The Sugihara Visa Archive

Gutwirth Tenzer Nathan

Visa no. 1264 · Kaunas, 6 August 1940
Gutwirth Tenzer Nathan
Identified by the owner on 18 September 2026 from the photograph's own caption; a detail of a photograph published in full on this page.

Gutwirth Tenzer Nathan received transit visa no. 1264 at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas on 6 August 1940. The register records rabbinical student - telshe yeshiva, aged 24.

Documents

Document — Gutwirth Tenzer Nathan
A studio portrait of a young couple, the man in round spectacles and a dark suit, the woman in a dark dress with a white collar; sepia, probably the late 1930s. One of four photographs of the Gutwirth family sent by Arlette Liwer-Stuip with the family's permission, 14 September 2026. The family has not yet said who is shown or when; the archive names nobody in it on its own.
Document — Gutwirth Tenzer Nathan
A group photograph of ten young men in suits, five standing and five seated, in a room with bookshelves and a window; the 1930s. One of four photographs of the Gutwirth family sent by Arlette Liwer-Stuip with the family's permission, 14 September 2026. The family has not yet said who is shown or when; the archive names nobody in it on its own.
Document — Gutwirth Tenzer Nathan
A colour portrait of an elderly man in a black skullcap, spectacles and a dark suit and tie; late twentieth century. One of four photographs of the Gutwirth family sent by Arlette Liwer-Stuip with the family's permission, 14 September 2026. The family has not yet said who is shown or when; the archive names nobody in it on its own.
Document — Gutwirth Tenzer Nathan
A studio proof of a couple, the man in round spectacles and a dark suit, the woman in a white blouse, the print creased and marked; a Japanese studio's stamp at the top left reads Kobe, and the word 'Proof' is written across the top right — a photograph from the family's time in Kobe, 1940 or 1941. One of four photographs of the Gutwirth family sent by Arlette Liwer-Stuip with the family's permission, 14 September 2026. The family has not yet said who is shown or when; the archive names nobody in it on its own.

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What the register records

Nationality as recorded
Netherlandy
Age in 1940
24
Occupation
Rabbinical Student - Telshe Yeshiva
Family, per the Kitade-Bluman list
wife Nechama (23)

The journey

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

Travelled with, and never given a number

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

Nathan Gutwirth befriended Jan Zwartendijk before Zwartendijk was appointed Dutch consul. Nathan had walked into the Philips office in Kaunas, drawn by the familiar Philips sign, which reminded him of home. There were very few Dutch citizens in Lithuania, and the two men formed a bond; after that, Zwartendijk passed his Dutch newspapers on to Nathan twice a week. Nathan, who was studying at the Telz yeshiva, could not return home because the Netherlands was under German occupation. He began exploring the possibility of reaching one of the Dutch colonies in the West Indies. Curaçao particularly interested him because of its proximity to the United States, where his Lithuanian fiancée Necha…

After arriving in Japan, Nathan learned that a ship carrying seventy-four Jewish refugees had not been permitted to disembark at Tsuruga because its passengers lacked Curaçao declarations or any other proof of a final destination, and had been sent back towards Vladivostok, with the frightening possibility of Siberian camps beyond it. Nathan and his closest friend, Lev Sternheim, went to the Dutch consul, Niek de Voogd, and showed him Nathan's own Curaçao declaration. De Voogd gave them a hundred blank sheets of official consulate letterhead, which Nathan and Lev took to the Jewish Community, where Curaçao declarations were typed onto them. The Japanese captain had promised not to unload…

Where this comes from

and 5 further records, shown on the full entry.

Open this entry in the full register →