The Lithuanian Jewish Community celebrated the 75th anniversary of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara’s mass rescue of Jews through the issuance of “visas for life” recently. It’s been 75 years since the Japanese diplomat saw the atrocities of the Holocaust in Lithuania with his own eyes and decided to help the Jews by giving them visas providing them the opportunity to flee Lithuania and live. People whose lives were saved by Sugihara were on hand for the event, including Nina Admoni (Israel) and Marsel Weiland (Australia), as were diplomats from the foreign embassies in Vilnius, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė, Vilnius ORT Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium principal Miša Jakobas, members of the community and Lithuanian rescuers of Jews as well as their family members.
Žana Skudovičienė, one of the organizers of the evening, spoke emotionally and thanked those who risked not just their own lives but those of their loved ones as well to save Jews from extermination. She named some of the names of the rescuers: Irina Ostenko, Gražina Blažienė, Antanas Gasparas, Milda Putnienė, Ričardas Plokšto, Antanas Poniškaitis and Jurgis Beriatskas.
LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky reminded participants this unique chance to meet people whom Chiune Sugihara rescued was the result of the Japanese embassy in Vilnius and the Goodwill Fund organizing and financing the event. “We are so grateful to them. Today I can say thanks easily, because all Litvaks are grateful to those who rescued them. Without these heroes we simply wouldn’t exist, and there would be no Lithuanian Jewish Community. We are grateful to our rescuers for their heroic act, for their humanity during terrifying time of war. It is much harder to talk about the perpetrators of the crime, about the murderers. The Lithuanian Jewish Community recently asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to reopen certain cases against such people, even posthumously. We have to know whether they committed these crimes or not. As we remember the rescuer Chiune Sugiahara, we must understand that among the Jews he saved were students from the famous yeshivas of Telšiai, religious and secular yeshivas. These yeshivas continue their work in Israel and America. We always remember and honor our rescuers,” she said.
Nina Admoni, who received a “visa for life” from Sugihara, spoke emotionally to the audience and said that she felt something very special being at the Jewish Community. “My mother was born in Vilnius, and my grandfather was the chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community who, together with Teodor Herzl, took part in the opening of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. So I can say my ties with Lithuania are very close.” Admoni explained that it was thanks to transit visas issued by Sugihara and visas issued by Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk that her family was able to flee and survive. After wandering around Japan and China, they ended up in the USA where she was graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. WHile she was studying at university she met students from Israel, including her future husband Nahum Admoni, who was a soldier in the Israeli war of independence. After they were married they moved to Israel, where Nina worked for many years at the Israeli Ministry of Finance consulting well-known Israeli and international corporations. She continues to do this work.
Marsel Weiland’s family hailed from the Polish town of Łódź. When the war began, they fled to Vilnius, then to Kaunas. After they received a visa from Sugihara they saved themselves from almost certain death. In 1946 they moved to Australia. Marsel Weiland is an architect, judge and translator. He translated Adam Mickewicz’s poem Pan Tadeusz to English as well as many other poems by Polish Jews.
The evening ended with songs from the Vilna ghetto performed by the excellent musician and singer Marija Krupoves-Berg.