Editing Raoul Wallenberg (section)

=== Attempts to find Wallenberg ===
In the late 1970s, [[Tom Lantos#Personal and family life|Annette Lantos]], one of the people rescued by Wallenberg, established the International Free Wallenberg Committee to pressure the Soviet Union into providing answers about his disappearance. She later tried to enlist US President [[Jimmy Carter]] to seek further information by sending in a postcard to the ''Ask President Carter'' radio show and by working with Simon Wiesenthal and [[Jack Anderson (columnist)|Jack Anderson]] to tell Wallenberg's story through a ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'' column.

Noticing these efforts and angry that Sweden had not gone far enough in their efforts to find Wallenberg, [[Nina Lagergren]], Wallenberg's half-sister, traveled to the United States to campaign with Lantos. The efforts of Lantos and Lagergren eventually led to the creation of the Free Wallenberg Committee in Congress, led by [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan|Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan]], whose goal was to determine what happened to Wallenberg. Lantos' husband and fellow Holocaust survivor, [[Tom Lantos|Tom]], later continued the congressional push for answers regarding Wallenberg after being elected to the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] in 1980.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title= Unlikely Heroes: The Place of Holocaust Rescuers in Research and Teaching|last1=Kohen|first1=Ari|last2=Steinacher|first2=Gerald J.|publisher=Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska|year=2019|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|pages=110–138}}</ref>

==== Honorary citizenship ====
One of Tom Lantos' first acts as a representative in Congress was to recognize Wallenberg as an [[Honorary citizenship of the United States|honorary American citizen]]. After being told by President Carter that the Soviet Union would not answer questions to America about a non-American citizen, Lantos worked with Senator Moynihan to pass a bill recognizing Wallenberg as such. The effort grew as ''[[60 Minutes]]'' aired a piece on Wallenberg while the resolution was moving through Congress. Newly elected [[Ronald Reagan|President Ronald Reagan]] watched the program and joined Lantos and Moynihan in pushing for the resolution to pass. It eventually passed by a 396–2 vote and was quickly signed into law by Reagan, making Wallenberg the second person in history ([[Winston Churchill]] being the first) to be made an honorary American citizen by an [[act of Congress]].<ref name=":0" />

With his citizenship now granted, the Wallenberg family successfully sued the Soviet Union in 1984 in an American Federal District Court over his disappearance for $39 million, or $1 million per year that Wallenberg's fate has been unknown.<ref>{{cite web |author1=UPI |title=DIPLOMAT'S FAMILY SUES SOVIET |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/03/us/diplomat-s-family-sues-soviet.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=8 November 2024 |date=3 February 1984 |quote=The family of Raoul Wallenberg ...filed a $39 million lawsuit against the Soviet Union today, demanding that the Russians tell what happened to him.}}</ref> However, the Soviet Union ignored the suit and did not pay any of the damages awarded by the judge. They also did not offer any information into his disappearance.<ref name=":0" />

==== Efforts outside America ====
Raoul Wallenberg's half-brother, [[Guy von Dardel]],<ref name="profdardel2">{{cite web|url=http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/dardel/l|title=La soeur de Raoul Wallenberg se rendra à Moscou|work=Searching for Raoul Wallenberg|access-date=30 March 2016|date=27 August 1989}}</ref> a well-known physicist, retired from [[CERN]] and dedicated the rest of his life to finding out his half-brother's fate.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/dardel/List|title=List of documents in Russian archives and relevant to the Wallenberg case|work=Searching for Raoul Wallenberg|access-date=30 March 2016|date=17 January 1945}}</ref> He traveled to the Soviet Union about fifty times for discussions and research, including an examination of the Vladimir prison records.<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.arikaplan.com/speech/wallenberg.pdf| first1= Marvin W.| last1= Makinen | first2= Ari D.| last2= Kaplan |title= Cell Occupancy Analysis of Korpus 2 of the Vladimir Prison |website= arikaplan.com |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160303165320/http://www.arikaplan.com/speech/wallenberg.pdf|archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref> Over the years, von Dardel compiled a 50,000-page archive of interviews, journal articles, letters, and other documents related to his quest.<ref name="WSJ2009-02-28">{{cite news |url= https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123207264405288683|title=The Wallenberg Curse: The Search for the Missing Holocaust Hero Began in 1945. The Unending Quest Tore His Family Apart |last= Prager| first= Joshua |date=28 February 2009|newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|access-date=4 March 2009}}</ref> In 1991, Dardel initiated a Swedish-Russian working group<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/articles/report-on-the-activities-of-the-russian-swedish-working-group-for-determining-the-fate-of-raoul-wallenberg-1991-2000-2/|title=Searching for Raoul Wallenberg – Report on the activities of the Russian-Swedish working group for determining the Fate of Raoul Wallenberg (1991–2000)|website=Raoul-wallenberg.eu|access-date=2014-09-21|date=2000-10-25|archive-date=14 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414100108/http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/articles/report-on-the-activities-of-the-russian-swedish-working-group-for-determining-the-fate-of-raoul-wallenberg-1991-2000-2/|url-status=dead}}</ref> to search eleven separate military and government archives from the former Soviet Union for information about Wallenberg's fate, but the group was not able to find useful information.<ref name= "SWRG2">{{cite book| url= http://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/3e3f2d0450024d088676560dc3509f05/raoul-wallenberg---report-of-the-swedish-russian-working-group |title= Raoul Wallenberg: report of the Swedish-Russian working group |publisher= Ministry for Foreign Affairs [Utrikesdep.], Regeringskansliet |year= 2000 |isbn= 978-91-7496-230-7|editor-last1= Palmklint|editor-first1= Ingrid|series= Ministry for Foreign Affairs. New Series II, 0562-8881; 52| location=Stockholm|id={{LIBRIS|7645089}} |access-date= 13 February 2007 |editor-last2= Larsson| editor-first2= Daniel}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= http://info.jpost.com/C001/Supplements/Shoah/hol_Missing.html|title=Missing in Action: Raoul Wallenberg |newspaper= [[Jerusalem Post]] |url-status= dead| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070127084222/http://info.jpost.com/C001/Supplements/Shoah/hol_Missing.html|archive-date=27 January 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.raoul-wallenberg.asso.fr/wallenberg_coun/sweden/swe.html |title= Excerpt from 1993 working group session| website= raoul-wallenberg.asso.fr| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070927043323/http://www.raoul-wallenberg.asso.fr/wallenberg_coun/sweden/swe.html| archive-date=27 September 2007}}</ref> Many, including von Dardel and his daughters, Louise and Marie, do not accept the various versions of Wallenberg's death. They continue to request that the archives in Russia, Sweden, and Hungary become available to impartial researchers.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}

==== Present-day attempts ====
In 2012, Russian [[lieutenant general]] Vasily Khristoforov, head of the registration branch of the [[Federal Security Service (Russia)|Russian Federal Security Service]], said that the Wallenberg case was still open. He also dismissed any allegation of a continuing cover-up, saying that "this is another state and a different special service" from the Soviet Union and the services in charge of holding Wallenberg.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/russia-says-the-wallenberg-case-is-still/c7372c74d2a9436db517116e0d506033|title=Russia says the Wallenberg case is still open (link broken) |date= 29 May 2012|newspaper=[[The Times-Picayune]]|access-date=30 May 2012|url-status= dead| archive-url= https://archive.today/20130130020912/http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/russia-says-the-wallenberg-case-is-still/c7372c74d2a9436db517116e0d506033 |archive-date= 30 January 2013| edition= Saint Tammany |location=New Orleans|page=A7}}</ref>