By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson in Mevasseret Zion, Israel
This book, originally published in Dutch and translated into English by David McKay, describes the almost accidental process by which thousands of Jews were able to receive visas for entry into the Dutch-controlled Caribbean island of Curacao, issued by the acting Dutch consul in Kaunas, Jan Zwartendijk. This meant travelling right across Russia by the Trans-Siberian Express train to Japan, from where, in theory, they could proceed to Curacao on the strength of the transit visa issued by the Japanese consul in Kaunas, Chiume Sugihara.
One of the title pages of the book bears the Talmudic saying about the existence of thirty-six Righteous Among the Nations who exist at any moment in world history. It ends with the following statement: ‘In 1940, there were two in Kaunas, Lithuania, one in Riga, Latvia, one in Stockholm, Sweden, and two in Japan – one in Kobe and one in Tokyo.
In 1940, just before Lithuania was invaded first by the Soviet Union and then by the Nazis, the city of Kaunas (also known as Kovno) had a substantial Jewish population, swelled by increasing numbers of Jewish refugees from nearby Latvia and Poland.
Jan Zwartendijk was in Kaunas as the manager of the Philips Radio factory and sales-room there, one of the Dutch engineering company’s representative managers spread all over the world. In May 1940, following the German conquest of the Netherlands, Zwartendijk received a phone call from the Dutch ambassador in Riga, Latvia, appointing him as acting consul. When he said that he had no experience in that field, he was told that it would mean just providing support for Dutch nationals abroad and occasionally renewing a Dutch passport.
What happened next is not clear. Some people say that the route out of Lithuania to Curacao by way of Russia and Japan was devised by Zwartendijk, while others claim that individual Jews seeking refuge somewhere in a world where no country was prepared to accept them came up with the idea. Be that as it may, the fact is that in the subsequent three months, Jan Zwartendijk issued thousands of documents granting access to Curacao, for which no entry visa is required.’ In addition, since the end-point of the Trans-Siberian Express was Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, bordering the Sea of Japan, a Japanese transit visa was required. Chiume Sagihara, the Japanese consul in Kaunas, provided this.
Long queues of Jews seeking visas formed outside the buildings housing the Dutch and Japanese consuls, and the two men worked long hours issuing visas, writing out the wording in each passport. Jan Zwartendijk was exhausted by the work involved and managed to devise a stamp with the required wording, making his job of inserting the name of the applicant much easier. In Sugihara’s case, the work was more complex, as the characters had to be painted in with a brush, involving far more effort on his part. Lists of visas issued were made, but Zwartendijk, fearing retribution from the Nazi occupying power, burned all the documents before leaving Kaunas with his family to return to the Netherlands.
The stories of several individual Jewish applicants are described in considerable detail, with first-hand accounts of their lives before and after reaching Kaunas, their family history, and their eventual fate. Upon reaching Japan, after many days of travel by train and boat, the war that was ravaging the world meant that the refugees were unable to continue their journey to Curacao and were stuck in Japan. Many went to the commercial centre of Kobe, and others to Tokyo or to Shanghai in China.
The story of the Jewish refugees in Shanghai has been the subject of considerable research. A thriving Jewish community developed there until the city was conquered by Japan. As allies of Nazi Germany, the Japanese, who had initially welcomed the Jewish refugees, now imposed all kinds of restrictions on the Jews of Shanghai, enclosing them in miserable conditions in a ghetto and limiting their access to food and water.
Throughout this book, which is based on extensive research, interviews with survivors, and far-reaching travel to almost all the places mentioned, the writer inserts his own personal insights and experiences, giving the reader a unique and lively account of how events developed and what people experienced. No less fascinating than the sequence of events described in the book is the final chapter listing all the various sources, individuals, and institutions with which the author interacted in order to obtain information and provide this graphic account. It is a remarkable story of the almost accidental way in which many thousands of Jewish lives were saved from certain death. The true heroes of the process were the two consuls in Kaunas, as well as others in Riga, Stockholm, Kobe, and Tokyo.
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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson is an author and freelance writer based in the Jerusalem suburb of Mevasseret Zion, Israel.