Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis, was executed by the Soviets because he wouldn’t spy for them, a former Soviet double agent says in a new book.
The allegation by Oleg Gordievski was reported Wednesday in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet; the book was published in Finland this week.
By issuing them Swedish passports, Wallenberg saved about 20,000 Jews from likely death after Hungary was occupied by Germany in the spring of 1944. Occupying Soviet forces arrested him in Hungary in 1945 for allegedly spying for the U.S.
Russian authorities have said he died in 1947 in a Soviet prison.
Gordievski, who defected in 1995, said Wallenberg was executed after he refused a request by Josef Stalin to spy for the Soviets.
