Szaja Szymanowicz

Szaja Szymanowicz received transit visa no. 1202 at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas on 6 August 1940. The register records rabbi - kollel kowno talmudic academy, aged 31.

Documents

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What the register records

Nationality as recorded

Polnisch

Age in 1940

31

Occupation

Rabbi - Kollel Kowno Talmudic Academy

Family, per the Kitade-Bluman list

wife Eta (22), daughter Marijasa (1)

The journey

Reached Japan; reached Shanghai; registered in Kobe for USA.

Travelled with, and never given a number

• Eta — wife, aged 22
• Marijasa — daughter, aged 1

The register recorded visa holders. It did not reliably record the wives and children who travelled on somebody else’s visa, so these people have no entry of their own and cannot be searched for. Where the archive has recovered a name, it is here.

What is known

This is a Polish Legation certificate (Zaswiadczenie) issued in Kaunas on 1 August 1940 to Szaja Szymonowicz, a Polish citizen born 15 February 1908 in Rubiezewicze, and his wife Eta, born 1917 in Tomaszgrod. The document, issued in lieu of passports, notes they were accompanied by their daughter Marijasa, born 9 March 1940. It was signed by Karol Skariszewski, First Secretary of the Legation, and countersigned by the H.B.M. Consul acting for Polish interests.

This is a Polish Legation certificate (Zaswiadczenie/Certificat) issued in Kaunas (Kaunas), Lithuania, on 1 August 1940, in lieu of passports for Polish citizen Szaja Szymonowicz (born 1908 in Rukiszewicze) and his wife Eta (born 1917 in Tomaszgrod). The document notes they were accompanied by their daughter Marijasza, born 9 March 1940. It confirms their Polish citizenship and authorizes travel abroad.

The family's single sheet of paper carries the entire escape. On the front, the Polish Legation in Kaunas certifies Szaja (b.1908, Rubieżewicze), his wife Eta (b.1917), and their infant daughter Marijasza, born that March — the certificate standing in for passports that no longer existed. On the back, in order: Zwartendijk's Curaçao declaration No.2344, written on 2 August 1940 — the consulate's last day, one number below the highest ever recovered — then Sugihara's transit visa of 8 August, the Japanese landing permit, and the long way out of Kobe in late 1941: a British visa for Palestine, transit rights through Burma, Ceylon and India granted by telegram from the Government of Burma, a…

Poselstwo Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w Kownie / Legation de Pologne a Kaunas Zaswiadczenie niniejsze zostalo wydane wobec braku ksiazeczek paszportowych i uprawnia do wyjazdu za granice. accompagnes de leur fille Marijasa nee, le 9.III.1940. Data 1 SRP. 1940

Poselstwo Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w Kownie / Legation de Pologne a Kaunas Nr. Sz-1722 Zaswiadczenie / Certificat accompagnes de leur fille Marijasze nee, le 9.III.1940 Data 1 SRP 1940 H. B. M. CONSUL for H.M. Minister charged with the protection of Polish interests

Where this comes from

• JDC Japan Emigration List — Kobe yeshivas, 1941 (Mir, Kamieniec, Slonim, Kleck, Radin, Telz, Lubavitch & others)
  1908 Rubieszow; Polish
• Polish Legation at Kaunas — certificate Nr. Sz-172, issued 1 August 1940 to SZYMONOWICZ Szaja, born 15 January 1908 at Rubiezewicze, and his wife SZYMONOWICZ Eta, born 1917 at Tomaszgrod, gmina Klesow, a trader; issued in place of passpo…
  The certificate that stands behind this line, issued five days before Sugihara wrote the visa. The register gives 'Szaja Szymanowicz, 31, Rabbi — Kollel Kowno Talmudic Academy, wife Eta (22), daughter Marijasa (1)'. The Legation's certificate gives Szaja Szymonowicz born 15 January 1908 — thirty-two in August 1940 — his wife Eta born 1917, and their daughter Marijasze born 9 March 1940, five months old when they queued in Kaunas. The surname differs by one letter between the two records; the wife's name, the daughter's name and the daughter's age agree, and a wife called Eta with an infant called Marijasze is not a coincidence. His photograph and hers are on the document.
• UNRRA China Office, S-1132-0000-0181, registration of Polish rabbis and rabbinical students, their lists and sailings, Shanghai 1945–1946 (UN Archives, AG-018-001)
  UNRRA's China Office registered him in Shanghai in 1946 among the Polish rabbis and rabbinical students; he had arrived in China in November 1941 and wished to go on to Palestine. (United Nations Archives, UNRRA China Office records.)
• UNRRA China Office, S-1132-0000-0181, Mizrachi members list and the United Board of Rabbis' birth-data pages, Shanghai 1945–46 (UN Archives, AG-018-001)
  The United Board of Rabbis and Rabbinical Colleges in Shanghai listed him among its members after the war, born in 1908 in Rubiezewicz. His wife Eta is listed with him, born in 1917 in Romaszgrod, and their three children. (United Nations Archives, UNRRA China Office records.)
• List of members of the United Board of Rabbis and Rabbinical Colleges, Shanghai (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database, list 48661)
  Szaja Szymanowicz is named on the list of members of the United Board of Rabbis and Rabbinical Colleges in Shanghai, indexed by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The name occurs once on the register; the Board was the body of the Polish rabbis and yeshiva students who reached Shanghai from Kobe in 1941, and their families, the route the register records for this line.
• Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem — the card file of Jewish refugees from Poland who found refuge in various countries, 1939–1941
  Yad Vashem's card file of Jewish refugees from Poland who found refuge in various countries, 1939–1941, has a card for Szaja Szymanowicz, born 1908, of Tomaszgród, who was in Wilno during the war. The archive attaches it under its rule of 19 September 2026: the card file is a record of the refugees in Wilno, where the road through Sugihara's visas began; the full name occurs once on the register; and the card places the person in Wilno in 1939–41, on the road to Sugihara's visas. Credit: Yad Vashem Archives.
• A visa page of Szaja Szymonowicz (No. 1202): Zwartendijk's Curaçao declaration No. 2344 of 2 August 1940, the Sugihara transit visa, and a British visa issued at Kobe for Palestine, with a Kobe stamp of 31 October 1941.
• The certificate of identity issued by the Polish Legation in Kaunas to Szaja and Eta Szymonowicz (No. 1202), 1 August 1940, with their photographs.
• Certificate of Polish citizenship (Zaświadczenie/Certificat), No. Sz-1722, issued by the Legation of the Polish Republic at Kaunas on 1 August 1940 to Szaja Szymonowicz, born 15 February 1908 at Rubieżewicze, and his wife Eta, born 1917…
• Kestenbaum & Company auction, 11 June 2026, lot 174 (via Bidspirit, full-resolution scans; owner-found): Safe-Conduct Pass of Szaja and Eta Szymonowicz — Polish Legation Kaunas certificate Nr.Sz-1722 (1 Aug 1940, First Secretary Karol St…

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