digital book report prepared by ms. gil clinton-mendenhall elementary
DESCRIPTION
Small town in Lithuania 1940’s WWII Nazi occupationTRANSCRIPT
Passage to Freedom by Ken Mochizuki
Digital Book ReportPrepared by Ms. GilClinton-Mendenhall Elementary
Genre
Non-Fiction Biography Narrator is the son
of Mr. Sugihara First-Person
Narration
Setting
Small town in Lithuania
1940’s WWII Nazi occupation
Major Events
Mr. Sugihara is a diplomat from Japan stationed in a small town in Lithuania who has the authority to issue visas.
The Nazis have begun to relocate the Jews (Polish refugees) in this town.
A small group of Jews meet with Mr. Sugihara to request visas.
Major Events
Mr. Sugihara can issue a couple but not the hundreds needed to save this population.
He asks permission from his superiors three times. The permission is denied.
Mr. Sugihara must choose between “disobeying his government, or disobeying God.”
Major Events
He consults his family and decides to issue the visas.
Fatigued, Mr. Sugihara issues hundreds of visas before he is stationed in Berlin, Germany.
He even hands out blank visas from the train.
Causes and Effects
Hundreds of Polish refugees are facing a bleak future in the hands of Nazis.
Superiors deny the request of Mr. Sugihara to request permission to issue extra visas.
Issuing hundreds of visas against government orders in order to save them.
Disobey orders and commit to a higher moral order.
Themes
Courage: Mr. Sugihara disobeyed government orders and put his life and the life of his family in danger to save Polish Jews
Message
Sometimes having moral character means making difficult decisions (that may or may not put your life at risk)