The Sugihara Visa Archive

Bluman Nuta

Visa no. 1569 · Kaunas, 9 August 1940
Bluman Nuta
Detail of a document published in full on this page.

Bluman Nuta received transit visa no. 1569 at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas on 9 August 1940. The register records engineer, aged 25.

Documents

Document — Bluman Nuta
The Sugihara transit visa of 9 August 1940 with a Japanese landing stamp, facing a page of Japanese endorsements, in colour.
Document — Bluman Nuta
A document held in the archive's files
Document — Bluman Nuta
Passover Seder in Kobe, spring 1941 — some two dozen refugees around a laid table, a Haggadah among the glasses, two Japanese guests standing at the rear; Dawid Apotheker sits first from the right; the couple at his right are Nathan and Susan Bluman (register No.1569), the parents of Prof. George Bluman — identified by Jacob Rosen-Koenigsbuch, Aug 2026. Shared by Jacob Rosen-Koenigsbuch, Aug 2026; Asaf Feig's grandfather is also at the table | GEORGE BLUMAN CONFIRMS, 25 August 2026: the couple at David Apotheker's right ARE his parents, Nathan and Susan Bluman (register No. 1569) — Jacob Rosen-Koenigsbuch's identification, confirmed by the son, who holds a copy of this photograph himself. He recognised no one else at the table. He adds that THERE WERE TWO SEDERS in Kobe that spring: he has a photograph of his parents at the other one, which he is not able to share at present. Asaf Feig identifies his grandfather Izaak Leiwand and Miriam Flitman, later Rottenberg, among those present; his marked copy is shown with Izaak Leiwand's record (Asaf Feig, 23 September 2026).
Document — Bluman Nuta
Catalogue still for the oral history of Susan Bluman (née Hoffenberg) — USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 12262 (the archive's public catalogue frame, 352x240); links to the testimony at vha.usc.edu/testimony/12262
Document — Bluman Nuta
The Hie Maru, arriving at Seattle in 1941: list or manifest of alien passengers, the sheet that names Kielman Karlinski — US National Archives, Record Group 85 (Immigration and Naturalization Service), Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at Seattle, microfilm publication M1383, roll 262, frame 984 of the file unit “June 2, 1941, SS Princess Marguerite-July 7, 1941, SS Hie Maru” (NAID 553889808). Public domain; credit: National Archives at Washington, DC.
Document — Bluman Nuta
Arriving at Seattle: the continuation sheet, with the relatives named and the destinations, for the sheet that names Karlinski Zelman — US National Archives, Record Group 85 (Immigration and Naturalization Service), Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at Seattle, microfilm publication M1383, roll 262, frame 985 of the file unit “June 2, 1941, SS Princess Marguerite-July 7, 1941, SS Hie Maru” (NAID 553889808). Public domain; credit: National Archives at Washington, DC.

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What the register records

Nationality as recorded
Polnisch
Age in 1940
25
Occupation
Engineer
Family, per the Kitade-Bluman list
wife Zysla (19)

The journey

Reached Japan; aided by the Polish ambassador Tadeusz Romer; registered in Kobe for Canada.

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 Bluman (1914-1986) of Poland received a transit visa issued by Chiune Sugihara at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. He fled to Canada by way of Japan in 1941. His passport was kept by his family after his death, and his sons George and Bob brought it from Canada to Japan to be entrusted to the Sugihara Chiune Sempo museum in Tokyo.

A British passport (British Consulate, issued in Kaunas/Kowno) belonging to Nathan Bluman, born 1920. The document is associated with the Sugihara visa story.

This is a Sugihara transit visa stamped in a passport, granting passage through Japan to Surinam, Curacao and other Netherlands colonies. The visa was issued at the Japanese Consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania on August 9, 1940, and signed by the Consul du Japon. Japanese entry/transit stamps are also visible.

The passport, which originally belonged to Nathan Bluman (1914-1986) of Poland and has been kept by his family after his death, will be entrusted to the Sugihara Chiune Sempo museum in Tokyo's Yaesu district for a year. Bluman fled to Canada by way of Japan in 1941. An official seal of the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania, and a stamp upon his entry into Japan are also visible.

Kowno 13.4.40 1920

TRANSIT VISA. Seen for the journey through Japan (to Surinam, Curacao and other Netherlands colonies) 1940 VIII.9 Consul du Japon a Kaunas.

Where this comes from

and 18 further records, shown on the full entry.

Open this entry in the full register →