The 1943–1944 Secret Swedish-Hungarian Intelligence Sharing Agreement

The 1943–1944 Secret Swedish-Hungarian Intelligence Sharing Agreement

Documentation obtained by the authors from the archive of the Swedish Military Intelligence Service (MUST) shows that in 1943, Swedish intelligence officers entered into a secret intelligence sharing agreement with high ranking members of the Hungarian General Staff regarding Communist and Soviet espionage operations. The documentation shows that a part of the communications between Swedish and Hungarian intelligence operatives was carried out via the Hungarian Legation in Stockholm. The contacts reveal that by the autumn of 1943, Swedish intelligence representatives were ready to broaden their efforts to monitor and possibly help curtail the Soviet Union’s growing sphere of influence, not only in the neighboring Baltic states and Finland, but also in Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary. Swedish involvement in such activities was especially sensitive because as of June 28, 1941, Sweden officially represented Soviet interests in Hungary and other Axis countries. The material adds several new facets to the history of Hungary’s attempts to exit the war in the years 1943–1945. The newly released information also raises fundamental questions about the background of Raoul Wallenberg’s humanitarian mission to Budapest in July 1944 to assist Hungary’s Jews, his connection to Swedish and Anglo-American intelligence operations, as well as the official Swedish handling of Wallenberg’s disappearance in 1945 and subsequent years. The documentation obtained from the MUST archive is a strong indication that additional relevant information remains to be discovered in Swedish intelligence collections and other international archives, especially those in Russia, the U.S., Hungary, and Great Britain.

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