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Historic Figures Who Set Out to Save Jews From the Holocaust

Khalid Elhassan December 15, 2020 32 min

Hanns Albin Rauter - World War II — A Dutch Resistance cell during WWII. For God and Country

24. The Japanese Diplomat Who Managed to Save Five Times as Many Jews as Oskar Schindler

Chiune Sugihara. South China Morning Post

The exploits of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara (1900 – 1986) during WWII are little-known today. That is unfortunate, because he risked his life and the lives of his family, and eventually sacrificed his career, to save the lives of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust. He did it from the Japanese consulate in Lithuania, where he issued visas that facilitated the escape of Jewish refugees from war-torn Europe.

When the Japanese government caught on to what Sugihara was doing, it ordered him to stop. He did not, and continued to issue visas in defiance of his superiors’ directives until his consulate was closed and he was recalled. By the time he was done, Sugihara had managed to save roughly 6000 Jewish refugees. That was about five times as many Jews as had been saved by the more famous Oskar Schindler.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.