WALLENBERG BOOK
DETAILS U.S.
CULPABILITY In
Betrayal of
Holocaust Hero
Entitled "A CONSPIRACY OF INDIFFERENCE: THE RAOUL WALLENBERG STORY," the book contains new and controversial material about Raoul Wallenberg, a hero of the Holocaust, and reveals that for half a century the United States, which had recruited Wallenberg, abandoned the Swedish diplomat.
This book begins where others end and takes the Wallenberg story to the present day.
Two large gray boxes from the Central Intelligence Agency containing 1,500 documents analyzed by author Alan Gersten, specify that, through inaction and subversion, the U.S. and Swedish governments let Wallenberg languish in the camps of silence, known as the Gulag Archipelago. These documents show that America, which sent Wallenberg on one of World War II's most hazardous missions, betrayed this man who achieved the unachievable to rescue 100,000 Jews.
Since his disappearance, many tried and all failed to find Wallenberg or pinpoint his whereabouts. His family made impassioned pleas to the highest levels of American government to locate and free him, only to be ignored five times. All attempts to free Wallenberg were perpetually bungled. These included proposed spy swaps and an historic and unusual lawsuit against the Soviet Union that the plaintiffs initially won, but ultimately lost.
A joint Swedish-Russian group--after more than nine years of study--released two reports on January 12, 2001, which Mr. Gersten also draws upon. The Russian version claims Wallenberg was killed in 1947, yet the Swedish version raises many theories without arriving at any conclusions.
The U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., accepted the book for its bookstore after a rigorous vetting process to insure the book's accuracy.
Guy von Dardel, half-brother of Raoul Wallenberg, recently called the author from Switzerland, saying that "this is an excellent book. It is an important part of our efforts to save Raoul...I am glad that this law case has at last been described in depth.
Annette Lantos, whose husband, Tom, is a Democratic Congressman from California, praised this book. "As you know, Tom and I owe our lives to Raoul Wallenberg. We have fought together to increase awareness of Wallenberg's disappearance and courageous accomplishments. I am delighted to hear that we were helpful to you on your honorable project. My husband and I commend you on a job well done."
Nina Lagergren, Wallenberg's half-sister, said, "I found the book most interesting and the title appropriate." She called the author from her home in Sweden to say she liked the book.
More positive reaction to the book comes from Dr. Marvin W. Makinen, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago, who has been working for about 20 years to try to free Raoul Wallenberg or find out what happened to him. Dr. Makinen helped champion the lawsuit and participated as an expert in the Swedish-Russian Group.
He said, in part, "I am pleased with the level of detail in your book. You will probably be the only biographer of Wallenberg to have traversed the arduous path of details, statements, and events with respect to efforts to take the case into court. I still regret greatly that path which I still believe would have worked, given a sufficiently agile and tenacious lawyer, did not prove to be more successful."
Mr. Gersten, an award-winning journalist, spent seven years on this carefully researched book to provide new insights into this frustrating episode. In addition to the CIA documents and the Swedish-Russian reports, Mr. Gersten examined an additional 1,000 documents from the archives of the State Department and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, N.Y., and supplemented archival research with interviews of family members and others connected with the cause-celebre. .
Price: $18.41
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