by Alex Kershaw
21 According to researcher Susanne Berger, an authority on Wallenberg’s fate in the Soviet Union: “Numerous questions about the Wallenberg family’s behavior in the Raoul Wallenberg case remain unanswered: What about the unresolved questions about Raoul’s background and his rumored professional ties to both Jacob and Marcus Wallenberg? How and why exactly did Jacob in 1954 approach Czech intermediaries about Raoul Wallenberg’s fate, and what did he learn? Did Jacob and Marcus see eye to eye in the matter? Why did Marcus Wallenberg tell former Cabinet Secretary Arne Lundberg in 1951 that he firmly believed Raoul Wallenberg to be dead? On what information did he base this conviction?” Source: Susanne Berger, “The Fight of Their Lives.” http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/articles/the-fight-of-their-lives/.
22 Lars Berg, The Book That Disappeared, p. 227.
23 Kati Marton, Wallenberg, p. 161.
24 Alan Levy, Nazi Hunter, p. 205.
25 Swedish White Papers, 1957.
26 Ibid.
27 Swedish White Papers, 1957.
28 Report of Swedish-Russian Working Group, 2000, pp. 90-91.
29 Alan Levy, Nazi Hunter, p. 206.
30 Ibid.
31 John Bierman, Righteous Gentile, p. 129.
32 Alan Levy, Nazi Hunter, pp. 207-208.
33 Swedish White Papers, 1957.
34 Ibid.
35 Frederick E. Werbell and Thurston Clarke, Lost Hero, p. 157.
36 Ibid., p. 158.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. BRAVE NEW WORLDS
1 Erwin K. Koranyi, Dreams and Tears, p. 114.
2 Ibid., p. 120.
3 Erwin Koranyi, interview with the author.
4 Erwin K. Koranyi, Dreams and Tears, pp. 121-122.
5 Ibid., p. 125.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., p. 131.
8 Ibid., p. 132.
9 Vera Goodkin, interview with the author.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Vera Goodkin, In Sunshine and Shadow, p. 109.
13 Vera Goodkin, interview with the author.
14 Ibid.
15 Erwin K. Koranyi, Dreams and Tears, p. 144.
16 Ibid., p. 146.
17 Ibid., p. 149.
18 Ibid., p. 159.
19 Ibid., p. 185.
20 Vera Goodkin, In Sunshine and Shadow, p. 99.
21 Ibid., p.104.
22 Ibid., p.124.
23 Ibid.
CHAPTER NINETEEN. GOING AFTER THE MASTER
1 Tuvia Friedman, The Hunter, p. 164. See Wisliceny affidavit.
2 Manus Diamant didn’t like the idea at first. “That’s a terrific idea,” he told a Haganah agent. “You want me to become that bitch’s lover. Are you crazy? I have feelings, too. You want me to kiss the same mouth that Eichmann kissed? You want me to move right in and live with her? Hah!” Source: Alan Levy, Nazi Hunter, p. 131.
3 Tuvia Friedman, The Hunter, pp. 170-176.
4 Simon Wiesenthal, The Murderers Among Us, pp. 123-124.
5 Ibid., p. 124.
6 Parts of the Sassen interviews were later famously published in two articles in Life magazine. They were highly damning. In private, with Sassen, Eichmann had given vent to his true feelings and was far more honest than in the self-pitying autobiography Eichmann wrote later while in prison in Israel. In 1980, the Sassen documents, or Sassen tapes, some six hundred pages of material from the interviews, were given to Eichmann’s widow, Veronika. Source: Gerard Groeneveld: “Kriegsberichter,” Nederlandse SS-oorlogsverslaggevers 1941-1945, Nijmegen, Vantilt, 2004, pp. 356-368.
7 Moshe Pearlman, The Capture and Trial of Adolf Eichmann, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1963, pp. 527-528.
8 Source: Wiesenthal, Murderers Among Us, p. 97.
9 Ibid.
10 Peter Malkin and Harry Stein, Eichmann in My Hands, New York, 1990, pp. 181-187.
11 Eichmann even signed the following statement: “I, Adolf Eichmann, the undersigned, declare of my own free will: Since my identity is now known, I recognize that there is no sense in attempting to evade justice any longer. I declare myself willing to go to Israel and face proceedings there before a competent court. It goes without saying that I shall receive legal defense and I will try to put the facts of my final years in office in Germany into the record without any embellishments, so that posterity will be given a true picture. I am making this declaration of my own free will. No promises were made to me, nor was I threatened in any way. I wish finally to find peace of mind again. Since I cannot recall all of the details and tend to confuse or mix things up, I request that I receive help in my desire to find the truth by having documents and testimony put at my disposal. Buenos Aires, May 1960.”
12 Isser Harel, The House on Garibaldi Street, Viking, New York, 1975, p. 154.
13 Guido Knopp, Hitler’s Hitmen, p. 46.
14 Isser Harel, The House on Garibaldi Street, p. 190.
15 Guido Knopp, Hitler’s Hitmen, p. 47.
16 Ibid. When news broke in Argentina of Eichmann’s abduction, it provoked a major diplomatic crisis, with Argentina making vehement protests to the UN about Israel’s violation of Argentine sovereignty. Fascists in Argentina, meanwhile, took matters into their own hands and killed, tortured, and bombed Jews in reprisal.
17 “All my life I have been accustomed to obedience,” Eichmann also told Less, “an obedience which in my years of membership in the SS became blind and unconditional. Though there is no blood on my hands, I shall certainly be convicted of complicity in murder. But be that as it may, I am inwardly prepared to atone for the terrible events. I know the death penalty awaits me. I am not asking for mercy, because I am not entitled to it. In fact, if it seems to be a greater act of atonement, I am prepared, as an example and deterrent to all anti-Semites of the earth, to hang myself in public. But let me first write a book about these horrible events as a warning and example for the young people of the present and the future, and then let my life on earth end.”
18 “Something seemed completely wrong, and I kept thinking about it while the incomprehensible bill of indictment (‘the murder of six million men, women, and children’) was being read. Suddenly I knew what it was. In my mind, I’d always been SS Obersturmbannfuhrer, supreme arbiter of life and death. But the Eichmann I now saw did not wear the SS uniform of terror and murder. Dressed in a cheap, dark suit, he seemed a cardboard figure, empty and two-dimensional. Fifteen times, after each item of the indictment, Eichmann was asked whether he was guilty. Each time, he said ‘Not guilty.’ This procedure, too, seemed inadequate to me. I thought that Eichmann should have been asked six million times, and he should have been made to answer six million times.” Simon Wiesenthal, Murderers Among Us, pp. 98-99.
19 Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, 1963, Epilogue.
20 Dutch journalist Harry Mulisch was just one of seven hundred journalists from around the world who reported on the trial in detail. He concluded that: “In the final analysis, it all boils down to the fact that Eichmann only believed in his own oath. This oath was his God and it lent godliness to the orders he received. It was stronger than the sufferings and the deaths of millions of innocents. The saying, ‘one man, one oath,’ held true for Eichmann. He had sworn his oath to Himmler personally in 1932, under totally different circumstances, when there was no talk of yet exterminating the Jews; he at least was certainly not aware of such a possibility. And later on, there was no escape from the murder oath sworn long ago.” Zvi Aharoni and Wilhelm Dietl, Operation Eichmann, Cassell, London, 1997, p. 40.
21 Protocol, C.C. 121/53 in the D.C. Jerusalem, cited in Hecht, Perfidy, Milah Press, 1961, p. 229, and footnote 199, p. 280.
22 The Trial of Adolf Eichmann, Record of Proceedings in the District Court of Jerusalem, 9 vols. (Jerusalem, 1992-1995) 5: 2195-2206.
23 Moshe Pearlman, The Capture and Trial of Adolf Eichmann, London, 1963, p. 370.
24 Gideon Hausner, Justice in Jerusalem, London, 1967, pp. 436-437.
25 Guido Knopp, Hitler’s Hitmen, p.
51.
26 Gideon Hausner, Justice in Jerusalem, pp. 431.
27 William Hull, The Struggle for a Soul, Doubleday, New York, 1963, p. 83.
28 Rachel Ginsberg, Hamishpacha magazine, May 1, 2005.
29 Vera Goodkin, interview with the author.
30 Erwin Koranyi, interview with the author.
CHAPTER TWENTY. THE WALLENBERG MYSTERY
1 “A very remarkable conversation took place on December 26, 1945, between Staffan Soderblom and Abramov, a head of department at the Soviet Foreign Ministry, MID. According to the Soviet Foreign Ministry’s notes, Soderblom gave an account of what he knew about Raoul Wallenberg’s last days in Budapest, but added: ‘I would genuinely like to give you my personal opinion on this matter. I know of course that my opinion cannot be of a personal nature, but in this case I would like you to consider it as personal. I take it that Wallenberg is not alive. It is possible that he died in a German air raid or in an attack by some Hungarian or German military unit operating behind the Soviet troops. The Red Army began an extensive attack shortly after Wallenberg was taken to Debrecen. As a result, staff and archives were being moved out and at that point it appeared to be impossible to obtain any information on Wallenberg’s fate. It would be splendid if the mission were to be given a reply in this spirit, that is to say, that Wallenberg is dead. It is necessary first and foremost because of Wallenberg’s mother, who is still hoping her son is alive. She is wasting her strength and health on a fruitless search. I have consulted Mme Kollontay about this in the past few days. She agrees with me and recommended that I spoke to you openly about it, which is what I am doing. I stress once again that my request for a reply from the Soviet government, and the contents of this reply, is a personal request and my personal opinion.’” Source: 2000 Swedish-Russian Working Group report, p. 88.
2 Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2009.
3 Frederick E. Werbell and Thurston Clarke, Lost Hero, p. 199.
4 Tim Tzouliakis, The Forsaken, Penguin, New York, 2008, p. 300. Hammarskjold would die in a controversial plane crash in 1961. He was the only person to be awarded a Nobel peace prize posthumously; attempts were made in 1948 to have Wallenberg awarded the prize.
5 Susanne Berger, “The Fight of Their Lives,” http://www.raoul-wallenberg. eu/articles/the-fight-of-their-lives/.
6 Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2009.
7 Kati Marton, Wallenberg: Missing Hero, p. 12.
8 Frederick E. Werbell and Thurston Clarke, Lost Hero, p. 214.
9 Ibid., p. 216.
10 Report of the Swedish-Russian Working Group, 2000.
11 Alan Levy, Nazi Hunter, p. 213.
12 Susanne Berger, “The Fight of Their Lives.” http://www.raoul-wallenberg. eu/articles/the-fight-of-their-lives/.
13 Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2009.
14 Ibid.
15 Kati Marton, Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero, p. 3.
16 Ibid.
17 Speech on October 5, 1981. The president spoke at 2:35 p.m. at the signing ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House. Participants in the ceremony included the Swedish ambassador and Mrs. Wilhelm Wachtmeister, members of the Senate and House of Representatives, representatives of the Jewish community, and Mr. Wallenberg’s sister and brother, Nina Lagergren and Guy von Dardel, who came from Sweden for the ceremony. Also in attendance were Representative Tom Lantos of California, the principal sponsor of the resolution in the House of Representatives, and his wife. While a sixteen-year-old youth working for the Hungarian Underground, Representative Lantos was saved in Budapest by Mr. Wallenberg. As enacted, S.J. Res. 65 is Public Law 9754, approved October 5. Source: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index. php?pid=44341.
18 “In 1989 the wooden shelves in the archival repository of the KGB, housed in the same building as the Lubianka prison, were replaced by metal ones. After an investigation of the KGB files, the staff went through a storage-room containing rubbish, office material, and so on, all in a mess. From the top shelf, a parcel fell down. If it had not been for a cigarette case which dropped to the floor, nobody would have paid any attention to it. The parcel had been sealed with glue. When the contents were examined, the archivist found Raoul Wallenberg’s diplomatic passport, his car registration certificate, his prison file card, his golden cigarette case, some foreign currency, and his pocket agenda. This is how, according to the Russians, the remaining belongings of Raoul Wallenberg turned up.” Source: http://www.osaarchivum.org/guide/rip/1/a.html.
19 Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/hungary/1376789/What-happened-to-Wallenberg.html.
20 Alan Levy, Nazi Hunter, p. 228.
21 Vera Goodkin, interview with the author.
22 Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2009.
23 Pavel A. Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, Backbay Books, New York, 1995, p. 265.
24 Ibid., p. 270.
25 Per Anger, who would campaign throughout his life for information on Wallenberg’s fate, strongly refuted Sudoplatov’s thesis: “I strongly disagree with the conclusion that the Wallenberg mystery is solved and that he was killed in 1947. That conclusion is based on circumstantial evidence with no firsthand confirmation. Central to the argument that he died in 1947 is a memorandum, dated May 14, 1947, which outlines unsuccessful Soviet efforts to recruit Wallenberg as a double agent, and directs a top Soviet security officer to submit ‘suggestions for liquidation.’ Former KGB officer Sudoplatov admits that the key phrase in Russian can mean either Wallenberg’s murder or the ‘liquidation’ (resolution) of his case. Those, like Sudoplatov, who accept Wallenberg’s death in 1947 accept the view that this meant the elimination of the man. Sudoplatov, however, admits that he never met Wallenberg, had no firsthand knowledge of his fate, and does not know anyone who had direct knowledge of his death.” Source: Per Anger, With Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest, pp. xv-xvi.
26 Ibid.
27 Ironically, there have been suggestions that Beria may have had something to do with Wallenberg’s death.
28 Exact numbers of those killed in the gulag under Stalin are impossible to ascertain, but the historian Otto Pohl cites the figure of 2,749,163 in his book The Stalinist Penal System, Jefferson, NC, 1997, p. 131. For an excellent discussion on the numbers who passed through the Soviet gulag and how many were killed, see Anne Applebaum’s Gulag, A History, Anchor Books, New York, 2004, pp. 578-586.
29 Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2009.
30 Report of the Swedish-Russian Working Group, 2000. In April 2010, there was a further development. According to the Associated Press: “The archives of the Russian Security Services say a man identified only as Prisoner No. 7, who was interrogated six days after the diplomat’s reported death, was ‘with great likelihood’ Wallenberg. The security services reported the find last November to Susanne Berger and Vadim Birstein, two members of a research team that conducted a ten-year investigation into Wallenberg’s disappearance in the 1990s. The researchers informed Wallenberg’s relatives in a letter released for publication Thursday. The findings also were reported in the Swedish magazine Fokus. The information still has to undergo in-depth verification, Berger wrote in the letter, ‘but if indeed confirmed, the news is the most interesting to come out of Russian archives in over fifty years.’” Source: Arthur Max and Karl Ritter. “New evidence on WWII mystery of Raoul Wallenberg.” Ove Bring, professor in international law at the National Defense College in Stockholm, said the report by the Russian security services warranted reopening Wallenberg’s case. “Everything we believed earlier [about Wallenberg’s death] is turned upside down by this,” he told The Associated Press. “This has to be investigated again. If he was still alive six days later, then maybe he was alive for a longer period of time,” Bring said. “Did he live another week, or a year or 10 years? Suddenly that’s an open question.” Source: Arthur Max and Karl Ritter (AP), “New evidence on WWII mystery of Raoul Wallenberg.”
31 Susanne Berger, “The Fight of Their Lives,�
�� http://www.raoul-wallenberg. eu/articles/the-fight-of-their-lives/.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE. THE LAST SURVIVORS
1 The emotional floodgates opened much later, after the birth of a grandson, William, who was diagnosed as severely autistic. The news punctured something in Vera. It seemed so terribly unfair after all her family had lost during the Holocaust. “It was as if the walls crumbled—it brought back everything.” Vera Goodkin, interview with the author.
2 Vera Goodkin, interview with the author.
3 Ibid.
4 Vera Goodkin, In Sunshine and Shadow, pp. 145-146.
5 Vera Goodkin, interview with the author.
6 Ibid.
7 Marianne Lowy, interview with the author.
8 Ibid.
9 Erwin K. Koranyi, Dreams and Tears, p. 196.
10 The Economist, June 20, 2009.
11 Erwin Koranyi, interview with the author.
12 Erwin K. Koranyi, Dreams and Tears, p. 209.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Erwin Koranyi, interview with the author.
16 Nina Lagergren, interview with the author.
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