Chinune Sugihara

Ali Hall

http://stamp-search.com/images/lib0249sh-sugihara.jpg, December 17, 2009.

Diplomat Job Description

• Issued visas– government

documents that allowed people to travel to a country for a period of time

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~szwetch/Stamps.of.Israel/sugihara.gif, January 3, 2010.

The Two Choices of a Diplomat during Holocaust

1. Follow the rules of their government by not allowing the Jewish people to get a visa

These diplomats were scared for their own life

2. Follow their heart and illegally sign the visas for the Jewish people

These diplomats knew they could be fired from their job, their families and themselves could be killed by the Nazis

http://comps.fotosearch.com/comp/IMZ/IMZ001/sign-dotted-line_~cfr0047.jpg, January 3, 2010.

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/deuteronomy/nazis.jpg, December 17, 2009.

Jews wanted visas to leave

Hitler’s Europe…

•To avoid ghettos and concentration camps in Germany and other Germany occupied countries

Chinune Sugihara• A Japanese man who

would legally/illegally issue visas to Jews in Lithuania– Located in central Europe

• Initially sent to work in Lithuania to watch where the Soviet and German armies were moving

• He was allowed to issue visas to his homeland of Japan

http://renginys.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/lithuania-vilnius

map.jpg, December 17, 2009.

Jews Came to Sugihara• After Soviet Army took over

Lithuania and they wanted to escape

• The Jews had heard Sugihara would try to issue them a visa

• Sugihara had to make a big decision… to issue the visas or to not issue the visas

http://www.teamrenzan.com/archives/writer/omnibus/sugihara.jpg, January 3, 2010.

Will tomorrow be too late???• Sugihara knew he had to hurry and issue visas,

the Jews were disappearing daily • The Japanese government had directly told him

not to issue any more visas to Jews because they would be an economic hardship once in Japan

• He must issue the visas to the Jews so they could leave as soon as possible on a train

“I may have disobeyed my

government, but if I didn’t, I would be disobeying God” (Visas for Life).

Sugihara was persuaded by the Jews to save them

• For twenty-nine days, he illegally hand wrote visas

• Became obsessed with writing the visas

• Spent 18-20 hours EVERYDAY working on the visas

http://news.webshots.com/photo/1094476426050164947gZRoBf, December 17, 2009.

Writing Visas…

Leaving Lithuania for Berlin• Sugihara was ordered to leave Lithuania• He had a reassignment in Berlin,

Germany• Jews still followed him once he left

his house begging for visas• He signed visas from the train window

when it was moving!• Sugihara gave a Jewish man the

Japanese stamp to illegally sign more visas

http://media.photobucket.com/image/train%20tracks/Iloveradius/Train_tracks.jpg, January 3, 2010.

http://www.kimonobox.com/wp-content/uploads /2009/06/house.jpg, January 3, 2010.

Sugihara Returned to Japan in 1947

• Resigned from Foreign Services• He had many jobs before becoming the Moscow

representative of a Japanese trading company• In 1985, Sugihara received the honorable title of

“Righteous Among the Nations”, Israel’s highest honor

• Sugihara died in 1986