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Witness History: Chiune Sugihara: The Japanese Schindler

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Chihune Sugihara - The Japanese Schindler

27/09/2022 GMT

Chiune Sugihara: The Japanese Schindler

BBC World Service - Witness History, Chiune Sugihara: The Japanese Schindler

In 1940, Chiune Sugihara saved the lives of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis

In 1940, Chiune Sugihara defied his superiors and  issued thousands of life saving travel visas that helped Jewish refugees escape the Nazis.

Working as a diplomat in the Japanese Embassy in Kaunas, Lithuania, in 1940, Chiune Sugihara was approached by desperate Jewish refugees seeking transit visas to escape Europe and the Nazis. 

Defying orders from his superiors, who refused his requests to issue the visas, he personally wrote and signed thousands of life saving travel documents.

 His son Nobuki Sugihara, who remembers how his father eschewed recognition for his actions, and Rochelle Zucker, whose own father was saved by one of Sugihara's visas, speak to Alex Eccleston.
A Whistledown production for BBC World Service.

(Photo: Chiune Sugihara. Credit: Getty Images)

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