The Associated Press
Thursday, Jan. 11, 2001; 1:43 a.m. EST

STOCKHOLM, Sweden –– Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jews from Nazi death camps, could have lived beyond 1947 when Russians say he died in a KGB prison, independent researchers said Wednesday.

Last month, Russia acknowledged for the first time that the Soviets wrongfully persecuted Wallenberg. But Russian prosecutors did not explain how, where or exactly when Wallenberg died, and family members have pressed for more details.

"The most likely scenario is that Raoul Wallenberg did not die in July 1947, but 'disappeared' – that is, his identity was changed," researcher Susan Mesinai said.

The researchers cited witness accounts and detailed analysis of Soviet records in raising the possibility that Wallenberg was kept alive and isolated as late as the 1980s.

Wallenberg was arrested in Budapest, Hungary, soon after the Soviet army entered the city in January 1945, and he was brought to the Soviet Union, accused of spying.

Moscow first said he was killed during fighting, then that he was taken under the protection of Soviet troops. A 1957 memo from then-Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko said Wallenberg died of a heart attack in Soviet custody in 1947.

Mesinai said the strongest evidence that Wallenberg could have lived into the 1980s was the fact that his possessions were not returned to family members until 1989, contradicting what she said was Soviet policy to return such items upon repatriation or to relatives upon death.