As a continuation of our series about The Righteous Among the Nations, let us introduce you to Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for Japan in Lithuania. Sugihara played a major role in the escape of over 6,000 Jewish refugees to Japanese territory, while risking his career, his life, and the lives of his family. In the summer of 1940, Sugihara was approached by Jewish refugees who requested transit visas. The war had blocked Jews from legal forms of travel. Troubled by their predicament, Sugihara spent 18-20 hours each day handwriting a month’s worth of transit visas for those Jews who had little chance of survival, without the approval of the Japanese Foreign Ministry,. For this tremendous selflessness Sugihara was awarded Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1984, just two years before his death. Let us remember this heroic man as someone who valued his morality more than his reputation and as a result saved the lives of thousands of innocent men, women, and children. Read more: yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/sugihara.asp
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 21:35:04 +0000
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