IV 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 58 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding unanswered 

questions into the fate of Raoul Wallenberg. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 24, 2017 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN (for herself, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. ROSKAM, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. 

SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. DEUTCH, and Ms. GRANGER) submitted the 

following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding unanswered questions into the fate of Raoul 

Wallenberg. 

Whereas for 72 years, the full accounting of Raoul 

Wallenberg’s arrest and the mystery of his fate remains 

unsolved, despite the continued and determined search 

for answers; 

Whereas the current research and pool of knowledge recognizes and continues the tireless efforts of Raoul 

Wallenberg’s parents, Maj and Fredrik von Dardel, and 

the countless scholars and volunteers who have worked 

determinedly for over seven decades to solve the question 

of Raoul Wallenberg’s fate; 


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Whereas Raoul Wallenberg was born August 4, 1912, in the 

Lidingo ̈ Municipality of Stockholm, Sweden; 

Whereas in 1931 Wallenberg traveled to the United States to 

pursue his education at the University of Michigan in 

Ann Arbor; 

Whereas, after graduating in 1935 with high honors, 

Wallenberg received his bachelor degree of Science and 

Architecture and then returned to Sweden; 

Whereas finding the market for architects in Sweden very restricted, Wallenberg traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, to work at a Swedish firm selling building materials; 

Whereas six months later, Wallenberg transferred to a Dutch 

Bank located in Haifa—today, northern Israel—where 

Wallenberg first met Jews who had escaped from Nazi 

Germany; 

Whereas in 1936, Wallenberg returned to Sweden where he 

eventually became the international director of the Central European Trading Company (Mellaneuropeiska), and 

later co-owned this Stockholm based import-export company with the Hungarian-Jewish businessman, Ka ́lma ́n 

Lauer; 

Whereas in June 1944, Wallenberg accepted a Swedish diplomatic appointment to travel to Hungary on a humanitarian mission to help protect the Jewish community 

there, a mission that was sponsored in large part by the 

U.S. War Refugee Board, which itself was just created 

earlier that year; 

Whereas Raoul Wallenberg is credited with saving tens of 

thousands of Hungarian Jews through his work with the 

U.S. War Refugee Board; 


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Whereas Wallenberg and his diplomatic colleagues, aided by 

members of the Hungarian resistance, set up hospitals, 

schools, nurseries and soup kitchens in Budapest for over 

8,000 Jewish orphans whose parents had already been either killed or taken to a concentration camp; 

Whereas Wallenberg redesigned and developed official Swedish documents for the protection of Jews, including creating the so-called ‘‘Schutzpass’’, a Swedish protective 

passport that ended up saving nearly 20,000 Jewish lives 

by granting the holder immunity from deportation from 

Hungary and almost certain death in Nazi concentration 

camps; 

Whereas in November 1944, Wallenberg intervened in a German death march of Jews from Budapest to labor camps 

in Austria, handing out food, clothing, and Swedish protective passports, saving over 1,500 Jews from being 

transported to Auschwitz; 

Whereas Wallenberg helped set up shelters that offered protection, and as a result of his joint efforts with the International Red Cross and diplomatic representatives from 

Switzerland, Portugal and several other nations, was able 

to save 50,000 Jews—of which an estimated 25,000 were 

directly under Wallenberg’s protection; 

Whereas Wallenberg’s last significant success took place in 

January 1945, when he helped thwart a plot by the Nazi 

Schutzstaffel (SS) to exterminate 70,000 Jews being held 

captive in the Budapest Central (Large) Ghetto; 

Whereas, on January 13, 1945, Raoul Wallenberg contacted 

the Soviet military authorities in an effort to secure food 

and supplies for the Jews under official Swedish protection; 


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Whereas, on January 17, 1945, Wallenberg and his driver, 

Vilmos Langfelder, left Budapest for a meeting with the 

Soviet military commander, Marshal Malinovsky in Debrecen, when they were taken into ‘‘protective custody’’ 

by the Soviet military counterintelligence units (Smersh); 

Whereas that day was the last time anyone saw Raoul 

Wallenberg as a free man; 

Whereas, on February 6, 1945, Wallenberg was placed in cell 

123 of Moscow’s Lubyanka Prison and interrogated for 

an hour and a half, while Langfelder was placed in a separate cell—the official reason for arrest remains unknown; 

Whereas later that month, Wallenberg’s mother was informed 

by the Soviet Ambassador to Sweden, Alexandra 

Kollontay, that her son was safe in the Soviet Union and 

would return soon; 

Whereas, on March 8, 1945, Hungarian Kossuth Radio, controlled by the Soviets, reported that Wallenberg had been 

murdered en route to Debrecen; 

Whereas, on June 15, 1946, in a meeting with Swedish Ambassador Staffan So ̈derblom, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin 

promised to investigate Wallenberg’s fate; 

Whereas, on July 17, 1947, Colonel A.L. Smoltsov, head of 

the Lubyanka Prison’s Medical Department, addressed a 

handwritten note to Viktor Abakumov, Minister of State 

Security (MGB), stating that Wallenberg died suddenly 

in his cell, ‘‘probably as a result of a myocardial infarction’’, while an addendum to the report suggested that 

Abakumov ordered the body to be cremated without autopsy; 


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Whereas, on the night of July 22, 1947, approximately one 

dozen prisoners with direct connection to both Raoul 

Wallenberg and Vilmos Langfelder were interrogated and 

subsequently isolated; 

Whereas information released in 2009 by archivists of the 

Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation 

(FSB) indicated that on July 23, 1947, a still to this day 

unidentified prisoner, ‘‘Prisoner No. 7’’, was interrogated 

for over 16 hours alongside Vilmos Langfelder; 

Whereas the FSB archivists concluded ‘‘with great likelihood’’ in 2009 that ‘‘Prisoner No. 7’’ was Raoul 

Wallenberg; 

Whereas, on August 8, 1947, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei 

Vishinsky reported to the Swedish government that 

Wallenberg was not in the Soviet Union, stating there 

had been no trace of him in any of the Soviet prisons and 

labor camps; 

Whereas, on February 6, 1957, Soviet Deputy Minister of 

Foreign Affairs, Andrei Gromyko, informed the Swedish 

government that Raoul Wallenberg had allegedly died of 

a heart attack on July 17, 1947, in Lubyanka Prison; 

Whereas, countless individuals continued to search for Raoul 

Wallenberg well after his alleged death, including famed 

Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal, who on February 12, 

1975, wrote to United States Senator Henry Jackson 

that ‘‘to millions of Swedish citizens and to thousands 

who have survived Soviet Russian barbarity, the case of 

Wallenberg has become a sort of trauma. To know that 

we can do nothing to bring light into the fate of a man 

who fell victim to his own good deeds is almost unbearable.’’; 


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Whereas in January 1981, Tom Lantos became the first, and 

to date, only, Holocaust survivor to serve in the United 

States Congress; 

Whereas Congressman Lantos after escaping from a Hungarian slave labor battalion found refuge in a Wallenberg 

‘‘safe house’’ in Budapest; 

Whereas, on October 5, 1981, Public Law 97–54, authored 

by the late Congressman Tom Lantos, was enacted into 

law bestowing honorary United States citizenship upon 

Raoul Wallenberg, making him the second person to receive such an honor; 

Whereas in February 1984, Wallenberg’s half-brother, Professor Guy von Dardel, filed a lawsuit in the United 

States District Court for the District of Columbia against 

the Soviet Union, demanding Soviet authorities provide 

information into the fate and whereabouts of Raoul 

Wallenberg; 

Whereas, on October 15, 1985, the District Court ruled that 

the Soviet Union violated international law by seizing and 

detaining Raoul Wallenberg, while also stating that ‘‘the 

Soviet Union has always had knowledge and information 

about Wallenberg; that it has failed to disclose and concealed that information’’; 

Whereas in May 1988, Members of the United States House 

of Representatives wrote a letter to President Ronald 

Reagan, asking him to urge Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to reveal the truth regarding the Wallenberg case 

and to allow Raoul Wallenberg’s family to visit the Soviet 

Union and investigate Mr. Wallenberg’s fate; 


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Whereas, on July 27, 1989, Public Law 101–63 was enacted 

into law, designating October 5, 1989, as ‘‘Raoul 

Wallenberg Day’’; 

Whereas in October 1989, members of Raoul Wallenberg’s 

family were invited to Moscow by the Soviet Ministry of 

Foreign Affairs, where they were given what were personal effects alleged to belong to Mr. Wallenberg and are 

said to have been offered condolences about his fate; 

Whereas in 1990, headed by Professor von Dardel, the First 

International Commission on the Fate and Whereabouts 

of Raoul Wallenberg was formed and included independent experts in order to examine Russian archival collections, and made major discoveries directly relevant to 

the Wallenberg case; 

Whereas in 1991, an official Swedish-Russian Working Group 

was appointed in order to try to establish joint efforts to 

determine what actually happened after the disappearance of the Swedish diplomat in January 1945; 

Whereas, on November 2, 1995, Congress unveiled a bronze 

bust dedicated to Raoul Wallenberg in the United States 

Capitol Rotunda; 

Whereas, on April 24, 1997, the United States Post Office 

issued U.S. stamp #3135, honoring Raoul Wallenberg; 

Whereas, on December 22, 2000, in response to a formal application by Professor von Dardel, Russia formally ‘‘rehabilitated’’ Raoul Wallenberg, a decision based on the 

1991 law ‘‘on the rehabilitation of victims of political repression’’, stating ‘‘by decision of extra-judicial Soviet 

Organs [Wallenberg and Langfelder] were arrested without foundation and deprived of their freedom for political 


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reasons as representing a danger for society, without 

being accused of a specific crime’’; 

Whereas, as a result of being ‘‘rehabilitated’’, all information 

regarding Wallenberg should be made available from the 

Russian archives; 

Whereas, on January 12, 2001, the Swedish [side of the] 

Working Group presented its findings in a report, concluding that the case could not be finally closed as a result of being unable to obtain enough verifiable information, however, it did find that the ‘‘Russian announcement of Raoul Wallenberg’s death could only be accepted 

if it were confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt. This 

has not happened, partly for the want of a credible death 

certificate, and partly because the testimony about Raoul 

Wallenberg being alive after 1947 cannot be dismissed’’; 

Whereas, on July 9, 2014, leaders of the United States Congress presented posthumously a Congressional Gold 

Medal, the highest civilian award bestowed by Congress, 

to Raoul Wallenberg in honor of his heroism during the 

Holocaust; 

Whereas in October 2015, an international group of historians and Wallenberg experts launched a new initiative, 

The Raoul Wallenberg Research Initiative RWI–70, to 

pool researchers’ knowledge and expertise in order to develop a comprehensive catalogue of open questions in 

order to advance the search for answers regarding 

Wallenberg’s fate and to facilitate access to the pertinent 

archival materials and documents in Russian and other 

international archives; 

Whereas in September 2016, members of Raoul Wallenberg’s 

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logue of pending questions, compiled by historians Dr. 

Vadim Birstein and Susanne Berger, to high ranking officials of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID) 

and the Central Archive of the Federal Security Service 

of the Russian Federation (FSB) who indicated that 

Russian archivists would ‘‘answer every single one’’; 

Whereas in July 1993, Russia enacted a new Law on State 

Secrets, establishing the basis for classifying information, 

which initially led to the reclassification of documents 

previously released; 

Whereas in 2012, the Constitutional Court of the Russian 

Federation found that Russia’s Constitution ensures the 

freedom of information and clarified that a provision 

from the 1993 Law on State Secrets regarding a 30-year 

limit of classification ‘‘has to be applied to information 

defined as state secret both before and after this law 

came into force’’; and 

Whereas the International Convention for the Protection of 

All Persons from Enforced Disappearance stipulates that 

any victim, or individual who has suffered harm as the 

direct result of an enforced disappearance, has ‘‘the right 

to know the truth regarding the circumstances of the enforced disappearance, the progress and results of the investigation and the fate of the disappeared person’’: Now, 

therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) urges Russian authorities to grant access to 

3 archival collections, including the Central Archive of 

4 the Russian Security Service (TsA FSB), the Cen5 tral Archive of the Russian Ministry of Defense 


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1 (TsA MO), the Central Archive of the Foreign Intel2 ligence Service of the Russian Federation (TsA 

3 SVR), the Foreign Police Archive of the Russian 

4 Federation (AVP RF), the Archive of the President 

5 of the Russian Federation (APRF), the Russian 

6 State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), 

7 the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History 

8 (RGANI), the State Archive of the Russian Federa9 tion (GARF), and the Archive of the Russian Min10 istry of Internal Affairs (TsA MVD), and declassify 

11 and make publicly available all documents related to 

12 Raoul Wallenberg; 

13 (2) urges the Russian authorities to work with 

14 Raoul Wallenberg’s family, the Swedish government, 

15 as well as Russian and international scholars, re16 searchers, and archivists in order to resolve the out17 standing questions surrounding the circumstances of 

18 Wallenberg’s arrest and death, including— 

19 (A) how and why were Raoul Wallenberg 

20 and his driver, Vilmos Langfelder, detained by 

21 Soviet military counterintelligence units and 

22 moved from Budapest to Moscow in January 

23 1945; 


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1 (B) what happened to Raoul Wallenberg 

2 after his last confirmed presence in Lubyanka 

3 Prison in March 1947; 

4 (C) where are the unredacted copies of all 

5 records of interrogations of prisoners connected 

6 with the Raoul Wallenberg case and why have 

7 they not been made available to family members 

8 and researchers; 

9 (D) who were all of the prisoners interro10 gated on July 22 and 23, 1947, in both 

11 Lubyanka and Lefortovo Prisons, where are the 

12 unredacted records and transcripts of such in13 terrogations, and why have they not been made 

14 available to family members and researchers, 

15 including— 

16 (i) what is the identity of ‘‘Prisoner 

17 No. 7’’, and why have the family and re18 searchers been denied access to review the 

19 prisoner’s entry in the interrogation reg20 ister of Lubyanka Prison; 

21 (ii) why did neither ‘‘Prisoner No. 7’’ 

22 nor Vilmos Langfelder sign the interroga23 tion book as was customary, on that day 

24 and what is the meaning of the word 

25 ‘‘Proshel’’ in lieu of their signatures; 


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1 (iii) why have references to Raoul 

2 Wallenberg and Vilmos Langfelder been 

3 blotted out in various prison journals and 

4 when did this censorship occur; and 

5 (iv) who are prisoners 14 and 16–20, 

6 sentenced from June 1947 through May 

7 1948, and why have they never been iden8 tified; 

9 (E) granting Raoul Wallenberg’s family 

10 and researchers access to file PF–9653, which 

11 has been identified by FSB archivists as con12 taining documentation on foreign diplomats, in13 cluding Hungarian Prime Minister Istva ́n 

14 Bethlen and Raoul Wallenberg’s longtime cell15 mate, the German diplomat Willy Ro ̈del, who 

16 were imprisoned from 1945 through 1947; 

17 (F) granting family members and re18 searchers access to unredacted copies of the list 

19 of prisoners sentenced by the MGB Special 

20 Board from 1947 through 1953; 

21 (G) granting the family and researchers 

22 access to the official death registers for 

23 Lubyanka and Lefortovo Prisons from 1947 

24 through 1953; 


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1 (H) what is the sequence of events on July 

2 17, 1947, when, according to Soviet officials, 

3 Raoul Wallenberg ‘‘died of a heart attack’’, and 

4 if he did die, what happened to his body; 

5 (I) when, and in what Soviet or Russian 

6 archival file, was the so-called Smoltsov Report 

7 discovered; 

8 (J) why were no handwriting samples from 

9 1947 for Dr. Smoltsov provided by Russian of10 ficials to forensic experts and why has no re11 view been granted of Smoltsov’s personnel file 

12 in order to determine whether or not he was on 

13 extended medical leave and thus unable to over14 see Wallenberg’s detention, as claimed; 

15 (K) what has happened to the letter writ16 ten by Minister of State Security Viktor 

17 Abakumov to Foreign Minister Vyacheslav 

18 Molotov on July 17, 1947; 

19 (L) will all records of the Politburo meet20 ing in Stalin’s office from August 9, 1947, dur21 ing which the Wallenberg case was definitely 

22 discussed, be declassified and released; 

23 (M) since researchers have not been per24 mitted to examine important Russian intel25 ligence collections that could provide valuable 


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1 insights into the reasons for Wallenberg’s ar2 rest— 

3 (i) will researchers receive access to 

4 Soviet foreign and military intelligence re5 ports from Hungary in 1944 and 1945, as 

6 well as additional Soviet intelligence re7 ports from Stockholm, Sweden for the 

8 years 1944 through 47 that have so far re9 mained classified; and 

10 (ii) will researchers also be permitted 

11 to review reports from Soviet Military 

12 Field Intelligence operating in Hungary in 

13 1945, which possibly interrogated both 

14 Raoul Wallenberg and Vilmos Langfelder; 

15 (N) since Stalin’s personal secretariat, the 

16 Special Sector of the Central Committee, was 

17 involved in the Wallenberg case, will the infor18 mation from its records regarding this case be 

19 made available; 

20 (O) since, in 1956 a Soviet citizen by the 

21 name of Shiryagin in Kharkov wrote to the So22 viet Ministry of Foreign Affairs claiming to 

23 have important information about Raoul 

24 Wallenberg, why did the Foreign Ministry re25 quest the KGB to silence Shiryagin on the 


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1 issue, where is the letter, and what are its con2 tents; 

3 (P) where is the documentation regarding 

4 the discussions that took place in 1956 between 

5 Soviet diplomats Viktor Vladimirov and Pavel 

Yerzin with Finnish diplomat A ̊ 6 ke Frey about 

7 Raoul Wallenberg; 

8 (Q) since, on February 6, 1957, when the 

9 Soviet authorities informed the Swedish govern10 ment that Raoul Wallenberg had died in July 

11 1947, only limited information was presented, 

12 will all the records of the Presidium (Politburo) 

13 discussions regarding the preparation of the 

14 Gromyko Memorandum be made available; 

15 (R) since, in 1961 Swedish physician Pro16 fessor Nanna Svartz reported that her Soviet 

17 colleague Professor A. L. Myasnikov revealed to 

18 her that he had direct knowledge of 

19 Wallenberg’s presence in the Soviet Union, will 

20 the full documentation of these discussions be 

21 made available to Raoul Wallenberg’s family 

22 and researchers; 

23 (S) how and where exactly were 

24 Wallenberg’s personal effects discovered in 

25 1989, and were they collected and archived in 


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1 line with the standard Soviet administrative 

2 procedures of the time, including— 

3 (i) if Wallenberg indeed died in 1947, 

4 why weren’t the bills of foreign currency in 

5 his possession at the time of his arrest 

6 confiscated then (as was official Soviet ad7 ministrative protocol for prisoners of war) 

8 but instead handed over to some of his 

9 family members in 1989 and can proof be 

10 provided that the currency given to 

11 Wallenberg’s family was the original cur12 rency in his possession; 

13 (ii) how did the Soviet authorities 

14 know the amount of currency in 

15 Wallenberg’s possession, was he given a re16 ceipt for his currency upon arrival at 

17 Lubyanka, and if so, in which file was this 

18 receipt kept; and 

19 (iii) were Wallenberg’s diplomatic 

20 passport and address book archived in his 

21 Archival-Investigation file, has that file 

22 been preserved as has that of his former 

23 cellmate, Ro ̈del, and if so, will 

24 Wallenberg’s Archival-Investigation File be 

25 made available; 


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1 (T) since in 1993, a former KGB official, 

2 Colonel Andrei Bachurin, indicated that 

3 Wallenberg had once asked for medical assist4 ance, requesting an appointment with a dentist, 

5 why hasn’t the actual register entry for this re6 quest ever been presented by the Central Ar7 chive of the FSB despite numerous inquiries; 

8 (U) since in 1993, a former Vladimir Pris9 on employee reported that a prisoner matching 

10 Raoul Wallenberg’s description had been held in 

11 isolation in Section 2 sometime during the mid12 to-late 1950s, while a former prisoner in Vladi13 mir Prison, Zigurds Kruminsh, stated to his 

14 American cellmate, Professor Marvin Makinen, 

15 that he had met a secret Swedish prisoner dur16 ing his time at Vladimir, are there any for17 eigners imprisoned in Vladimir Prison during 

18 the years 1945 to 1975 whose names have thus 

19 far been withheld, and will the names of all 

20 Swedish nationals held prisoner in the Soviet 

21 Union during this time be released; and 

22 (V) since, on January 12, 2001, a Swed23 ish-Russian Working Group investigating the 

24 Wallenberg case for over 10 years produced 

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1 mon conclusion, what evidence is there to con2 firm that Wallenberg was most likely executed 

3 on July 17, 1947, as the official Russian report 

4 from 2001 stated; 

5 (3) urges the President, Secretary of State, and 

6 other high level United States Government officials 

7 to raise the case of Raoul Wallenberg to their Rus8 sian counterparts, and request direct access to the 

9 original and unredacted documentation in the Rus10 sian archives, including the questions specified in 

11 subparagraphs (A) through (U) of paragraph (2); 

12 (4) emphasizes the need of independent 

13 verification of any information provided by Russian 

14 officials; and 

15 (5) reaffirms Raoul Wallenberg’s ‘‘humani16 tarian spirit, personal courage and nonviolent action 

17 in the face of enormous odds’’, and commits to the 

18 continued pursuit of answers regarding Wallenberg’s 

19 fate. 

Æ 


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