Archives Release Unpublished Wallenberg Documents

Wallenberg first visited Hungary well before 1944. In 2009, parts of Wallenberg?s 1943 visa application documents were published by the MOL Archives. In addition to the yet unpublished visa application documents, previously unknown other documents have now been published about his business links and activities in Hungary.

 

Wallenberg, who was born into a large family that was influential in Sweden?s economic and political life, completed his studies abroad and gained international experience in trading companies. In 1941, he started work for the Swedish foreign trade company Mellaneuropeiska Handels AB which was founded by the Swede Sven Salén and the Hungarian Kálmán Lauer. He was later appointed to managing director of the company.

 

Lauer was also the Stockholm representative of the Hungarian Hangya Association in Stockholm and his firm became one of the food suppliers to the Hungarian consulate general in Oslo (through the Foreign Trade Office?s Stockholm branch and the Hungarian embassy in Stockholm).

 

Through the Foreign Trade Office?s Stockholm representative office, Wallenberg got in contact with several Hungarian firms regarding the export of petrol in 1941. It seems Mellaneuropeiska Handels AB had good references at the representative office.

 

Wallenberg?s second trip to Hungary took place in the autumn of 1943. All of the documents for his visa application have survived at the Hungarian embassy in Stockholm (unlike in the case of his first trip, about which no embassy documents have been found). His visa application and an accompanying letter are dated July 20, 1943 but he seems to have sent them only later because the embassy received them on August 23 only. He named the Toledo Steel company and the Weiss Manfréd concern (managing director Henrik Wahl) as his Hungarian contacts. A Wallenberg memorial stamp issued by the Hungarian Post in 2012 used the same photo as that found on his visa application, of which no other copy has been found.

 

The purpose of his journey was explained in a letter prepared by his commissioning company to the Hungarian Foreign Trade representative office and dated August 31, 1943. This shows that Wallenberg had to visit Budapest for talks between Sweden?s Salén concern and the Hungarian Royal National Free Port and Wayfaring Company and for the setting up of a Swedish ship construction and shipping company.       

The Hungarian Foreign Trade Office?s Stockholm representative supported Wallenberg?s request (and requested that it should be handled with priority) on September 3 and the Swedish foreign ministry also expressed its support on the same day. It was common practice in 1943 and 1944 to attach recommendation letters by the Swedish foreign ministry to visa applications submitted to the Hungarian embassy.

 

The embassy inspected Wallenberg?s passport in September and issued a visa that entitled him of a single entry and stay for 20 days. The surviving documents show that Wallenberg and the Mellaneuropeiska Handels AB maintained direct links with the Hungarian ambassador and the Hungarian Foreign Trade office in Stockholm throughout the first months of 1944.

 

A few months later, in the summer of 1944, Wallenberg travelled to Hungary as a diplomat.  Lauer, Salén and Wahl played important roles in his appointment to secretary at the Swedish legation in Budapest.

 

An article by Mátyás János Balogh and his sources can be found in the Hungarian National Archives.

 

Source: Múlt-kor