[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 58 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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;
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, Kalman 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;
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;
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 
        Soderblom, 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;
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.'';
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;
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 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 family visited Moscow 
        and formally presented the catalogue 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
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) urges Russian authorities to grant access to archival 
        collections, including the Central Archive of the Russian 
        Security Service (TsA FSB), the Central Archive of the Russian 
        Ministry of Defense (TsA MO), the Central Archive of the 
        Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (TsA 
        SVR), the Foreign Police Archive of the Russian Federation (AVP 
        RF), the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation 
        (APRF), the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History 
        (RGASPI), the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History 
        (RGANI), the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), 
        and the Archive of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs 
        (TsA MVD), and declassify and make publicly available all 
        documents related to Raoul Wallenberg;
            (2) urges the Russian authorities to work with Raoul 
        Wallenberg's family, the Swedish government, as well as Russian 
        and international scholars, researchers, and archivists in 
        order to resolve the outstanding questions surrounding the 
        circumstances of Wallenberg's arrest and death, including--
                    (A) how and why were Raoul Wallenberg and his 
                driver, Vilmos Langfelder, detained by Soviet military 
                counterintelligence units and moved from Budapest to 
                Moscow in January 1945;
                    (B) what happened to Raoul Wallenberg after his 
                last confirmed presence in Lubyanka Prison in March 
                1947;
                    (C) where are the unredacted copies of all records 
                of interrogations of prisoners connected with the Raoul 
                Wallenberg case and why have they not been made 
                available to family members and researchers;
                    (D) who were all of the prisoners interrogated on 
                July 22 and 23, 1947, in both Lubyanka and Lefortovo 
                Prisons, where are the unredacted records and 
                transcripts of such interrogations, and why have they 
                not been made available to family members and 
                researchers, including--
                            (i) what is the identity of ``Prisoner No. 
                        7'', and why have the family and researchers 
                        been denied access to review the prisoner's 
                        entry in the interrogation register of Lubyanka 
                        Prison;
                            (ii) why did neither ``Prisoner No. 7'' nor 
                        Vilmos Langfelder sign the interrogation book 
                        as was customary, on that day and what is the 
                        meaning of the word ``Proshel'' in lieu of 
                        their signatures;
                            (iii) why have references to Raoul 
                        Wallenberg and Vilmos Langfelder been blotted 
                        out in various prison journals and when did 
                        this censorship occur; and
                            (iv) who are prisoners 14 and 16-20, 
                        sentenced from June 1947 through May 1948, and 
                        why have they never been identified;
                    (E) granting Raoul Wallenberg's family and 
                researchers access to file PF-9653, which has been 
                identified by FSB archivists as containing 
                documentation on foreign diplomats, including Hungarian 
                Prime Minister Istvan Bethlen and Raoul Wallenberg's 
                longtime cellmate, the German diplomat Willy Rodel, who 
                were imprisoned from 1945 through 1947;
                    (F) granting family members and researchers access 
                to unredacted copies of the list of prisoners sentenced 
                by the MGB Special Board from 1947 through 1953;
                    (G) granting the family and researchers access to 
                the official death registers for Lubyanka and Lefortovo 
                Prisons from 1947 through 1953;
                    (H) what is the sequence of events on July 17, 
                1947, when, according to Soviet officials, Raoul 
                Wallenberg ``died of a heart attack'', and if he did 
                die, what happened to his body;
                    (I) when, and in what Soviet or Russian archival 
                file, was the so-called Smoltsov Report discovered;
                    (J) why were no handwriting samples from 1947 for 
                Dr. Smoltsov provided by Russian officials to forensic 
                experts and why has no review been granted of 
                Smoltsov's personnel file in order to determine whether 
                or not he was on extended medical leave and thus unable 
                to oversee Wallenberg's detention, as claimed;
                    (K) what has happened to the letter written by 
                Minister of State Security Viktor Abakumov to Foreign 
                Minister Vyacheslav Molotov on July 17, 1947;
                    (L) will all records of the Politburo meeting in 
                Stalin's office from August 9, 1947, during which the 
                Wallenberg case was definitely discussed, be 
                declassified and released;
                    (M) since researchers have not been permitted to 
                examine important Russian intelligence collections that 
                could provide valuable insights into the reasons for 
                Wallenberg's arrest--
                            (i) will researchers receive access to 
                        Soviet foreign and military intelligence 
                        reports from Hungary in 1944 and 1945, as well 
                        as additional Soviet intelligence reports from 
                        Stockholm, Sweden for the years 1944 through 47 
                        that have so far remained classified; and
                            (ii) will researchers also be permitted to 
                        review reports from Soviet Military Field 
                        Intelligence operating in Hungary in 1945, 
                        which possibly interrogated both Raoul 
                        Wallenberg and Vilmos Langfelder;
                    (N) since Stalin's personal secretariat, the 
                Special Sector of the Central Committee, was involved 
                in the Wallenberg case, will the information from its 
                records regarding this case be made available;
                    (O) since, in 1956 a Soviet citizen by the name of 
                Shiryagin in Kharkov wrote to the Soviet Ministry of 
                Foreign Affairs claiming to have important information 
                about Raoul Wallenberg, why did the Foreign Ministry 
                request the KGB to silence Shiryagin on the issue, 
                where is the letter, and what are its contents;
                    (P) where is the documentation regarding the 
                discussions that took place in 1956 between Soviet 
                diplomats Viktor Vladimirov and Pavel Yerzin with 
                Finnish diplomat Ake Frey about Raoul Wallenberg;
                    (Q) since, on February 6, 1957, when the Soviet 
                authorities informed the Swedish government that Raoul 
                Wallenberg had died in July 1947, only limited 
                information was presented, will all the records of the 
                Presidium (Politburo) discussions regarding the 
                preparation of the Gromyko Memorandum be made 
                available;
                    (R) since, in 1961 Swedish physician Professor 
                Nanna Svartz reported that her Soviet colleague 
                Professor A. L. Myasnikov revealed to her that he had 
                direct knowledge of Wallenberg's presence in the Soviet 
                Union, will the full documentation of these discussions 
                be made available to Raoul Wallenberg's family and 
                researchers;
                    (S) how and where exactly were Wallenberg's 
                personal effects discovered in 1989, and were they 
                collected and archived in line with the standard Soviet 
                administrative procedures of the time, including--
                            (i) if Wallenberg indeed died in 1947, why 
                        weren't the bills of foreign currency in his 
                        possession at the time of his arrest 
                        confiscated then (as was official Soviet 
                        administrative protocol for prisoners of war) 
                        but instead handed over to some of his family 
                        members in 1989 and can proof be provided that 
                        the currency given to Wallenberg's family was 
                        the original currency in his possession;
                            (ii) how did the Soviet authorities know 
                        the amount of currency in Wallenberg's 
                        possession, was he given a receipt for his 
                        currency upon arrival at Lubyanka, and if so, 
                        in which file was this receipt kept; and
                            (iii) were Wallenberg's diplomatic passport 
                        and address book archived in his Archival-
                        Investigation file, has that file been 
                        preserved as has that of his former cellmate, 
                        Rodel, and if so, will Wallenberg's Archival-
                        Investigation File be made available;
                    (T) since in 1993, a former KGB official, Colonel 
                Andrei Bachurin, indicated that Wallenberg had once 
                asked for medical assistance, requesting an appointment 
                with a dentist, why hasn't the actual register entry 
                for this request ever been presented by the Central 
                Archive of the FSB despite numerous inquiries;
                    (U) since in 1993, a former Vladimir Prison 
                employee reported that a prisoner matching Raoul 
                Wallenberg's description had been held in isolation in 
                Section 2 sometime during the mid-to-late 1950s, while 
                a former prisoner in Vladimir Prison, Zigurds Kruminsh, 
                stated to his American cellmate, Professor Marvin 
                Makinen, that he had met a secret Swedish prisoner 
                during his time at Vladimir, are there any foreigners 
                imprisoned in Vladimir Prison during the years 1945 to 
                1975 whose names have thus far been withheld, and will 
                the names of all Swedish nationals held prisoner in the 
                Soviet Union during this time be released; and
                    (V) since, on January 12, 2001, a Swedish-Russian 
                Working Group investigating the Wallenberg case for 
                over 10 years produced contradictory reports and failed 
                to reach a common conclusion, what evidence is there to 
                confirm that Wallenberg was most likely executed on 
                July 17, 1947, as the official Russian report from 2001 
                stated;
            (3) urges the President, Secretary of State, and other high 
        level United States Government officials to raise the case of 
        Raoul Wallenberg to their Russian counterparts, and request 
        direct access to the original and unredacted documentation in 
        the Russian archives, including the questions specified in 
        subparagraphs (A) through (U) of paragraph (2);
            (4) emphasizes the need of independent verification of any 
        information provided by Russian officials; and
            (5) reaffirms Raoul Wallenberg's ``humanitarian spirit, 
        personal courage and nonviolent action in the face of enormous 
        odds'', and commits to the continued pursuit of answers 
        regarding Wallenberg's fate.
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