JxJ ’26: Raoul Wallenberg Missing Inaction

The United States made him an honorary citizen, after the Soviet Union made him disappear. The Swedish diplomat in question had saved thousands of Hungarian Jews by issuing them Swedish papers and providing shelter in diplomatically protected buildings. He became one of the most prominent men in Hungary (thereby making him a threat to the Soviets’ plans to dominate the nation). Decades later, his fate remains shrouded in secrecy. Filmmakers Brian Mait & Brad Rothschild largely settle that question, but as viewers might expect, it is not an especially uplifting answer that they reveal in their documentary, Raoul Wallenberg: Missing Inaction, which screens during this year’s JxJ Washington Jewish Film and Music Festival.

As viewers ought to know from watching the Richard Chamberlain mini-series and prior documentaries, like Alexander Rodnyaskiy’s The Mission of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish humanitarian tried to save as many Hungarian Jews as possible. He even pulled dozens of Jews off a transport bound for Auschwitz, openly defying the Arrow Cross.

The part of the story that isn’t as well publicized involves the rest of the Wallenberg family. Although Wallenberg was adored by his distinguished grandfather Gustav, Wallenberg and his mother (who married into the family) were the poor relations, after his father’s untimely death. His uncles, Jacob and Marcus, who controlled the family banking empire, declined to hire their nephew. Instead, they referred him to Klarman Lauer’s trading company.

Wallenberg became Lauer’s right-hand man, because he could travel more easily than the Jewish Hungarian. Similarly, he became the on-the-ground point-person for the humanitarian mission to Hungary organized by Lauer and Iver C. Olsen of the OSS, who emerges as another admirable figure in Mait & Rothschild’s doc.

However, the activities of Wallenberg’s uncles were not so edifying. In fact, their extensive dealings with the National Socialists earned them Treasury Department sanctions, which continued after the War. Unable to do business with America, they started brokering deals with the Soviets, the other great totalitarian regime of the 20^th Century. However, they cut ties with the USSR, in exchange for their removal from the blacklist.

The filmmakers and their on-camera experts suggest, with good reason, the noble Wallenberg became a pawn in his uncles’ game with the Soviets. Once they cancelled their financial arrangements, Raoul Wallenberg was probably as good as dead. Regardless of their reasons, Wallenberg was most likely executed around this time. That theory is supported, rather candidly, by Sergey Stepashin, the former Russian Prime Minister and director of the FSB (then known as the FSK), under Yeltsin—a sit-down interview even the filmmakers were shocked to score.

Unlike previous Wallenberg films, Missing Inaction (not a great title) also documents how much it emotionally exhausted his branch of the family to fight for the truth. Tragically, some of those closest to him eventually committed suicide.

NYJFF ’18: The Mission of Raoul Wallenberg

As cover stories go, the official Communist Party line on the fate of Swedish diplomat-humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg was pretty bad. The official story is Wallenberg was accidentally arrested and passed away while languishing in Lubyanka Prison. That doesn’t exactly put you in the mood to sing “The Internationale,” does it? Yet, for years, Wallenberg’s family and admirers suspected his true fate was certainly more mysterious and possibly even worse. Alexander Rodnyanskiy set out to investigate the Wallenberg case as far as 1990 Glasnost policies would allow, but it turned out that wouldn’t be so very far after all judging from the resulting documentary, The Mission of Raoul Wallenberg¸ which screens again as a restored revival selection, twenty-five years after its original New York Jewish Film Festival premiere.

It was not merely false hope. For years, eyewitness accounts of prisoners claiming to have seen Wallenberg in various work camps and prisons trickled out of the Soviet Union. It wasn’t just the Wallenberg family asking questions. The tens of thousands of Jewish Hungarians saved by Wallenberg, including future U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, also wanted answers. In 1990, Wallenberg’s sister traveled to the USSR, assuming Glasnost would open all the vaults and archives to her. Alas, she was over-optimistic.

Rodnyanskiy’s documentary definitely investigates the Wallenberg disappearance, chasing down false leads and plausible but uncorroborated witness statements. However, it is also very clearly testing the limits of the supposedly new order, finding them not so different from the old regime. We see plenty of stone-walling, dissembling, and crude bureaucratic runaround. Even though Rodnyanskiy is the first to admit it does not make much sense for the Soviets to keep such an explosively embarrassing prisoner locked away somewhere for decades. Yet, all the evasiveness Rodnyanskiy captures just vindicates and further stokes our suspicions.

Mission is an amazing work of documentary filmmaking that renders a severe judgement against the Soviet Union’s past and present. Its future would also turn out to be just as disappointing. However, the Ukrainian Rodnyanskiy has evolved into one of Russia’s finest film producers, whose credits include Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan. This is a frustrating film, but due to no fault of Rodnyanskiy. Sadly, it is just as timely now as it was then. Very highly recommended, the freshly restored, historically significant The Mission of Raoul Wallenberg screens this coming Monday (1/15) and Wednesday (1/17), at the Walter Reade, as part of the 2018 NYJFF.