Visas for Life
Diplomats That Rescued Jews

The Nazis depended on the support of millions in order to murder millions. Among the few Jews who survived the Holocaust some did so largely on their own, while others were aided by good people - friends, neighbors and total strangers.

Many people turned a blind eye and did nothing to help, or worse they made it harder for the innocent to survive. Diplomats enjoyed a special status in the countries where they served and were in a unique position to extend significant help to refugees. For persecuted Jews desperately seeking visas to escape Nazi terror, the actions of these diplomats often were the difference between life and death. Many used every nuance of the regulations to keep Jews from entering their countries. Yet a few shine as beacons of light in the vast darkness...lone lighthouses guiding refugees past the lethal rocks and deadly minefields of the Holocaust.

The individuals honored in this exhibition rescued tens of thousands of people, mostly Jews. In this fiftieth year of the establishment of the State of Israel, we have a rare opportunity to bring the stories of these altruistic people to the public. They truly stand as beacons of light for us all.

The Israeli Knesset (Parliament) empowered Yad Vashem to bestow the honorific title of "Righteous Among the Nations" as a gesture of thanks in the name of the Jewish people. A Supreme Court Justice chairs a committee of public personalities who ensure that nominees acted to save Jews:

• wholly at their own discretion,

• in territories under the control of the Germans or their collaborators,

• at risk to their lives, freedoms and safety,

• without receiving remuneration or reward as a precondition for the help, and

• substantiation by survivors' testimony or incontrovertible documentary evidence.

The situation of diplomats, official representatives of foreign governments, was unique since the dangers to their personal well-being were significantly less than to others. Therefore the criteria for recognizing them as Righteous Among the Nations are:

• that they acted against explicit orders from their superiors,

• at direct risk to their careers, and

• that they extended their efforts to a sizable number of people.

To date Yad Vashem has recognized 18 diplomats as Righteous Among the Nations:

Per Anger, Sweden Lars Berg, Sweden Friedrich Born, Switzerland Angel Sans Briz, Spain Carl Ivan Danielson, Sweden Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, Germany Waldemar Langlet, Sweden Charles (Carl) Lutz, Switzerland Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portugal Giorgio Perlasca, Italy Ernst Prodolliet, Switzerland Aracy de Carvalho-Guimaraes Rosa, Brazil Monsignor Angelo Rotta, Italy Jose Santaella, Spain Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara, Japan Selahattin Ulkumen, Turkey Raoul Wallenberg, Sweden Jan Zwartendijk, Netherlands

This exhibition is based on hitherto unseen photographs from the private collections of the families of eleven diplomats.

Curator of the core collection: Eric Saul, San Francisco.
Exhibition concept plus selection of additional materials: Elly Dlin, Yad Vashem.
Exhibition design: C.D. Itzuvim Ltd., Jerusalem.

"I couldn't bear the sight of people branded as animals... I couldn't bear to see children killed. I think it was this. I don't think I was a hero." Giorgio Perlasca.

Had Giorgio Perlasca not been a fascist he would not have been able to rescue thousands of Jews in the Holocaust. An Italian who volunteered to fight with Franco in the Spanish Civil War, he had been an artillery officer at Guernica (where he maintained it was not as bad as Picasso depicted).

By mid-1944 Italians in Budapest were no longer considered friendly aliens, so Perlasca was interned. He escaped and, because of his service to Spain, was able to register at the Spanish mission and to gain employment there. He was given diplomatic credentials.

As the front approached the Spanish ambassador left Budapest and Perlasca leapt into the breach. He increased the number of Spanish "protective passes", set up "safe houses" and stayed in place until the arrival of the Soviet Army in order to protect and provide for the Jews. He then burned his Spanish papers and once more became an Italian businessman.

He was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations in 1989.

"I may have disobeyed my government, but if I didn't, I would be disobeying God." Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara.
Transit visas from the Japanese Consul in Lithuania were a crucial link in a bold plan to rescue thousands of Polish Jewish refugees in Lithuania. But Tokyo refused repeated requests to allow them to be issued. Sensing that if he waited any longer it would be too late, Sugihara disobeyed his instructions.

In August 1940 he issued several thousand visas for life. The last foreign diplomat to leave Kovno (Kaunas), Sugihara continued stamping visas from the open window of his departing train!

Upon returning to Tokyo in 1947 he was asked to resign from the Foreign Service and was not provided with the standard recommendations, apparently because of his "insubordination" in Lithuania. After a series of jobs that included selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, he became the Moscow representative of a Japanese trading company.

Sugihara was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1984.

"I do not know whether I am a guest of the Soviets or their prisoner." Raoul Wallenberg, 17 January 1945.

So said Raoul Wallenberg on the day that he was taken, never to be seen again as a free man.

Wallenberg's exploits in Budapest, Hungary in 1944 have became legendary, almost reaching magical proportions. We should not exaggerate what he did and there were others who acted also. But Wallenberg was extraordinary.

Wallenberg was tireless in his efforts to save Jews from deportation. The last time that they spoke he told his colleague, Per Anger: "I'd never be able to go back to Stockholm without knowing inside myself I'd done all a man could do to save as many Jews as possible."

He chased convoys of prisoners and confronted Hungarian and German guards - even Adolf Eichmann himself! - to secure the release of Jews whom he claimed were under Swedish protection. He issued many thousands of "protective passes," put some 15,000 Jews into 31 "safe houses," and helped foil a plot to blow up the remaining Jews in the Budapest ghetto on the eve of its liberation.

The Righteous Among the Nations honor was awarded him in 1966.