Staffan Söderblom’s Severe Guilt Complex

New research in the Raoul Wallenberg case indicates that – in contrast to earlier claims –  the Swedish government’s lack of decisive action on Wallenberg’s behalf after his disappearance in the Soviet Union in January 1945 does not seem to have been simply the result of the tragic confluence of specific factors, like Swedish administrative failures, chaotic post-war conditions, individual incompetence, Wallenberg’s status as an “outsider” or Sweden’s overwhelming fear of the Soviet Union. Instead, the new findings suggest that the Swedish government’s extreme passivity in the Raoul Wallenberg case in many ways appears to have been a conscious decision by a select group of Swedish officials to place Sweden’s national economic and political interest, as they defined it,  over the need to clarify the fate of one of their fellow diplomats.

Recently discovered documentation contained in Staffan Söderblom’s official [Swedish Foreign Ministry] personnel file raises new questions about what caused the severe mental breakdown he suffered in 1951 which ultimately led to his early retirement. The Ambassador’s controversial role in the Raoul Wallenberg case may have not been the only reason for his condition, which in turn raises important new questions regarding the Wallenberg research.

The Raoul Wallenberg Research Initiative 70 (RWI 70), which has set itself the ambitious task of uncovering the truth about the fate of the diplomat who disappeared in Budapest in 1945, now publishes the new research findings of Susanne Berger and Vadim Birstein on its website.

To the article