Missing
in Action: Raoul Wallenberg
By Marion Marrache
(April 13) - The quest to solve the mystery behind the disappearance
of one of the world's most famous righteous gentiles
The final chapter of the story of Raoul Wallenberg - righteous
gentile, Swedish diplomat, hero to 100,000 Hungarian Jews whom he
saved from the Holocaust, honorary citizen of Canada, the US, and
Israel and suspected spy - has yet to be written. 
The Swedish-Russian Working Group, established in 1991 to search
11 separate military and government archives from the former Soviet
Union for information about Wallenberg, published its report in
Stockholm last year. The report enumerates 17 points for clarification,
concluding that: "As the above report shows, the working group has
not succeeded in finding satisfactory answers to a large number
of questions because insufficient data has been recovered."
The power of Wallenberg's life and the mystery surrounding his
fate has led many to participate in the quest to write the final
chapter of his story. One effort to locate the missing hero began
in 1985 in Canada. Per Anger, Wallenberg's assistant in Hungary
during World War II, was honored by the Canadian House of Commons
for issuing 700 Swedish protective passes to Jews in Budapest before
Wallenberg took up his diplomatic post there.
After receiving a standing ovation at the ceremony, Anger said
to Max Grunberg, chairman of the Edmonton Holocaust survivors' group,
"Never forget Raoul."
That comment stuck with Grunberg, and together with Rabbi Stewart
Weiss and Reuben and Nathan Mowszowski, (a group of olim interested
in Holocaust affairs) he established the Raoul Wallenberg Honorary
Citizen Committee in Israel in 1990. They have put out an "all points
bulletin" on Wallenberg in the hope that even today, as late as
56 years after his disappearance, someone might come forward with
new information.
The Israeli government considers Wallenberg "missing in action,"
and Grunberg's committee has put out posters with that heading,
providing what relevant information it has about Wallenberg and
leaving blank spaces for the missing details.
"In every country when someone goes missing there is an APB put
out on him," says Grunberg. "The assumption in the case of Wallenberg
is that if someone remembers him it will probably be from a long
time ago," and all those pieces of information will help the committee
to piece together a clearer picture.
While some might think that the search for Wallenberg can only
be a matter of trying to find out how he died, Grunberg and others
hold out hope that the Swedish diplomat has survived. "We believe
that Wallenberg is alive and we have a duty to find him," says Grunberg.
After all, Wallenberg's assistant Anger is still alive at the venerable
age of 86. Wallenberg would be 88. And an incredible but true story
surfaced last year of a Hungarian man, apparently captured during
World War II and discovered after 53 years in a Russian asylum for
the mentally ill. The man spoke only Hungarian and since no one
understood him, they thought he was speaking gibberish, until a
Slovak doctor recognized the language. The man, known as Andras
Andreyvitch Tamas, was moved from a prison camp to the mental hospital,
east of Moscow, in 1947, the year that Wallenberg is supposed to
have died.
Involved in the active search for Wallenberg are, among many others:
President Moshe Katsav, who raised the fate of Wallenberg during
his visit to Moscow and Ambassador Jan Lundvik, in charge of the
Wallenberg enquiry in the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Wallenberg was born in Sweden on August 4, 1912, three months after
the death of his father, into a family of bankers, industrialists,
diplomats and politicians. He had Jewish ancestry on his maternal
grandfather's side.
Wallenberg graduated high school with top grades in art - drawing
in particular - and in Russian. After his army service, he studied
architecture at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Wallenberg lived briefly in Cape Town, South Africa, and then worked
at a Dutch bank in Haifa, where he met Jews escaping from Nazi Germany.
He later became the business partner of a Hungarian Jew, Koloman
Lauer, and traveled to Budapest on a series of business trips.
On March 19, 1944, Hitler invaded Hungary and the deportation of
Jews began to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The US War Refugee Board (WRB) and the World Jewish Congress offered
Wallenberg - through Lauer, who recommended him as "brave, compassionate
and resourceful" - the job of helping to save the remaining Hungarian
Jews. He was appointed secretary at the Swedish legation in Budapest.
Insisting upon a completely free hand in the mission, he received
authorization from both prime minister Per Albin Hansson and Swedish
king Gustav V to act in any situation without first having to contact
the ambassador. He also demanded to be able to send diplomatic couriers
beyond the usual channels.
When Wallenberg arrived in Budapest in July 1944, there were only
230,000 Jews left in the area. Heeding the request from Gustav V,
Hungarian head of state Miklos Horthy stopped a train with 1,600
Jews at the border and sent it back to Budapest, temporarily halting
the deportations.
Meanwhile, Wallenberg designed, printed and issued yellow and blue
passes that bore the Swedish coat of arms, with stamps and signatures.
The passes had no standing according to international law, but Wallenberg's
design intentionally appealed to the the German and Hungarian sense
of pomp and ceremony, persuading officials that the passes meant
protection for their bearers.
On October 15, 1944, the German troops took command of Budapest,
replacing Horthy with Ferenc Szalasi, leader of the Hungarian Nazi
party. The deportation of Jews began again.
Wallenberg used bribery and threats of extortion to save as many
Jews as possible. He climbed into and ran on top of trains, stuffing
handfuls of passes to the Jews inside.
Soldiers were ordered to fire on him, but many aimed to miss, awed
by his courage and personality. Due to time constraints the passes
he used now were much simpler and signed by Wallenberg alone. Nevertheless,
his magic worked.
Wallenberg invented the concept of "Swedish houses," hanging his
country's flag over the door of properties bought or rented with
his own money or money from the groups that had sent him and declaring
them Swedish territory. Adolf Eichmann attempted to have Wallenberg
liquidated. Shortly before Budapest was liberated by Soviet soldiers,
Wallenberg succeeded in derailing a plan to massacre the remaining
70,000 Jews in the ghetto.
In the midst of all the work he was doing to save Jews, was Wallenberg
also a spy? And if so, for whom?
When the Russians took over Budapest, the city was known as a transit
point for espionage material and agents from Poland, Czechoslovakia
and Hungary to Istanbul. Anyone suspected of military counterespionage
was arrested by the Soviets, including all German and Swiss diplomats.
Non-Swedish employees were questioned about the work of the mission
and about the Swedish diplomatic staff. Accusations were made that
they had issued false documents and protective papers to non-Jewish
Hungarians, some of whom were fascists; that the mission did not
have control over the humanitarian activities; and that it had not
sufficiently safeguarded Soviet interests in Hungary.
Wallenberg and Lars Berg (the attachÈ at the Swedish legation in
Budapest in 1944-5) were identified as German spy chiefs. The Soviets
could not believe that they would have risked their lives to save
Jews.
The Soviets also accused Wallenberg of being involved with the
Nazis. While some of his father's family did cooperate with them,
providing loans from the Wallenberg bank (owned and run by Raoul's
extended family) to support steel deals with the Nazis, this had
nothing to do with Wallenberg personally.
However, Wallenberg's association with the American Joint Distribution
Committee added further fuel to the German spy theory. In 1940,
Jewish nationalists had offered the use of the American Joint Distribution
Committee to the US as a network for mass espionage in return for
American support in setting up an independent state in Palestine.
A Joint staff member had also offered German agents access to some
Joint offices in exchange for the release of 2,000 to 5,000 Jews
a month. Himmler rejected this proposal, but the Germans managed
to monitor a large amount of the mail sent to the Joint. In Soviet
eyes, the Joint grew to be an "worldwide Zionist power," supporting
a "global Zionist plot."
With rather convoluted logic, at the same time, the Soviets suspected
that the Swedish legation was spying for the British and/or the
Americans.
In 1979, in an emotional outburst, Igor Zemskov, the Soviet deputy
foreign minister, told the Swedish ambassador in Moscow that Wallenberg
had been spying for the US and that the Americans had privately
admitted this.
Much press coverage has been given to the possibility that Wallenberg
worked for the Office of Strategic Services. Iver Olsen, who represented
the WRB and the US Treasury department as well as the OSS, denies
having used Wallenberg as an agent. However, WRB reports were passed
on to the OSS and experience gained from the OSS was applied in
the launching of WRB. For the Russians, the WRB was equated with
a spy network.
Although some documentation exists which raises minor doubts over
this issue, the general feeling is that Wallenberg was not working
for the OSS but that information he acquired - such as the number
of Jews about to be taken - was forwarded to different intelligence
communities.
Yet another contradictory theory is that Wallenberg was a Soviet
spy. On December 31, 1944, Staffan Soderblom, the Swedish minister
in Moscow, handed a note to the Soviet Foreign Ministry (MID) with
the names of members of the Swedish legation in Budapest requesting
assistance for them, saying they were threatened with forced evacuation.
Cipher telegrams were set to commanders of the Second and Third
Ukrainian Fronts on January 2, 1945, to the effect that the members
of the Swedish mission in Budapest be placed under Red Army protection
and the general staff informed. Wallenberg's name was on the list.
Details of the events of the January 13 through 17 vary, One version
states that on January 13 Wallenberg was found at the International
Red Cross transport unit on 16 Beczur Street. He approached the
Russians and handed over a telegram, in German, requesting it be
forwarded to Stockholm. A report notes instructions not to forward
the telegram. There are other versions: Wallenberg and his driver,
Vilmos Langfelder, were stopped and ordered to to be escorted to
Soviet staff headquarters on January 13. Some reports say they refused
until guns were aimed at them.
Instructions had been issued to treat Wallenberg with respect and
not to interrogate him. His immunity was to be respected and he
was to be assisted while escorted to staff headquarters.
Wallenberg apparently asked to negotiate about improving conditions
for the Jewish population and was taken to speak to a chief of Shmersh,
the Soviet counter-intelligence organization. Evidence points to
this taking place on January 14.
A few days later, Wallenberg requested to be received by the division
commander. He gave an account of his activities and requested contact
with Soviet military commanders about plans for rescuing the ghetto.
Wallenberg was willing to turn over his bulky briefcase to the military
commanders.
When troops came to fetch Wallenberg and his driver, a colonel
emphasized that nothing was to be said about Wallenberg.
A witness saw him on January 17 in a car with Major Demchenko,
an assistant police chief - who claimed to have met with him on
January 13 or 14 - en route to Debrecen, home of the provisional
Hungarian government.
A Hungarian witness says that Wallenberg spent a night at Godollo,
a prisoner-of-war camp, and then returned to a house in the Budapest
suburb of Rakosszentmihaly. To an avid reader of spy novels this
could all sound like a debriefing of an agent. Was Wallenberg a
Russian agent? What purpose would it had served in the cause he
so championed, to have also taken on this extra role?
When Wallenberg left Budapest for Debrecen on January 17, he took
with him three suitcases, a rucksack and a large amount of money.
He gave an office employee a large sum to pay for the upkeep of
the Jewish welfare shelters, and he told an associate that he wasn't
sure if he was going to be a guest of the Russians or their prisoner.
He said he thought he would return within a week.
Wallenberg and his driver were apparently arrested by the NKVD,
Russian intelligence, and detained briefly in a temporary prison
in Budapest. It is agreed by all sources that they were taken by
train via Romania to Moscow. They were guarded by an officer and
four soldiers, although they were allowed off the train in Romania
to eat at the Luther restaurant in Iasi. They were told to consider
themselves to be in protective custody. They were shown the underground
railway system in Moscow and walked to the Lubianka prison. Wallenberg
was apparently writing a detective story during the trip to Moscow.
A Smersh report from February 1945 stated that: "Instead of protecting
the interests of the Soviet Union and Hungary, the Swedish embassy
and Swedish Red Cross are giving protection to enemies of the Soviet
Union and Hungarian people and providing them with refuge and sanctuary."
There were accusations directed towards individual members of the
Swedish legation but Wallenberg was not mentioned.
The order to arrest Wallenberg originated from Stalin, who decided
to arrest some of the diplomats from neutral countries remaining
in Budapest, and then send them to Moscow. Swiss diplomats, ostensibly
arrested for the same reasons as Wallenberg, were eventually freed
in exchange for Russian prisoners in Switzerland, having explained
that they "did not deal in politics or intelligence work."
It appears that specific grounds must have existed for arresting
Wallenberg. General Belkin, chief of the Smersh Front Directorate
said that they had received basic data in 1945 that he was "an established
asset" of the German, British and American intelligence services.
It was Wallenberg's pocket diary, confiscated by the Soviets, that
probably confirmed many of their multiple suspicions. It contained
information on all his contacts from both sides in Budapest.
Wallenberg is believed to have been interrogated only on four separate
occasions after the first lengthy interrogation on his first day
in Moscow. And out of the four, only one session lasted longer than
two hours.
Official reports and declarations regarding Wallenberg's fate have
come out in multiple forms since the end of WWII. In February 1945,
Maj von Dardel, Wallenberg's mother, was informed by Alexandra Kollontay,
the Russian ambassador in Stockholm, that her son was in safekeeping
in the Soviet Union. During that period Kollontay told the wife
of the Swedish foreign minister that it would be best for Wallenberg
if the Swedish government didn't stir things up. Kollontay was soon
recalled to Russia. Upon her return to Moscow she began enquiring
about Wallenberg and was told to stop.
On March 8, 1945, it was announced on Soviet-controlled radio that
Wallenberg had been murdered on the way to Debrecen by Gestapo agents
or Hungarian Nazis. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the Swedish government,
this news considerably lessened the urgency of discovering his whereabouts.
On March 17, 1945, a memorandum from a section head of the Soviet
Foreign Ministry stated that three notes had been received from
the Swedish mission, requesting that Ivan Danielssohn, head of the
Swedish legation in Budapest, and Wallenberg be allowed to receive
items from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Russians,
however, decided not to forward anything to the men since, they
reasoned, Danielssohn and Wallenberg would be released soon (despite
the fact that Wallenberg's "death" had been announced a fortnight
earlier).
On April 12, 1945, the American ambassador in Moscow offered Staffan
Soderblom, the Swedish minister in Moscow, help in searching for
Wallenberg. Soderblom refused and wrote misleadingly about American
actions in his report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April
19, without mentioning the offer for help. Soderblom repeatedly
sabotaged possible opportunities to make headway into discovering
the whereabouts of Wallenberg.
On June 15, 1946, Soderblom met with Stalin, who made a note of
Wallenberg's name and promised to give orders for a search but insisted
he had no idea of his whereabouts. The meeting lasted only five
minutes although Stalin's diary indicates that he had earmarked
an entire hour for it. Soderblom reiterated to Stalin his belief
that Wallenberg had died in Hungary.
In 1947 an official Soviet announcement stated that Wallenberg
was not in the Soviet Union.
In 1948, Kollontay was told that he had died, the previous year,
of a heart attack in prison.
"In the early Fifties," says Grunberg, "the Russians tried to do
something with the idea of a missing person. They advertised for
Wallenberg in the media."
In April 1956, Swedish prime minister Tage Erlander traveled with
interior minister Gunnar Hedlund to Moscow for a meeting with Soviet
representatives Nikita Khrushchev, Nikolai Bulganin and Vyacheslav
Molotov. The result was a promise on the part of the Russians to
renew investigations into Wallenberg's story.
On February 6, 1957, a hand-written document was said to have been
found, signed by Smoltsov, chief medical officer at Lubianka prison.
The document was addressed to Viktor Abakumov, the minister for
state security in the Soviet Union and contained notification of
the death of "Valenberg" on July 17, 1947, "probably as the result
of a heart attack." It was not an authentic death certificate, and
was never sent to Abakumov.
In 1957 and 1965, the Swedish government issued "white papers"
about the Wallenberg case.
Between 1980 and 1982, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published
most of the papers in the Wallenberg files dealing with 1944 to
1969. In 1997 more were made public, including 1970 material.
"In the mid-Seventies," says Grunberg, "Simon Wiesenthal raised
tremendous awareness about Wallenberg. His efforts inspired many
people."
In connection with the Swedish report of the Swedish-Russian Working
Group, papers covering 1971 to 1991 were also published.
In 1981, the US Congress made Wallenberg an honorary citizen, a
status held only by him and Winston Churchill.
Four years later interest in Wallenberg was sparked around the
world by the release of the film Wallenberg: A Hero's Story, starring
Richard Chamberlain.
In the same year, Wallenberg was made an honorary citizen of Canada.
In 1986, he received a similar honor in Israel.
The Israeli government in 1995 focused serious attention on the
Wallenberg affair. Grunberg's committee wrote a letter to then Knesset
Speaker Szewach Weiss, who pointed out in the Knesset that it was
imperative to have an active file on Wallenberg in the Foreign Ministry.
Grunberg also spoke to former MK Esther Salmovitz who was committed
to the search for Wallenberg. "Max Grunberg is one of those people
who are relentless in their pursual of what they believe to be right,"
says Salmovitz. "Without that kind of person things would not get
done." She posed a question about Wallenberg in the Knesset which
"began to open things up."
Last year, Ambassador Dov Schmorak was sent to Sweden as a representative
regarding the Wallenberg case, and Ambassador Johanan Bein went
to Moscow. It was Bein who had the idea of presenting Wallenberg
as an MIA.
In November 2000, Alexander Yakovlev, head of a Russian presidential
commission investigating Wallenberg's fate, disclosed that he had
been executed in 1947 in Lubianka.
In December, Russia said that Wallenberg had been wrongfully arrested
on espionage charges in 1945. On January 12 this year, the Swedish-Russian
Working Group came to the conclusion that there were still no concrete
answers. The Russians repeated their original version that he had
died of a heart attack in prison in 1947. The Swedes concluded that
there was no evidence of his death.
Unofficial reports about Wallenberg's fate have given hope to those
who still seek him. Witnesses have come forward over the years with
stories of different sightings. In 1949, while in a transit camp
en route to Vorkuta in the Soviet Union, Theodor von Dufving, a
German officer, heard about a Swedish diplomat escorted by a special
guard. At their subsequent meeting the Swede said he had been imprisoned
because of a terrible mistake.
Between 1948 and 1950, a Protestant priest, Aurel von Juchen spoke
often to his wife about comrades who had met Wallenberg in Vorkuta,
where they were all imprisoned.
Dr. Menachem Melzer told a Swedish police officer in 1974 that
he met a Swede called Raoul in 1948 or 1949 when examining internees
at a work camp near Vorkuta.
Boguslaw Baj, a Polish citizen, gave evidence at the Swedish embassy
in Warsaw in 1988 and 1992. He confirmed having met Wallenberg among
a group of prisoners traveling to Vanino Bay. Wallenberg fell ill
and was sent to the prison hospital.
Antonas Bogdanas from Latvia said he had seen Wallenberg in 1951
when they were both being sent to a psychiatric clinic in Kazan,
where Wallenberg was to be treated for megalomania after insisting
he was a Swedish diplomat.
Rudolf Alexander Hedrich-Winter von Schwab told the Swedish Embassy
in Vienna in 1964 that he had met Wallenberg in 1959 in a hospital
cell in a prison in Verchne-Uralsk. In 1953, von Schwab had met
a Dr. Jakobson who had spoken of meeting Wallenberg in Magnitorsk.
Wallenberg said he had been operated upon only after the death of
Stalin.
More than a decade and a half after Wallenberg's supposed death
in 1947, a chance encounter took place. Dr. Nanna Svartz, an internationally
renowned internist and researcher, attended a scientific conference
in Moscow at which she met a Russian colleague, Dr. Alexander Miasnikov.
They became friendly and spoke together in German. One day over
lunch she asked him if a man like Wallenberg could conceivably have
been interned by the Russians in a mental institution, as was often
the case for Russian political prisoners who were made out to be
insane.
Miasnikov replied that such was indeed the case and he even knew
the name of the mental hospital in which Wallenberg was being kept.
Upon her return to Sweden, Svartz went to prime minister Tage Erlander
who wrote to Russian president Nikita Khrushchev. The reply came
that there must have been a linguistic misunderstanding between
the two doctors, because that was certainly not the case. Svartz
insisted upon her story and a meeting was arranged to clarify matters
at the office of the Swedish ambassador in Moscow. Miasnikov did
not show up for the meeting and an apology was sent, explaining
that he had tragically died of a heart attack.
In 1981, a Hungarian, Albert Hollosy, said that some time before
being released that year he spent time in a KGB-controlled psychiatric
clinic in Moscow. A nurse pointed out a man seated in a wheelchair
and told him that his name was Raoul Wallenberg.
The motivation behind Grunberg's tireless search for Wallenberg
lies with his father, a Holocaust survivor hidden by a Christian
family in Holland who later ended up in Auschwitz and "survived
physically but was emotionally and psychologically damaged," Grunberg
says.
In 1961, when Grunberg and his father watched the entire Eichmann
trial together, the boy became the repository of all of his father's
nightmarish experiences. When they journeyed together to the Netherlands
in 1984 for a reunion with the Dutch family who had sheltered him,
Grunberg senior "didn't have the capacity to show gratitude."
In 1982, in Vancouver, the younger Grunberg attended a sharing
groups for children of Holocaust survivors. The group facilitator,
Dr. Robert Krell, who had been a "hidden child" suggested that they
take the example of Wallenberg and look not only at the horrors
of that time but also at the bravery and the selflessness which
emanated from it. This accounts for Grunberg's expressed need "to
make up internally for what my father failed to do in terms of expressing
gratitude."
Grunberg says that if the present Russian government understands
that the question of Wallenberg's fate is of interest to the world
"then [President Vladimir] Putin might allocate financial resources
for a more comprehensive investigation of the archives," as well
as for a public campaign. Apart from president Katsav, German chancellor
Helmut Kohl and Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson have both brought
up the issue during state visits to Russia.
"Will [George] Bush raise the issue of the fate of Wallenberg with
Russia?" asks Grunberg.
Grunberg feels that the most important thing is that when people
read about the missing-in-action poster his committee has put out
they will be impelled to act.
Following the report of the working committee, he says: "We know
what needs to be done." He hopes that organizations will take the
poster as "a project to carry on the search."
As Hans Dahlgren, Swedish state secretary for foreign affairs,
writes in his introduction to the working group's report, "Raoul
Wallenberg thus set an example, showing that action is possible
and necessary. He knew that we do not always need to be prepared
in order to do what is right. He showed that we are all capable
of meeting a challenge."
If you have any information that you believe may shed further light
on the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, please contact Max Grunberg of
the Raoul Wallenberg Honorary Citizen Committee at tel. (09) 742-1710
or by e-mail at offices@inter.net.il. All information will be forwarded
to the Research Center of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Righteous Pope?
By Haim Shapiro
In an era in which evil appeared to prevail, the actions of Raoul
Wallenberg, a courageous humanitarian diplomat, stand out. Although
Wallenberg was an outstanding figure of his time, he was not the
only righteous diplomat in his generation. Among those who are worthy
of mention is Archbishop Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the papal nuncio
in Istanbul, who was later to become better known as pope John XXIII,
"the good pope."
As pope, from 1958 to 1963, he initiated the Second Vatican Council,
which after his death was to transform the attitude of the Church
to Jews and Judaism and eliminate what has been described as "the
theology of contempt."
Now the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, an interfaith
group founded by Baruch Tenembaum, an Argentine businessman, has
initiated a campaign to have Roncalli recognized by Yad Vashem in
its Avenue of Righteous Gentiles.
Dr. Mario Ablin, the Jerusalem representative of the foundation,
says that it is the aim of the organization to make the era of the
Holocaust and the work of those who aided Jews during that period
known beyond Jewish circles. In this respect, he points out that
the foundation was instrumental in having a mural in memory of the
victims of the Holocaust erected in the Cathedral of Buenos Aires
in 1997.
Ablin says that the case of Roncalli was unique. Turkey was neutral
during World War II, so there was no question of his physically
sheltering Jews. However, Ablin adds, Roncalli clearly did more
than he had to do.
"He wasn't like a Polish peasant who hid Jews in his attic," Ablin
says, referring to the activities of many of those who were declared
righteous gentiles.
Moreover, Ablin adds, it is not so easy to trace the effects of
Roncalli's actions, since they were often indirect. What is clear
beyond a shadow of a doubt is that Roncalli met with Haim Barlas,
the Jewish Agency's emissary in Istanbul. It also appears that the
Vatican diplomat used diplomatic mail to send thousands of immigration
certificates for Palestine into Hungary, to allow Jews to leave
and to pass through Turkey.
Roncalli apparently also facilitated the passage of a ship from
Romania with 739 Jewish refugees, including 150 orphans, to Palestine.
We know, says Ablin, that the orphans arrived in Palestine.
Roncalli also wrote to King Boris III of Bulgaria, asking the monarch
to intervene on behalf of the Jews. What effect the letter had is
not clear, but we do know that although the Jews of Macedonia and
Thrace were deported to the death camps, the Jews of Bulgaria proper
were saved. Ablin is convinced that Roncalli's intervention played
a crucial role.
"No one forced Roncalli to write to Boris, but the fact is that
Bulgarian Jewry was saved," Ablin says.
A more elusive subject is the unsubstantiated report that Roncalli
also sent thousands of baptismal certificates to Hungary, to be
used to obtain preferential treatment for Jews although they had
not in fact converted. Such an action would have been contrary to
Church policy, but thus far, there is no concrete proof that he
actually did sent such certificates.
Monsignor Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio to Israel, says that Roncalli
did facilitate the transport of many Jews through Turkey to Palestine.
Sambi is also aware of the report about baptismal certificates,
but he too cannot confirm that Roncalli actually sent such documents.
If he did do so, Sambi says, it was clearly the right thing to do.
"There is no moral dilemma. In that moment, to save lives was the
most important thing," Sambi says.
According to Dr. Yehuda Bauer, the former director of the international
relations department of Yad Vashem, Roncalli was clearly a good
person who sympathized with the fate of the Jews, but he adds that
we simply do not know enough about his activities to accord him
the title of righteous gentile.
Bauer, who notes that Roncalli was responsible for the entire Balkan
region, undoubtedly made great efforts to help the Jewish and non-Jewish
victims of the Nazis.
According to Bauer, Roncalli asked the then Vatican secretary of
state, Cardinal Luigi Maglione, to act on behalf of the Jews. Bauer
also mentions the meeting with Barlas, but he adds that the details
of the discussions are not known. Barlas kept no record of the meeting.
"We all know he was a wonderful person, that he helped Jews. There
wasn't a trace of anti-Jewish feeling in him," Bauer says.
However he adds that one of the reasons so little is known is that
the Vatican has not opened its records for the period of the Holocaust.
Jewish groups have demanded that the Vatican make these records
available to the public and some critics say that the reason the
files are still closed is that the Vatican does not want to allow
a full examination of the actions of pope Pius XII. That pope, who
reigned during the war years, has been accused of keeping silent
about the Nazi atrocities.
Vatican expert Dr. Yitzhak Minerbi, who is often very critical
of the Vatican, says that in his view the effort to have Roncalli
declared a righteous gentile is a very positive one. According to
Minerbi, Roncalli sent thousands of certificates granting diplomatic
protection to Jews in Hungary.
Minerbi says it is not clear whether the documents actually granted
Vatican protection or that of some other state, but in any case,
through his work, Roncalli saved thousands of lives. 
On the other hand, Minerbi also notes that Roncalli had declared
that the effort to create a Jewish state in Palestine was a dream
which would never be realized and said there was no reason for the
Church to aid in such an endeavor. Minerbi also says that Roncalli's
actions during the Holocaust raised the question as to how it was
possible for some Church officials to help the Jews under the rule
of Pius XII.
"If Roncalli acted in such a positive manner, why did his boss,
Pius XII, act in such a negative way?" Minerbi asks.
Ablin says that there have been those who saw a connection between
the condemnation of Pius XII and the recognition accorded John XXIII.
However, Ablin insists, the initiative with regard to Roncalli has
no connection to Pius XII.
However, even if there is no connection, the deliberate speed with
which the Church evaluates its beatification procedures seems to
be in this case mirrored by Yad Vashem in the case of Roncalli.
Ablin says that the foundation filed a petition with Yad Vashem
about a year ago. Yad Vashem has opened a file and is conducting
an investigation. However, Ablin says, Yad Vashem has to use different
criteria when examining the actions of a diplomat such as Roncalli.
They have to be judged on the basis of a broad spectrum of actions,
which are not necessarily direct actions, he says.
"It may be impossible to find anyone who can say that he saved
them, but thousands of people who may otherwise have died may have
survived through his actions," Ablin says.
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