden, business connections.
"Then, when Wallenberg came in, he said, that's terrific. Let's make something that looks like a passport. It was in color with the Swedish crown colors.
"Per Anger became Swedish ambassador to all sorts of places including Canada and Berlin. I interviewed him in 1995. He was the same age as Wallenberg. He was still in good shape. He told me that he was convinced that Wallenberg was still alive but that he no longer knew who he was."
"Why would the Soviet Union hold on to him?"
"Because it would enormously embarrassing for them to release him. It would be much easier for them to say, we can't find him. Or, we killed him, which is what they eventually said, then to release a broken man whose mind was no longer there."
"Did the US try hard to get him out?"
"No, because the damn Swedes said they would do it. President Truman offered. He was told no, we will handle it."
"Why didn't we, the US, apply more pressure to get him out?"
"According to my best source in the State Department, we never made it clear to the Russians that it would be in their best interest to release him. There was no US intelligence on where he was. The Swedes knew where he was."
"The Swedes found him an embarrassment?"
"Yes. It was their fault that the Swedish government did not press rigorously enough for Raoul's return. If he returned a broken man, can you imagine what would the reaction have been? Why didn't you do this sooner? Why didn't you get him out? It's a very nasty ugly story. The Swedish government behaved abominably."
The complete Fenyvesi interview here.
