Szaps Jaskolka

Szaps Jaskolka received transit visa no. 805 at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas on 2 August 1940. Aged 19 in 1940.

Documents

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What the register records

Nationality as recorded

Polnisch

Age in 1940

19

The journey

Reached Japan; registered in Kobe for USA.

What is known

According to this handwritten note, Saul arrived in the U.S. aboard the S.S. Cleveland on October 25, 1940, having departed from Kobe, Japan. His three sisters and father were killed on June 24, 1941, when, per the note, Latvians killed them.

The presentation references "Jaskula Visa #805" as an example of a transit visa issued by Chiune Sugihara in Kaunas, Lithuania. No further details about the holder or their escape story are provided in the document.

This is a Lithuanian Republic safe-conduct document (Leidimas / Sauf-Conduit) issued in lieu of a foreign passport to Szaps Jaskulka, born 28 December 1920 in Dlugosodlo, of indeterminate nationality and residing in Vilnius. It was delivered in Kaunas and valid for travel to all countries, expiring in 1940. Such documents were used by Jewish refugees in Lithuania obtaining transit visas during 1940.

Saul arrived in the U.S. on the S.S. Cleveland on October 25, 1940 from Kobe, Japan His 3 sisters + Father were killed June 24, 1941 Latvians killed them.

Jaskula Visa #805

LIETUVOS RESPUBLIKA / REPUBLIQUE DE LITHUANIE LEIDIMAS SAUF-CONDUIT Vieton užsienio paso — au lieu d'un passeport pour l'étranger Tinka keliauti į visas šalis / Pour tous les pays

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 2567, Szaps Jaskulka, born 1920 at Dlugosiodlo, who came from Dlugosiodlo; the year agrees with the register's compiled age.
• US arrival manifest: Szaps Jaskolka, San Francisco 1940
  "California, San Francisco, Passenger Lists, 1893-1953", FamilySearch, entry for Szaps Jaskolka or Jaskulka, 1940. NARA M1410, film 365. Ship: President Cleveland. Match: register No.805 reads "zaps Jaskolka" - the ledger lost the initial S - and records age 19, Polish, visa issued 2 August 1940, re
• Jaskoll family collection: Leidimas visa page — SUGIHARA TRANSIT VISA 5 Aug 1940 with Curaçao formula crossed out and "to U.S.A." in the consul's hand; US quota visa No.3813 issued Kaunas 31 May 1940 (E. Tomlin Bailey); Lithuanian VIZA N…
  THE TWO DATES DISAGREE, AND THE ARCHIVE DOES NOT RECONCILE THEM. The numbered consular list transcribed by Dr George Bluman and Akira Kitade gives 2 August 1940. This visa page, from the family’s own Leidimas, is stamped “TRANSIT VISA. 1940 VIII. 5.” — 5 August 1940. The difference is what one would expect of the two documents. The stamp was made at the counter in Kaunas. The list was sent from Prague six months later: Sugihara, by then Consular Agent there, enclosed it with telegram No. 28 to Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka on 28 February 1941, answering Tokyo’s request for an account of the visas he had issued. Where a contemporaneous stamp and a list written half a year afterwards differ, the stamp is the better record of the day. THE STRUCK-OUT CLAUSE IS NOT A CURAÇAO VISA. What the consul crossed through — “(to Suranam, Curaçao and other Netherlands’ colonies.)” — is the printed wording of his own transit stamp, and above it he wrote “to U.S.A.” by hand. The reason is on the same page: this traveller already held a United States quota immigration visa, No. 3813 of the Polish quota, issued at Kaunas on 31 May 1940 by the American consul E. Tomlin Bailey — nine weeks before…
• Manifest of alien passengers, SS President Cleveland, sailing from Kobe 10 October 1940, arrived San Francisco late October 1940 (NARA, passenger lists of vessels arriving at San Francisco, M1410, film 365; read on FamilySearch's copy)
  The manifest of the President Cleveland, Kobe 10 October 1940 to San Francisco 25 October, lists Szaps Jaskolka, aged 19, single, a baker (the typed "none" struck through), Polish, born at Długosiodło, speaking Yiddish and Polish, with a Polish-quota non-preference immigration visa issued at Tokyo on 8 October 1940; he was going to his uncle, Sam Rosenberg, at 3000 Valentine Avenue, New York. The age and birthplace are those the Vilna refugee list gives for him. National Archives microfilm of the San Francisco passenger lists, read on FamilySearch's copy.
• The numbered Sugihara visa list, the page of 2 August 1940 carrying Nos. 795 to 865 (among them No. 805, Szaps Jaskolka), photographed beside a ruler.
• A document held in the archive's files
• 'The Life of Chiune Sugihara': slides of a talk given in 2019, eleven pages.
• The Lithuanian sauf-conduit of Szaps Jaskulka (No. 805), Series A No. 07283, issued at Vilnius in 1940, with his photograph.
• A visa page of Szaps Jaskulka's sauf-conduit (No. 805): a visa No. 570, the Sugihara transit visa of 5 August 1940 with its destination amended to the U.S.A., and an American immigration visa.
• A visa page of Szaps Jaskulka's sauf-conduit (No. 805): a Soviet transit visa, No. 114379, and a visa signed by a vice consul at Tokyo.
• [self-reference] Screenshot of sugiharavisas.org gallery page, 26 Jul 2026 — not an archive source
• Jaskoll family collection: US arrival record — Inspector at Port of Arrival, San Francisco, 25 Oct 1940
• Jaskoll family collection: Leidimas Serija A Nr.07283 (Vilnius, 28 May 1940) — Szaps Jaskulka, b. 28 Dec 1920 Dlugosiodlo, with photograph
• Jaskoll family collection: Leidimas visa page — US immigration visa No.2520 reissued Tokyo 8 Oct 1940 (Vice Consul W. Garland Richardson), Soviet transit visa No.114349 (Kaunas, 4 Sep 1940: Gudogai entry, Vladivostok exit)

and 6 further records, shown on the full entry.

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