New clue in WWII's oldest mystery
RAOUL WALLENBERG | Papers may show his link to super-secret U.S. intelligence agency, 'the Pond'
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg was a minor official of a neutral country, with an unimposing appearance and gentle manner. Recruited and financed by the U.S., he went to Hungary to save Jews. He bullied, bluffed and bribed powerful Nazis to prevent the deportation of 20,000 to concentration camps and avert the massacre of 70,000 more in Budapest's Jewish ghetto.
Then, on Jan. 17, 1945, days after Soviet troops moved into Budapest, the 32-year-old Wallenberg and his Hungarian driver, Vilmos Langfelder, drove off with a Russian security escort, and vanished forever.
Researchers still wrestle with two enduring mysteries: Why was Wallenberg arrested, and did he die in Soviet custody in 1947?
Fresh documents are to become public that may cast light on another puzzle: whether Wallenberg was connected to a super-secret U.S. intelligence agency known as ''the Pond."
Speculation Wallenberg was engaged in espionage has been rife since the Central Intelligence Agency acknowledged in the 1990s that he was recruited for his rescue mission by a U.S. agent.
About the Pond, little is known. But later this year the CIA is to turn over to the National Archives a stash of Pond-related papers found in a Virginia barn in 2001.
Independent research suggests he may have lived many years -- perhaps to the late 1980s. If true, he likely was held in isolation, stripped of his identity, known only by a number in a Russian prison.
With the knowledge of his government, Wallenberg's task as first secretary to the Swedish diplomatic legation in Budapest was a cover for his true mission as secret emissary of the U.S. War Refugee Board, created in a belated attempt to stem the deaths of Jews.
Whether or not he himself was passing on intelligence, Russia had plenty of reason to suspect him of spying.
''Wallenberg had ties to all the major actors in Hungary,'' says Susanne Berger, a German researcher. AP
