Raoul Wallenberg's family seek to have him declared dead

In 2000, head of a Russian commission of investigation conceded that the diplomat had been killed in Lubyanka in 1947

STOCKHOLM: The family of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust and then disappeared after being detained by Russian officers, on Friday asked Swedish authorities to declare him dead.

A statement sent to AFP by the family said Wallenberg's "declaration of death is a way to deal with the trauma we lived through, to bring one phase to closure and move on. But it will not affect his presence in our lives nor the inspiration he is to us and to the world."

Wallenberg was posted to Nazi-occupied Budapest in July 1944 and rescued thousands of Jews by issuing them protective passports in the final months of the Holocaust.

Wallenberg's redesigned protective passports, also known as "Schutz-Pass." PHOTO COURTESY: raoulwallenberg.org

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The 32-year-old also acquired buildings to house as many Jews as possible and provide them with extraterritorial status.

He disappeared under mysterious circumstances, after last being seen alive surrounded by Soviet officers in Budapest on January 17, 1945.

Wallenberg's family has never received an explanation for why he was arrested by Soviet forces shortly after they liberated Hungary from the Nazis, nor what happened to him after his arrest.

In 1957, the Soviet Union released a document saying Wallenberg had been jailed in the Lubyanka prison, the notorious building where the KGB security services were headquartered, and that he died of heart failure on July 17, 1947.

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But sceptics have questioned that version, with some saying he was executed.

In 2000 the head of a Russian commission of investigation conceded Wallenberg been shot and killed by KGB agents in Lubyanka in 1947 for political reasons, but declined to be more specific or to cite hard evidence.

"The family has lived in hope and despair, hope that their efforts would bear fruit and Raoul would return, despair as their hopes were dashed again and again... We have now decided to lay Raoul to rest and are planning a memorial site," the statement read.

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A trustee for Raoul Wallenberg submitted the request to the Swedish Tax Agency which handles such matters.

Wallenberg was born on August 4, 1912 and would be 103 years old if he was still alive today.