Nina Viveka Maria Lagergren (''née'' von Dardel; 3 March 1921 – 5 April 2019) was a Swedish businesswoman and the half-sister of

Raoul Wallenberg Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg (4 August 1912 – disappeared 17 January 1945)He is presumed to have died in 1947, although the circumstances of his death are not clear and this date has been disputed. Some reports claim he was alive years later. 31 J ...

, and the leading force to find out what happened to him after his disappearance. She was the founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Academy. She also presented ''

Sommar i P1 ''Sommar i P1'' (''Summer on P1'') is one of the most popular shows on Swedish radio. It has been broadcast every summer since 29June 1959, originally as ''Sommar'' on P3 and since 1993 on P1. About Each 90-minute-long programme in the series ...

'' in 2014 on Swedish Radio. She was the mother-in-law of

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder ...

Work

Nina Lagergren was the founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Academy, which she ran along with her parents Fredrik Elias August von Dardel and Maria Sofia "Maj" Wising and her brother

Guy von Dardel Guy Fredrik von Dardel (26 August 1919 – 28 August 2009) was a Swedish physicist who researched particle physics and participated in the establishment of CERN. Biography Dardel was the son of Fredrik Elias August von Dardel by his marriage to ...

. In 2000, Lagergren was awarded the

Wallenberg Medal The Wallenberg Medal of the University of Michigan is awarded to outstanding humanitarians whose actions on behalf of the defenseless and oppressed reflect the heroic commitment and sacrifice of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who rescued ...

, which was presented to her by the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. Lagergren was the presenter of an episode of ''

'' at Sveriges Radio on 4 August 2014 where she told about her life and her work to find out what had happened to her half-brother. On 8 March 1945, Soviet-controlled Hungarian radio announced that Wallenberg and his driver had been murdered on their way to Debrecen, suggesting that they had been killed by the Arrow Cross Party or the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

. Sweden's foreign minister,

Östen Undén Bo Östen Undén (25 August 1886 – 14 January 1974) was a Swedish academic ( J.D.), civil servant and Social Democratic politician who served as acting Prime Minister of Sweden 6–11 October 1946, following the death of Per Albin Hansson (1885 ...

, and its ambassador to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, Staffan Söderblom, wrongly assumed that they were dead. In April 1945, W. Averell Harriman, then of the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

, offered the Swedish government help in inquiring about Wallenberg's fate, but the offer was declined. Söderblom met with

Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov. ; (;. 9 March Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._25_February.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S. 25 February">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dat ...

and Stalin in Moscow on 15 June 1946. Söderblom, still believing Wallenberg to be dead, ignored talk of an exchange for Russian defectors in Sweden. In 1991, Vyacheslav Nikonov was charged by the Russian government with investigating Wallenberg's fate. He concluded that Wallenberg died in 1947, executed while a prisoner in Lubyanka. He may have been a victim of the C-2 poison ( carbylamine-choline-chloride) tested at the

poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services The poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services, alternatively known as Laboratory 1, Laboratory 12, and Kamera (which means "The Cell" in Russian), was a covert research-and-development facility of the Soviet secret police agencies. Th ...

. Some former prisoners claimed to have seen Wallenberg after his reported death in 1947. In February 1949, former German Colonel Theodor von Dufving, a prisoner of war, provided statements concerning Wallenberg. While in the transit camp in Kirov, while being moved to

Vorkuta Vorkuta (russian: Воркута́; kv, Вӧркута, ''Vörkuta''; Nenets for "the abundance of bears", "bear corner") is a coal-mining town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated just north of the Arctic Circle in the Pechora coal basin at ...

, Dufving encountered a prisoner dressed in civilian clothes with his own special guard. The prisoner claimed that he was a Swedish diplomat and said he was there "through a great error". Lagergren continued to work with this information throughout her life, searching for details about his fate. In October 2016, Wallenberg was declared dead by Sweden's Tax Agency.

Personal life

Kronprinsessan Victoria hälsar på Nina Lagergren

She was married to judge and marshal Gunnar Lagergren from 1943 until his death in 2008, and the couple had four children together. Lagergren was the mother-in-law of

, the former

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

of the UN, who was married to her eldest daughter Nane Lagergren Annan. Lagergren was also the niece of painter

Nils Dardel Nils Dardel (full name Nils Elias Kristofer von Dardel, sometimes known as ''Nils de Dardel'') was a 20th-century Swedish Post-Impressionist painter, grandson to famous Swedish painter Fritz von Dardel. Biography Dardel was born in Bettna, S ...

. She was part of the opening of the exhibition of his art work at

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö i ...

in Stockholm in 2014. Lagergren died on 5 April 2019 at the age of 98.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lagergren, Nina 1921 births 2019 deaths Businesspeople from Stockholm Swedish radio presenters Swedish women radio presenters 20th-century Swedish businesswomen Von Dardel family