I recently heard on NPR about Raoul Wallenberg (SP?) a Swedish, I believe, diplomat who helped rescue many jews from the Nazis by giving them citizenship papers, etc. It mentioned that a few dates that he most likely died and where he was held, but never mentioned why they would have arrested him in the first place. I have wondered about it for years but have never seen anything that answered or hinted at a reason. Has anyone heard anything or are there any ideas?
TIA
He was arrested for espionage. They apparently thought he was an American agent, and he was. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/raoul.htm
The Soviet Union and the USA were allies. Wallenberg had diplomatic accreditation to a neutral power. Soviet intelligence officers had no legitimate power of arrest in Hungary.
Wallenberg and his driver were kidnapped and murdered, not arrested.
This story has been in the news recently as there is some limited evidence that he was not killed, but was held in a gulag or camp until the 1970s. The BBC has the story at this link.
Due process has not traditionally been a major priority of the Commies. He was arrested because someone gave the order. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
He may have been an American agent, and the commies may have known that. I think it is a mistake to always assume there is a logical, consistent reason behind something like his arrest. I think that his efforts to save the Jews were incomprehensible to the Russians - I mean, how did the Russians thinking go - maybe something like this? “Why is he risking his life? He was a neutral. Even if an American agent, he didn’t turn the Jews into an anit-Nazi army, he didn’t get rich off of them, he was from a rich and priviliged background anyway - why take the risk? Why bother? There has to be more to it. We better grab this guy and find out what’s up.” Once they had him, it was less embarrassing to keep him than let him go, and after a while, just keeping him was embarrassing - so he “died.”