Powerpoint presentation by Carol Harms, JSD 171 Orofino, ID

In 1940, Hiroki’s father is a diplomatin Lithuania, representing Japan. A group of Jewish refugees from Poland seek help from Hiroki’s father. They aretrying to escape the Nazis and wantvisas to travel to Japan.

Hiroki’s father wants to help them, but he knows he can only get a few visas.How will he be able to help save thelives of hundreds of refugees?

A visa is a paper that a government issues if a person has permission tocome to, or travel through,their country. If you don’t have a visa, you are not allowed in.

This is a photo of anactual Japanese transitvisa that was given outby Chiune Sugihara atthe Kaunas, Lithuaniacounsulate in 1940

“On a summer morning in late July 1940, Consul Sempo Sugihara

and his family awakened to a crowd of Polish Jewish refugees

gathered outside the consulate. Desperate to flee the approaching

Nazis, the refugees knew that their only path lay to the east.

If Consul Sugihara would grant them Japanese transit visas,

they could obtain Soviet exit visas and race to possible freedom.

The following information is quoted from the Jewish Virtual Libraryhttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/source/Holocaust/sugihara.htm.

Sempo Sugihara was moved by their plight, but he did not have

the authority to issue hundreds of visas without permission

from the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo.

Chiune Sugihara wired his government three times for permission

to issue visas to the Jewish refugees. Three times he was denied.”

NO!!!

“The Consul discussed the situation with his wife and children.

Sugihara had a difficult decision to make.He knew that if he defied

the orders of his superiors, he might be fired and disgraced, and

would probably never work for the Japanese government again. This would

result in extreme financial hardship for his family in the future. Chiune and

his wife Yukiko even feared for their lives and the lives of their children,

but in the end, could only follow their consciences. The visas would be signed.

The Sugihara Family in front of the Consulate

“For 29 days, from July 31 to August 28, 1940, Mr. and Mrs. Sugihara

sat for endless hours writing and signing visas by hand. Hour after

hour, day after day, for these three weeks, they wrote and

signed visas. They wrote over 300 visas a day, which

would normally be one month's worth of work for the

consul. Yukiko also helped him register these visas.”

“After receiving their visas, the refugees lost no time in getting on

trains that took them to Moscow, and then by trans-Siberian railroad

to Vladivostok. From there, most of them continued to Kobe, Japan.

They were allowed to stay in Kobe for several months, and were

then sent to Shanghai, China. Thousands of Polish

Jews with Sugihara visas survived in safety under

the benign protection of the Japanese government

in Shanghai. As many as six thousand refugees

made their way to Japan, China and other countries

in the following months. They had escaped

the Holocaust.” The Sugihara family leavingLithuania

“Today, more than 50 years after those 29 fateful days in July and

August of 1940, there may be more than 40,000 who owe their lives

to Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara. Two generations have come after

the original Sugihara survivors, all owing their existence to one

modest man and his family. In 1985 he received Israel's highest honor.

He was recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" by the

Yad Vashem Martyrs Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem.”The information from these six slides is quoted from the Jewish Virtual Libraryhttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/source/Holocaust/sugihara.htm

Memorial and tree plantedto honor Sugihara in Israel

This map shows Europe at the time of this story. Germany, where Jews were persecuted and killed, had invaded and taken control of Poland. The Polish Jews in the story fled north to Lithuania. Their only escape route was to the East, through Russia (USSR). They needed a Japanese transit visa in order for Russia to let them enter and travel through the country.

___ (Russia)

Lithuania

Japan

Find Lithuania and Japan on this map.Can you see how people would travelacross Russia to get to Japan?

clungto hold tightly, as by

grasping or embracing.

superiorpeople who are higher in status, rank or office.

This army general on the leftis the superior of the privateon the right.

The general is higher in rank

insistedto declare firmly and strongly

appreciationthe act of recognizing value or quality

What are other ways that people show appreciation? (clapping, kind words, gifts, saying thank you)

internmentthe act of confining or restricting to a particular place, especially during war.

An internment camp, where people are

held against their will. They are prisoners.