Frankel Mayer Shahne received transit visa no. 276 at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas on 30 July 1940. The register records clerk, aged 42.
What the register records
Nationality as recorded
Polnisch
Age in 1940
42
Occupation
Clerk
Family, per the Kitade-Bluman list
brother of #275
The journey
Reached Japan; registered in Kobe for New Zealand.
What is known
This passport page contains a Curacao/Surinam visa issued by the Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk in Kaunas on 29 July 1940, declaring that no entry visa was required for Netherlands possessions in America. It is accompanied by a Japanese transit visa from the Consulate of Japan in Kaunas dated 30/VIII 1940 ('Seen for the journey to Surinam Curacao and other Netherland's colonies through Japan'), a Soviet Vilnius registration stamp, and a later British visa (No. 16368) issued at the British Consulate General in Kobe, Japan on 25 July 1941, valid for travel to New Zealand via Australia. The holder was among the refugees who escaped through Japan and continued onward toward the British Commonwe…
This is a Polish citizenship certificate (Zaświadczenie/Certificat No. F-146) issued by the Legation of Poland in Kaunas (Légation de Pologne à Kaunas) on 16 December 1939 to Majer-Schachno Fränkel, born 9 June 1898 in Kraków, described as single and employed as an official. The certificate confirms his Polish citizenship in lieu of a passport and authorized foreign travel. It was countersigned by the British Chargé d'Affaires acting for Polish interests in Lithuania, and later annotated in 1941 in Vilnius.
A Curacao (Zwartendijk) endorsement issued at the Netherlands Consulate in Kaunas on 29 July 1940 stating that no visa is required for admission to Surinam, Curacao and other Dutch possessions in America. A Sugihara Japanese transit visa was added on 30 July 1940 for the journey to Surinam, Curacao and other Netherlands colonies through Japan. The document also bears a British visa endorsement from the British Consulate in Kobe, Japan, including a New Zealand visa reference.
Where this comes from
The Kobe relatives list — refugees at Kobe in 1941 recorded with their relatives abroad. Seventy-six pages in numbered sheets (LIST No. 7, No. 16 and others), each line giving a name, age, birthplace, occupation and citizenship, and then… No.65, 1898 Krakow; cousin B.Sender c/o Steinfeld Rua Goulard 62/61 Rio de Janeiro, cousin Dr.Menachem Dunkelblum Tel Aviv Achad Haam 15
The JEWCOM register — the refugee register kept by the Refugee Committee of the Jewish Community of Kobe (Ashkenazim) at No. 6 Yamamoto-dori, 1-chome, whose cable address was 'JEWCOM Kobe'. Eighty-four pages on the committee's own printe… 142, 43, Krakow, Clerk, arr 24.2, from Vilno
"List of persons arriving on route to New Zealand" — the arrival roster for the sailing from Japan, September 1941: 33 typed names, from Dr George Bluman’s own marked-up copy (sent 18 Aug 2026). Bluman’s red ticks mark the passengers he… Named on the list of persons arriving on route to New Zealand, sailing from Japan in 1941. The register spells it Frenkiel. This is the man whose British visa, issued at Kobe on 25 July 1941 for New Zealand via Australia, the archive already holds.
Frankel (Majer/Mojżesz) certificate — Zwartendijk declaration No.1234 (29 Jul 1940), Sugihara visa 30 Jul 1940, British Kobe visa No.16368 (25 Jul 1941): New Zealand via Australia — cropped from book p.208