Daniel Zultek

Visa no. 623 · Kaunas, 1 August 1940

Daniel Zultek received transit visa no. 623 at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas on 1 August 1940. The register records sailor, aged 30.

Documents

Document — Daniel Zultek — The Polish certificate of nationality of Daniel Zultek (Polish Legation, Kaunas), with the Fukui-ken entry permit of 5 March 1941 and the Kobe Jewish Community's guarantee note, lent to the book by Eileen Henry — a plate in 「太平洋を渡った杉原ビザ」authored by Aya Takahashi, printed by Gifu Shimbunsha, p. 126.

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What the register records

Nationality as recorded: Polnisch
Age in 1940: 30
Occupation: Sailor

The journey

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

What is known

Daniel Zultek (b. Sept 1910, single) fled with a Polish nationality certificate in place of a passport. Sugihara handwrote his Japan transit visa on its reverse above a Curaçao destination line. He reached Japan without cash or an onward ship reservation and was specially admitted at Tsuruga (Fukui-ken entry permit, 5 Mar 1941) under the guarantee of the Kobe Jewish Community, later settling in Ontario, Canada. Documents preserved by Eileen Henry.

This page shows the back of Daniel Zultek's nationality certificate, on which his Japanese transit visa (handwritten by Sugihara) was affixed along with a Curacao visa stamp. The caption notes that the Curacao visa was issued on top of the Japanese transit visa, illustrating how holders combined the two documents to facilitate their journey.

ダニエル・ズルテクの国籍証明書の裏面（アイリーン・ヘンリー提供）（右下）杉原の手書きによる日本通過ビザ。日本通過ビザの上に「キュラソー・ビザ」が発給してある。

Where this comes from

List of Refugees, Vilna, 1940 — JDC Archives, New York, collection AR 33/44, file 00876. The contemporary register of Polish Jewish refugees in Lithuania, running to more than nine thousand numbered entries; the fullest independent check…
The 1940 Vilna refugee list has, at entry 6399, Daniel Zółtek, born 1910 at Warszawa, who had come from Warszawa; the year agrees with the register's compiled age.
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…
Entry 374 of the Kobe community's list of refugees and their relatives abroad: aged 31, born at Warsaw, occupation written as Reeder, Polish; relatives abroad: cousins, Ignacy Baumzweiger, Calle Pedro A. Diaz 3, Panam, and Shalom Ash, Sky Meadow Drive, Stamford, Connecticut.
US arrival manifest: Daniel Zultek, Seattle, 1941
"Seattle Passenger Lists", FamilySearch, entry for Daniel Zultek, 1941. Ship: Hikawa Maru. Matched from the Hikawa Maru's Polish-born passenger list (162 people, 35 matched). Register No.623 'Daniel Zultek' records age 30; the manifest gives born 1911, arriving 1941.
Certificate of Polish citizenship No. Z-53, issued to Daniel Zultek by the Legation of the Polish Republic at Kaunas on 18 November 1939, reproduced as a plate in a Japanese-language account of the Kaunas visas. The certificate records h…
The certificate names Daniel Zultek, gives his birth as 1 September 1910 - the register's age of 30 in 1940 - and gives his calling as a sailor, which is the occupation the register records and an uncommon one on this list. The entry permit beside it places him landing in Japan in March 1941, admitted on the guarantee of the Kobe Jewish community.
Daniel Zultek certificate — front: Polish Legation Kaunas Zaświadczenie, b. 1 IX 1910 Warszawa, single, żeglarz (sailor), issued 18 Nov 1939 under British Chargé d'Affaires; NKVD registration to 18 Feb 1941; Fukui permit stamps (Facebook…
The front of the certificate, No. Z-53 of the Polish Legation at Kaunas, dated 18 November 1939. It names Daniel Zultek, gives his birth as 1 September 1910 at Warsaw - the register's age of 30 in 1940 - that he was unmarried, and his calling as a sailor, the occupation the register records. A registration stamp of the Soviet foreign-visa office, dated 17 February 1941, is entered at the foot.
Daniel Zultek certificate — reverse with full visa mosaic: Lithuanian exit (Nov 1939), French VISA D'ENTRÉE No.3913 (to 29 Dec 1939), Swedish 14.12.39, Dutch transit No.1202 (18.12.39), Belgian transit (16.12.39), Norwegian & British Kov…
The reverse carries his whole route in stamps: a Lithuanian exit visa of November 1939, French, Swedish, Netherlands, Belgian, Norwegian and British consular visas of December 1939, then the declaration of the Netherlands Consulate at Kaunas that no entry visa is required for Surinam and Curacao, and finally the Japanese transit visa dated 1940 VIII. 1. That date is the issue date the register records for this entry, and it agrees exactly. The Belgian transit visa names the beneficiary as Zultek (Daniel), of Polish nationality.
"Washington, King, Seattle, Passenger Lists, 1890-1957", FamilySearch — index entry for Daniel Zultek, 1941: born about 1911, Poland. Digitised from NARA microfilm publication M1383 (passenger and crew lists of vessels arriving at Seattl…
FamilySearch's index of the Seattle passenger lists, read by the archive on 20 September 2026, has Daniel Zultek, born about 1911 in Poland, arriving at Seattle in 1941. The register's compiled line gives 1910, and the two are 1 year apart. The name occurs once on the register, and a Polish-born passenger landing at Seattle in 1941 fits the route through Japan, so the entry is taken as this person's under the archive's rule of 19 September 2026 for records from the route.
Find a Grave memorial 254884199, Daniel Zultek, Beth Tzedec Memorial Park, Toronto, section 9, plot 10, lot 3: "Birth 1 Sep 1910 — Death 21 Nov 1995 (aged 85)"
Daniel Zultek settled in Canada. He died on 21 November 1995, aged 85, and is buried at Beth Tzedec Memorial Park in Toronto; the cemetery's record gives his birth as 1 September 1910, the date on the citizenship certificate he carried across Russia and Japan. A birth on 1 September 1910 fits the register's age of 30 in 1940, and the name occurs once on the register.
The Polish certificate of nationality of Daniel Zultek (Polish Legation, Kaunas), with the Fukui-ken entry permit of 5 March 1941 and the Kobe Jewish Community's guarantee note, lent to the book by Eileen Henry — a plate in 「太平洋を渡った杉原ビザ」authored by Aya Takahashi, printed by Gifu Shimbunsha, p. 126.
The reverse of Daniel Zultek's certificate: French visa d'entrée No. 3913 and Sugihara's handwritten Japanese transit visa with the Curaçao line, lent to the book by Eileen Henry — a plate in 「太平洋を渡った杉原ビザ」authored by Aya Takahashi, printed by Gifu Shimbunsha, p. 127.
Sugihara's handwritten Japanese transit visa ("to Suranam, Curaçao and other Netherlands colonies", August 1940, Consulat du Japon à Kaunas) on Daniel Zultek's certificate, lent to the book by Eileen Henry, detail — a plate in 「太平洋を渡った杉原ビザ」authored by Aya Takahashi, printed by Gifu Shimbunsha, p. 127.
Daniel Zultek certificate — front: Polish Legation Kaunas Zaświadczenie, b. 1 IX 1910 Warszawa, single, żeglarz (sailor), issued 18 Nov 1939 under British Chargé d'Affaires; NKVD registration to 18 Feb 1941; Fukui permit stamps (Facebook…
Daniel Zultek certificate — reverse with full visa mosaic: Lithuanian exit (Nov 1939), French VISA D'ENTRÉE No.3913 (to 29 Dec 1939), Swedish 14.12.39, Dutch transit No.1202 (18.12.39), Belgian transit (16.12.39), Norwegian & British Kov…
The reverse of the certificate of nationality of Daniel Zultek (No. 623), with his Curaçao declaration and Sugihara's handwritten transit visa, lent to the book by Eileen Henry — a plate in 「太平洋を渡った杉原ビザ」authored by Aya Takahashi, printed by Gifu Shimbunsha, p. 127.

and 3 further records, shown on the full entry.

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