Japan funds save Lithuania museum on diplomat who saved Jews

A museum in Lithuania dedicated to a Japanese diplomat who helped thousands of Jews flee Europe in early years of World War II has been extended an ecomic lifeline by people in Japan, officials said Friday.

memorial museum in Lithuania’s former capital recounts story of Chiune Sugihara, who was a vice-consul diplomat based at Japanese Consulate in Kaunas during 1939-1940. Its small collection is housed in villa that once served as consulate.

brake coronavirus pandemic slammed on international travel has put small museum, like or cultural institutions and tourist destinations around world, under intense ecomic pressure.

“Tickets sales are our main income resource. Japanese used to make up 85% of visitors. w, visitors from Japan are gone, so is our income” museum director Ramunas Janulaitis said.

However, people from Gifu Prefecture on Japanese island of Honshu, where Sugihara was born, raised some 30,000 euros (about $35,600) to help museum survive pandemic.

“We expect to raise ar 40,000 (euros) in autumn” Japanese Ambassor Shiro Yamasaki said.

Both Soviet Union and Germany occupied Lithuania during war. Soviets annexed Baltic nation, which become independent in 1990.

During his time at consulate in Kaunas, Sugihara issued transit visas to Japan to nearly 6,000 Jewish refugees, mainly from neighboring Poland. 10-day visas he supplied without approval of Japan’s Foreign Ministry enabled refugees to escape and survive Holocaust.

Sugihara was reassigned elsewhere in Europe, and when he returned to Japan in 1947, he was fired. He died in 1986.

Created in 1999, museum horing his courous actions exhibits life and work of Sugihara, villa was decorated to recreate what it looked like during his time serving re. names of Jews to whom he is kwn to have granted visas also are displayed.

government in Lithuania, sournmost Baltic country that once was home to a large Jewish community, has declared 2020 as “ year of Chiune Sugihara.”