Sugihara Visa Archive

命のビザ
Learn more · keepers of the story

Resources

The museums and organizations that preserve Chiune Sugihara's memory, and the books, films, and articles that tell his story and the story of the Kaunas escape — in English, Japanese, and beyond.

Museums & Organizations · Memorials · Books · Films · Testimonies · Articles & Archives

Museums & Organizations

The Chiune Sugihara Memorial Hall at Yaotsu, Gifu
1071 Yaotsu, Yaotsu-chō, Kamo-gun, Gifu 505-0301, JapanMap ↗
Yaotsu, Gifu · Japan
In Sugihara's birthplace, beside the Hill of Humanity park — a re-creation of his Kaunas consulate office and the story of his life.
Visit ↗
Sugihara House at Vaižganto g. 30, Kaunas — the villa that housed the Japanese consulate in 1940, with the memorial plaque on its street wall
Vaižganto g. 30, Kaunas 44229, LithuaniaMap ↗
Kaunas · Lithuania
The villa that housed the Japanese consulate in 1940, where the visas were written — now a museum run by the Sugihara Foundation.
Visit ↗
The Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum, Fukui
23-1 Kanegasaki-chō, Tsuruga, Fukui 914-0072, JapanMap ↗
Tsuruga, Fukui · Japan
At the port where the refugees stepped off the ship from Vladivostok — telling the story of their arrival in Japan.
Visit ↗
Signed portrait of Chiune Sugihara
1F, 2-22-21 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052, Japan (office address)Map ↗
Tokyo · Japan
A non-profit dedicated to sharing Sugihara's humanitarian act with the world.
Visit ↗
Chiune “Sempo” Sugihara’s plaque (marker No. 1529) in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
Har HaZikaron, Jerusalem 9103401, IsraelMap ↗
Jerusalem · Israel
The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, which named Sugihara Righteous Among the Nations in 1985.
Visit ↗
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW, Washington, DC 20024, USAMap ↗
Washington, D.C. · USA
Holds photographs, testimonies and documents of the Sugihara escape among its collections.
Visit ↗
4588 Bathurst Street, North York, Toronto, ON M2R 1W6, CanadaMap ↗
Toronto · Canada
Opened in 2023; among its artifacts is a rare surviving Sugihara transit visa — issued to Daniel Zultek (register No. 623), who reached British Columbia.
Visit ↗
Maedadoro Shirokane Building 4F, 5-22-12 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0071, Japan (office address)Map ↗
Japan
A foundation devoted to preserving and passing on Chiune Sugihara's story, through lectures, events, and volunteer work.
Visit ↗
Hirado-Bldg 4F, 2-2-18 Nakamachi-dori, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0027, Japan (office address)Map ↗
Kobe · Japan
Free guided walking tours retracing the refugees' Kobe — Sannomiya, the community offices, the residences, and the port they sailed from — led by descendants of the Japanese Christians who cared for them in 1940–41. English or Japanese; two weeks' notice.
Visit ↗

Memorials & Monuments

Statues, monuments and parks in public space that honour the visas for life — the places where Sugihara and Zwartendijk are remembered, distinct from the museums above.

Japan · 3Lithuania · 3IsraelChinaUnited States

Japan

Hill of Humanity

Yaotsu, Gifu · 1994

In Sugihara's birthplace: a hilltop park and stone monument above the town, beside the Chiune Sugihara Memorial Hall.

Open in Maps ↗

Sempo Sugihara Memorial

Nagoya, Aichi

The “Sugihara Chiune Plaza” at his old school — life-size bronze statues of Sugihara and a Jewish family, and reproductions of the visas on ceramic plates.

Open in Maps ↗

Sugihara & Yukiko monument

Numazu, Shizuoka

A monument honouring Consul Sugihara and his wife Yukiko for the “visas of life” — one of the few that names Yukiko alongside him.

Open in Maps ↗

Lithuania

“Year of Sugihara” monument

Kaunas · 2020

Set on Laisvės alėja by Kaunas City for Lithuania's 2020 “Year of Sugihara,” near the hotel where he issued visas after the consulate closed.

Open in Maps ↗

Memorial plaque, Hotel Metropolis

Kaunas

On the hotel where Sugihara lived, and where he went on writing visas after the consulate was ordered shut — the last of them handed out as he left the city.

Open in Maps ↗

Zwartendijk memorial

Kaunas · 2018

A light sculpture near the old Philips office: a column of some 2,000 LED rods, one for each Curaçao endorsement Jan Zwartendijk wrote, by designer Giny Vos. Unveiled in June 2018 by the King of the Netherlands and the President of Lithuania, with Zwartendijk's son Rob present.

Open in Maps ↗

Israel

Sugihara grove (uprooted)

Beit Shemesh

A grove planted by the Jewish National Fund (KKL) in Sugihara's honour — later found uprooted, a residential neighbourhood built over it. His son Nobuki Sugihara came to Israel over its loss, and attorney David Shor, himself the son of a visa recipient, took up the family's case. A memorial that no longer stands.

Open in Maps ↗

China

Jewish Refugees memorial park

Hongkou, Shanghai

A park beside the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, honouring the ~20,000 refugees who sheltered in the ghetto — the last stop for many on the route.

Open in Maps ↗

United States

Chiune Sugihara Memorial

Little Tokyo, Los Angeles · 2002

A statue of Sugihara in LA's Little Tokyo, at 192 S Central Avenue, kept by the Japanese-American community that carries his story forward.

Open in Maps ↗

Books · English

Ratings are what the public gave these works, read on 29 July 2026: Goodreads out of 5, IMDb out of 10 (from IMDb's own published ratings file), Rotten Tomatoes as critic and audience percentages. The number each score rests on is shown beside it — several of these books are rated by a handful of readers, which tells you almost nothing. Works nobody has rated carry no score rather than a zero. Each book links to a search for its ISBN on Amazon and eBay — a search, not a listing, so it cannot go dead or drift onto another edition, and it shows second-hand copies, which for the out-of-print titles here is the only market there is. The archive takes no commission on any of it.

Cover of Visas for Life
Visas for Life
Yukiko Sugihara (trans. Hiroki Sugihara)
Memoir
Buy Amazon · eBay
The Path to Freedom: Japanese Help for Jewish Refugees
Akira Ito
The Path to Freedom: Japanese Help for Jewish Refugees
Akira Ito, 2002
History · Japan Travel Bureau
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of The Miracle Visas: Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara and the Story of the 6,000 Jews
The Miracle Visas: Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara and the Story of the 6,000 Jews
Yutaka Taniuchi, 2001
History
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of The Story of Chiune Sugihara
The Story of Chiune Sugihara
Ann Hoekstra · in association with Sugihara House
Children's · picture book
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Escape to Shanghai: The Mir Yeshiva's Story of Survival
Nachman Seltzer, 2015
History · Mir Yeshiva
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story of the Japanese and the Jews During World War II
The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story of the Japanese and the Jews During World War II
Marvin Tokayer & Mary Swartz, 1979
History
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Flight and Rescue
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2001
Exhibition book · out of print
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Sugihara's List
Zofia Hartman Austeria — YIVO Institute, 2025
History
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Light One Candle: A Survivor's Tale from Lithuania to Jerusalem
Light One Candle: A Survivor's Tale from Lithuania to Jerusalem
Solly Ganor, 1995
Memoir
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Righteous and Courageous: How a Japanese Diplomat Saved Thousands of Jews in Lithuania
Righteous and Courageous: How a Japanese Diplomat Saved Thousands of Jews in Lithuania
Carl L. Steinhouse
History
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust
Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust
Mordecai Paldiel, 2007
History · rescuers
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Cover of The Star on the Grave
The Star on the Grave
Linda Margolin Royal, 2023
Novel
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Chance and Consequence: A Historical Novel of Life, Love, and WWII
Sylvia Smoller (Wassertheil-Smoller), 2018
Novel · a long Sugihara section
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Leo Melamed: Escape to the Futures
Leo Melamed: Escape to the Futures
Leo Melamed with Bob Tamarkin, 1996
Memoir · survivor
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of The Boy on the Tricycle
Marcel Weyland, 2016
Memoir · survivor · free to read
Buy Amazon · eBay
Night Journey: A Story of Survival and Deliverance
John G. Stoessinger
Night Journey: A Story of Survival and Deliverance
John G. Stoessinger, 1978
Memoir · survivor
Buy Amazon · eBay
From Holocaust to Harvard: A Story of Escape, Forgiveness, and Freedom
John G. Stoessinger
From Holocaust to Harvard: A Story of Escape, Forgiveness, and Freedom
John G. Stoessinger, 2014
Memoir · survivor
Buy Amazon · eBay
Why Nations Go to War
John G. Stoessinger
Why Nations Go to War
John G. Stoessinger, 1974
International relations · by a survivor
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Cover of Visas of Life and the Epic Journey: How the Sugihara Survivors Reached Japan
Visas of Life and the Epic Journey: How the Sugihara Survivors Reached Japan
Akira Kitade, 2014
History · the Amakusa-maru
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of To Wear the Dust of War: From Bialystok to Shanghai to the Promised Land — An Oral History
To Wear the Dust of War: From Bialystok to Shanghai to the Promised Land — An Oral History
Samuel Iwry (ed. L. J. H. Kelley), 2004
Oral history
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Cover of I Have My Mother's Eyes: A Holocaust Memoir Across Generations
I Have My Mother's Eyes: A Holocaust Memoir Across Generations
Barbara Ruth Bluman, 2009
Memoir
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Cover of Kotsuji's Gift: The Daring Rescue of Japan's Jewish Refugees
Kotsuji's Gift: The Daring Rescue of Japan's Jewish Refugees
Jundai Yamada
History · Kotsuji
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of The Gift of Life
The Gift of Life
Anne Hoshiko Akabori
Biography · Kotsuji
Buy Amazon · eBay
From Tokyo to Jerusalem
Abraham (Setsuzo) Kotsuji
From Tokyo to Jerusalem
Abraham (Setsuzo) Kotsuji, 1964
Memoir · the “Japanese Abraham”
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Under the Shadow of the Rising Sun: Japan and the Jews During the Holocaust Era
Under the Shadow of the Rising Sun: Japan and the Jews During the Holocaust Era
Meron Medzini, 2016
Scholarly
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Cover of Japanese, Nazis & Jews: The Jewish Refugee Community of Shanghai, 1938–1945
Japanese, Nazis & Jews: The Jewish Refugee Community of Shanghai, 1938–1945
David Kranzler, 1976
History · Shanghai
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Cover of Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto
Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto
Ernest G. Heppner, 1993
Memoir · Shanghai
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Cover of Port of Last Resort: The Diaspora Communities of Shanghai
Port of Last Resort: The Diaspora Communities of Shanghai
Marcia Reynders Ristaino, 2001
History · Shanghai
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Cover of Shanghai Sanctuary: Chinese and Japanese Policy toward European Jewish Refugees
Shanghai Sanctuary: Chinese and Japanese Policy toward European Jewish Refugees
Gao Bei, 2013
Scholarly · Shanghai
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Pepper, Silk & Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews and the Far East
Pepper, Silk & Ivory: Amazing Stories about Jews and the Far East
Marvin Tokayer & Ellen Rodman, 2014
History · Far East
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Cover of Great Rescues of World War II: Stories of Adventure, Daring and Sacrifice
Great Rescues of World War II: Stories of Adventure, Daring and Sacrifice
Thomas J. Craughwell
History · rescues
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Cover of Puppe's Story: A Child's Remembrance of His Father's Rescue
Puppe's Story: A Child's Remembrance of His Father's Rescue
Hiroki Sugihara & Anne Hoshiko Akabori
Children's
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Cover of Chiune Sugihara
Chiune Sugihara
Esin Ayirtman-Sugihara
Biography
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Cover of From the Country of Kimonos: Essays by a Japanese Woman
From the Country of Kimonos: Essays by a Japanese Woman
Yuko Koyano
Essays
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Cover of Chiune Sugihara: Konsul, który ratował Żydów
Chiune Sugihara: Konsul, który ratował Żydów
Aleksander B. Skotnicki
Biography · Polish
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Cover of Perilous Escape: My Journey from Nazi Europe to Freedom
Dr. Chaskel Wyszkowski
Memoir · Vilna–Japan–Shanghai
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Cover of Escape to Shanghai
Rabbi E. Y. Hertzman & Rabbi C. U. Lipschitz
History · Mir Yeshiva
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Escape to Shanghai: A Jewish Community in China
Escape to Shanghai: A Jewish Community in China
James R. Ross, 1994
History · Shanghai
Buy Amazon · eBay
Cover of Decision of Love: Chiune Sugihara
Decision of Love: Chiune Sugihara
Fumiyoshi Okamoto, 2005
Biography · Yaotsu
Buy Amazon · eBay

Books · 日本語 (Japanese)

Cover of 六千人の命のビザ (Visas for 6,000 Lives)
六千人の命のビザ (Visas for 6,000 Lives)
杉原幸子 Yukiko Sugihara
回想録 · Memoir
Cover of 諜報の天才・杉原千畝 (Sugihara Chiune: Genius of Intelligence)
白石仁章 Masaaki Shiraishi, 2011
伝記 · Biography
Cover of 六千人の命を救え!外交官・杉原千畝 (Save 6,000 Lives!)
白石仁章 Masaaki Shiraishi, 2015
ノンフィクション
Cover of 杉原千畝物語 命のビザをありがとう
杉原千畝物語 命のビザをありがとう
杉原幸子・杉原弘樹 (Yukiko & Hiroki Sugihara)
児童書 · Children's
Cover of 太平洋を渡った杉原ビザ (The Sugihara Visa, Across the Pacific)
太平洋を渡った杉原ビザ (The Sugihara Visa, Across the Pacific)
バンクーバー新報企画編 (Vancouver Shinpo)
証言集 · Survivor testimonies
Cover of 人道の港 敦賀 (Port of Humanity, Tsuruga)
人道の港 敦賀 (Port of Humanity, Tsuruga)
岐阜新聞社 (Gifu Shimbun)
記録 · Tsuruga refuge
Cover of 学習まんが人物館 杉原千畝 (Sugihara Chiune, manga biography)
学習まんが人物館 杉原千畝 (Sugihara Chiune, manga biography)
渡辺勝正 監修 · あべさより 漫画 (Shogakukan)
まんが · Children's manga
Cover of Yakusoku no Kuni e no Nagai Tabi (A Long Journey to the Promised Land)
Yakusoku no Kuni e no Nagai Tabi (A Long Journey to the Promised Land)
Shino Teruhisa, 1988
記録 · the first Japanese volume on the story
Cover of Ketsudan: Inochi no Biza (A Decision — Visas to Save Lives)
Ketsudan: Inochi no Biza (A Decision — Visas to Save Lives)
Watanabe Katsumasa, 1996
伝記 · Biography
Shinso Sugihara Biza (The Truth — Sugihara's Visas)
Watanabe Katsumasa
Shinso Sugihara Biza (The Truth — Sugihara's Visas)
Watanabe Katsumasa
研究 · History
Sugihara Chiune: Rokusen-nin no Inochi o Sukutta Gaikokan (The Diplomat Who Saved 6,000)
Watanabe Katsumasa
Sugihara Chiune: Rokusen-nin no Inochi o Sukutta Gaikokan (The Diplomat Who Saved 6,000)
Watanabe Katsumasa
伝記 · Biography
Cover of 命のビザ・杉原千畝 (Inochi no Biza: Sugihara Chiune, children's biography)
命のビザ・杉原千畝 (Inochi no Biza: Sugihara Chiune, children's biography)
石崎洋司 文 · 山下和美 絵 (Kodansha · Hi-no-Tori series)
児童書 · Children's
Cover of NHK にんげん日本史 杉原千畝 (NHK Ningen Nihonshi: Sugihara Chiune)
NHK にんげん日本史 杉原千畝 (NHK Ningen Nihonshi: Sugihara Chiune)
小西聖一 著 · 酒寄雅志 監修 (Rironsha)
児童書 · Children's
Cover of 杉原千畝 命のビザ、六千の決断 (Sugihara Chiune: Visas of Life, the Decision of 6,000)
杉原千畝 命のビザ、六千の決断 (Sugihara Chiune: Visas of Life, the Decision of 6,000)
坂田昌明 Sakata Masaaki
実話 · popular history
Cover of 戦場の外交官 杉原千畝 (Sugihara Chiune: Diplomat on the Battlefield)
戦場の外交官 杉原千畝 (Sugihara Chiune: Diplomat on the Battlefield)
櫻田啓 Sakurada Kei (PHP文庫)
伝記 · Biography

Films & Documentaries

Ratings are what the public gave these works, read on 29 July 2026: Goodreads out of 5, IMDb out of 10 (from IMDb's own published ratings file), Rotten Tomatoes as critic and audience percentages. The number each score rests on is shown beside it — several of these books are rated by a handful of readers, which tells you almost nothing. Works nobody has rated carry no score rather than a zero.

Cover of Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness
dir. Robert Kirk & Diane Estelle Vicari, 2000
Documentary · PBS
Cover of Visas and Virtue
dir. Chris Tashima, 1997
Short film · Academy Award
Cover of Escape to the Rising Sun
dir. Diane Perelsztejn, 1990
Documentary
Cover of Searching for Sugihara
Short documentary
Cover of The Rescuers: Heroes of the Holocaust
dir. Michael W. King, 2011
Documentary · twelve diplomats
Cover of The Visas That Saved Lives
dir. Katsumi Ohyama · with Go Kato, 1992
TV film · dramatization
Message for Chiune Sugihara
dir. Aya Takahashi
dir. Aya Takahashi, 2012
Documentary · three parts · the Vancouver families
Sempo Sugihara
Japanese television
Japanese television, 1982
Documentary · the earliest on record

Talks & Discussions

Testimonies · In Their Own Words

People who made the journey, and their children, telling it on camera. Each picture is the still the holding archive shows in its own catalogue; click it to go to the interview there. The register entries under a name are the visas that interview belongs to. The stills are shown with credit to the archives that hold them, and any of them comes down the same day on request.

USC Shoah Foundation · Visual History Archive 39 interviews

Recorded from 1994 onward. Watching needs a free registration at the Visual History Archive.

Still from the oral history of Joseph Bach
Interview 23452
Register No. 401
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 23452
Still from the oral history of Joel Balgley
Interview 59522
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 59522
Still from the oral history of Susan Bluman (née Hoffenberg)
Interview 12262
Wife of Nathan Bluman, No. 1569
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 12262
Still from the oral history of Abraham Brumberg
Interview 43810
His father Jozef, No. 1802 · His mother Chaja Laja (Lola), No. 1803
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 43810
Still from the oral history of Chaim Bukiet
Interview 11820
Register No. 1746
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 11820
Still from the oral history of Lucille Camhi (née Szepsenwol)
Interview 8728
Her sister Fejga, with whom she travelled, No. 1609
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 8728
Still from the oral history of Abraham Garfinkel
Interview 33115
Register No. 1835
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 33115
Still from the oral history of Benjamin Gelbfish
Interview 45605
Register No. 589
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 45605
Still from the oral history of Samuel Graudenz
Interview 24160
Register No. 330
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 24160
Still from the oral history of Samuel Graudenz
Interview 52974 · second interview
Register No. 330
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 52974
Still from the oral history of Moises Grinberg
Interview 28759
Register No. 691 · His wife Sara, No. 690
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 28759
Still from the oral history of Sara Grinberg
Interview 29329
Register No. 690 · Her husband Moises, No. 691
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 29329
Still from the oral history of Rita Haim (née Feige)
Interview 34032
Her father Martin, No. 814 · Her mother Beile (Berta), No. 813
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 34032
Still from the oral history of Edith Hamer (née Finkelstein)
Interview 54889
Daughter of Nos. 7 and 8
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 54889
Still from the oral history of Samuel Horowitz
Interview 27750
Register No. 1652
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 27750
Still from the oral history of Icchok Katz
Interview 35397
Register No. 1421
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 35397
Still from the oral history of Henry Krongold
Interview 22580
Register No. 1579
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 22580
Still from the oral history of Arthur Lermer
Interview 59296
Register No. 1829 · His wife Miriam, No. 1830
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 59296
Still from the oral history of Nathan Lewin
Interview 62029
His father Isaac, No. 17 · His mother Pessla, No. 13
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 62029
Still from the oral history of Maria Klein Lifszyc
Interview 26232
Register No. 1818 · Her brother Rubin, No. 1817
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 26232
Still from the oral history of David Markus
Interview 40788
Register No. 849
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 40788
Still from the oral history of Leo Melamed (born Melamdovich)
Interview 18102
Son of No. 1768
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 18102
Still from the oral history of Anna Milo (née Jaglom)
Interview 42344
Her father Boris (Baruch), No. 74
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 42344
Still from the oral history of Jerry Milrod (born Izrael Milrod)
Interview 52388
Register No. 1561 · His brother Symcha, No. 2115
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 52388
Still from the oral history of Anatol Morell (born Mosewicki)
Interview 11447
Register No. 434 · His mother, No. 164
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 11447
Still from the oral history of Helena Morell (née Leszczynska)
Interview 11446
Register No. 420 · Her husband, No. 434
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 11446
Still from the oral history of Liana Ornstein
Interview 54963
Her mother Edith, No. 1961 · Her father Ernst, No. 1962 · Her brother Peter, No. 1960
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 54963
Still from the oral history of Stephen Perkal (born Szlama Perkal)
Interview 55418
Register No. 1969
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 55418
Still from the oral history of Irene Rothenberg (née Malowist)
Interview 38553
Her father Szymon, No. 2016 · Her mother Marja, No. 2017
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 38553
Still from the oral history of Lewis Salton (born Ludwik Salomon)
Interview 40934
Register No. 22
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 40934
Still from the oral history of Berl Schor
Interview 58061
Register No. 77
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 58061
Still from the oral history of Sylvia Smoller (née Hafftka)
Interview 12663
Daughter of No. 459
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 12663
Still from the oral history of Sylvia Smoller (née Hafftka)
Interview 58074 · second interview
Daughter of No. 459
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 58074
Still from the oral history of Shmuel Solts
Interview 39952
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 39952
Still from the oral history of Irene Steinman (née Dynenson)
Interview 38083
Register No. 566 · Her father Benjamin, No. 568 · Her mother, No. 567
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 38083
Still from the oral history of John Stoessinger
Interview 52103
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 52103
Still from the oral history of Hanni Vogelweid (née Sondheimer)
Interview 36950
Register No. 1320 · Her father Moritz, No. 1319 · Her mother Setty, No. 1317
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 36950
Still from the oral history of Ted Waid (born Tadeusz Waidenfeld)
Interview 30718
His father Filip, No. 329 · His mother Eugenia, No. 341
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 30718
Still from the oral history of Dina Webb (née Bachrach)
Interview 41746
Her father Hersz, No. 2013 · Her mother Hana, No. 2014
Still: USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, interview 41746

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · “Flight and Rescue” (1999)

Recorded for the museum's exhibition on the Lithuania → Japan → Shanghai escape; free to watch.

Still from the interview with Moshe Zupnik
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
register No. 1225 · stamped ~2,000 visas beside Gudze
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Zorach Warhaftig
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
register No. 455 · the Mizrachi leader who organised the escape
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Jan Zwartendijk (the consul's son)
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
son of the Dutch consul at Kaunas
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Leo Hanin
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
JEWCOM Kobe · the relief organiser
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Meri Nowogrodzki
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
the Nowogrodzki family, register No. 1506
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Marko Nowogrodzki
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
register No. 1506
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Norbert Swislocki
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
register Nos. 61–62 (Swislocki)
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Hanni Vogelweid (née Sondheimer)
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
register No. 1320 · visa 6 Aug 1940
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Victor Erlich
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
register No. 1684 · son of Bundist Henryk Erlich
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Alexander Schenker
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
the Schenker family, register Nos. 476–477
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Susan Bluman
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
wife of Nathan Bluman, register No. 1569
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Ruth Segal (née Berkowitz)
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
register · her father's Kaunas visa
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Leo Melamed
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
later chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Lucille Camhi
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
the “last visa of the day,” 12 Aug 1940
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Yonia Fain
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
painter who forged his own Curaçao visa
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Benjamin Gelbfish
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
Chachmei Lublin yeshiva · Curaçao + Sugihara
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Motl (Max) Goldberg
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
got his visa at the Vladivostok consulate
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Ernest Heppner
USHMM oral history
Shanghai (no-visa sea route) · describes the Shanghai ghetto and its Japanese overseer
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Still from the interview with Jechil Dobekirer
USHMM · Flight and Rescue, 1999
Flight and Rescue collection
Still: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Other recorded interviews

Still from the interview with George Bluman
YouTube
son of Nathan Bluman (register No. 1569) · the mathematician whose numbered Sugihara list this archive uses
Still: YouTube
No still on the catalogue page
Chinuch.org (video interview), 2013
register No. 1178 (Dawid Kwiat) · Białystok, Mir, Kobe, Shanghai · later a rosh yeshiva of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn
Interview: Chinuch.org
Still from the interview with Benjamin Fishoff
YouTube · Better World Productions, 2007
register No. 2070 · one of the seventy-four turned back at Tsuruga
Still: YouTube · Better World Productions

Articles & Archives

A reader's compass for Shanghai sources: two distinct refugee populations shared that city, and most archives mix them. Some 18,000 German and Austrian Jews sailed directly to Shanghai in 1938–39 — no visa was needed to land there — after Kristallnacht closed every other door. The Sugihara register's people came the other way and later: Polish and Lithuanian Jews crossing the Soviet Union by rail in 1940–41 on the Curaçao fiction and Sugihara's transit visas, reaching Kobe first, with roughly a thousand transferred on to Shanghai before Pearl Harbor. A Shanghai memoir, certificate or route that begins with a German city and a 1938–39 sailing is almost never a register family — but the two communities lived the ghetto years side by side, so their records constantly touch.

With thanks to

Every document in this archive belongs to someone else. These are the museums, collections, archives, dealers and — above all — families whose material makes the register possible. Counts are of documents drawn from each, and grow as the archive does.

Out-of-print books link to an eBay search. Know a museum, book, film, or article we've missed — in any language? Tell us and we'll add it.

Museum photographs via Wikimedia Commons: Chiune Sugihara Memorial Hall — 先従隗始 (CC0) · Sugihara House, Kaunas — Bonio (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum — 663highland (CC BY 2.5) · Portrait of Chiune Sugihara — Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan 外務省 (CC BY 4.0) · Yad Vashem — Sugihara's plaque, Garden of the Righteous — Yoshi Canopus (CC BY-SA 4.0) · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — Smash the Iron Cage (CC BY-SA 4.0). Book jackets and film posters are reproduced at thumbnail size to identify the editions and releases and link to their publishers, studios and distributors; all rights remain with them and with the cover artists.