VILNIUS, March 4, BNS–Lithuania will support a Japanese application to include the documents issued by its vice-consul Chiune Sugihara in Kaunas in the UNESCO Memory of the World Program.

“Lithuania supports the initiative. Sugihara’s heroic deed must be remembered, immortalized and promoted as triumph of humanity even in the face of deadly threat. I am glad our nations share values,” Lithuanian parliamentary speaker Loreta Grauziniene said after meeting with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.

During World War II Japanese vice-consul Sugihara issued Japanese visas to Jewish nationals fleeing Nazi oppression, saving many lives.