Szaps Jaskolka received transit visa no. 805 at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas on 2 August 1940. Aged 19 in 1940.
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.
hunt/familysearch: 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…
A document held in the archive's files
A document held in the archive's files
A document held in the archive's files
A document held in the archive's files
A document held in the archive's files
A document held in the archive's files
[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)
Jaskoll family collection: SS President Cleveland manifest, Kobe 10 Oct 1940 — line 1: Jaskolka Szaps, 19, apprentice baker, b. Dlugosiodlo; admitted 25 Oct 1940