On August 5 the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lithuanian parliament approved the idea of providing the Sugihara House in Kaunas 150,000 euros annually to keep the museum open. This followed a plea by museum director Ramūnas Janulaitis, appointed in…
Chiune Sugihara Statue Unveiled in Kaunas
A statue was unveiled Saturday to World War II-era Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara. He issued so-called visas for life, saving thousands of Jews from Lithuania and Poland as Nazi Germany advanced on the small Baltic country of Lithuania. The bronze…
St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra Holding Concert Dedicated to Sugihara
lrytas.lt As the cultural landscape shifts, new challenges arise, which the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra of the Vilnius city municipality faces courageously. At 7:00 P.M. on October 8 the orchestra will hold a concert at St. Kotryna’s Church in Vilnius…
Chiune Sugihara Remembered at Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium
Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and Japanese ambassador to Lithuania Shiro Yamasaki attended the unveiling of a plaque to honor Jewish rescuer Chiune Sugihara at the Sholem Aleichem Gymnasium in Vilnius. The Jewish school in Vilnius has maintained a…
Chiune Sugihara Remembered on Mount Zion in Jerusalem
Photo: Rolan Novitsky A special ceremony to honor WWII Japanese diplomat in Lithuania Chiune Sugihara (杉原 千畝 “Sempo”) was held in Jerusalem on Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27. A memorial plaque to Righteous Gentile Sugihara was unveiled at the Chamber…
Kaunas City Bus Carries Portraits of Sugihara, Zwartendijk
kauno.diena.lt A city bus in Kaunas has been decorated with war-time diplomats Chiune Sugihara and Jan Zwartendijk. Both rescued a large number of Jews from the Holocaust, issuing “visas for life” for Jews in Kaunas to flee Europe. Full article…
Sugihara Week in Kaunas to Include Japanese Culture Component
Sugihara Week celebrations and events will take place in Kaunas from September 3 to 9 this year and will include concerts, a symposium, film screenings, lectures, creative workshops and other events. Visitors will learn more about Japanese culture and friendship…
On Kaunas, Sugihara and Lithuanian-Japanese Relations Past and Present
by Simonas Jazavita Bernardinai.lt Lithuania came under the Japanese media spotlight January 14. The small Sugihara museum on Vaižganto street became known to Japanese, but also to readers of major papers in Israel, the USA, France and other countries. Prime…
Japanese Prime Minister Abe Visits Sugihara House in Kaunas
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe visited Sugihara House in Kaunas Sunday accompanied by Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius. The Sugihara House museum is located at the site of the Japanese consulate where Chiune Sugihara rescued Jews by issuing transit visas…
Japanese PM Abe to Visit Sugihara House in Kaunas
Photo of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara and an old Japanese flag on display at the Sugihara House Museum in Kaunas which housed the Japanese Consulate from 1939 to 1940. Photo: AFP-JIJI KAUNAS, LITHUANIA–A Japanese diplomat who saved 6,000 European Jews…
Sugihara Week Organizers Thank Bagel Shop Café
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is proud the Bagel Shop Café was part of Sugihara Week celebrations in Kaunas at the beginning of last month.
More on Sugihara Week in Kaunas
Sugihara Week celebrations in Kaunas drew a large number of guests from Japan, including his eldest son Hiroki’s widow Michi Sugihara and the only surviving son Nobuki Sugihara. Mr. Sugihara laid a wreath and observed a minute of silence for…
Chiune Sugihara a True Humanitarian Who Lived in Kaunas
Dr. Aurelijus Zykas, the director of the Asian Studies Center of Vytautas Magnus University which formerly occupied the second floor of the Sugihara House museum in Kaunas, characterized Japanese diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara this way in an interview…
Japanese Kites Color Kaunas Skyline during Sugihara Week
Kaunas residents got to learn more about Japanese culture during Sugihara Week. A Japanese kite festival and Japanese and Jewish art workshops became keynotes of the celebrations. On Thursday the Jurgis Dobkevičius Pre-gymnasium hosted an extraordinary event. Students flew rendako…
Most Important Event in Sugihara Week: Discussion of Sugihara’s Lessons, Applicable Today
15min.lt For Japanese people he is a hero, known to all, from the youngest child to the oldest person. The diplomat Chiune Sugihara is also well known in Lithuania. Even so, greater attention to his life and deeds is only…
Sugihara Week Continues in Kaunas
Events for the Sugihara Week being celebrated in Kaunas are scheduled from September 2 to 8. Sugihara Week is a series of events to commemorate Japanese diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara’s life and deed. From 1939 to 1940 Sugihara…
Japanese Restorers of Sugihara House Arrive
Kaunas, September 4, BNS–A group of painters dressed in white just arrived from Japan gathered at the residence and now museum of famous interwar Japanese diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara Monday to help in the renovation of the building.…
Chiune Sugihara Week in Kaunas
Saturday a week-long celebration of Japanese diplomat and Righteous Gentile Chiune Sugihara began in Kaunas, Lithuania. The audience learned of Sugihara’s life-saving mission in concert with Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk which resulted in over 6,000 Jews being saved from the…
Kaunas Native Bella Shirin Says Sugihara Week a Bridge Between Peoples
The parents of artist Bella Shirin (formerly Bela Šifrisaitė) miraculously survived the Dachau concentration camp. They moved to Kaunas after the war where Bella was born. At 17 she and her parents moved to Israel, in 1963, but she says…
Kaunas Celebrates Sugihara Week
You’re invited to attend the events of the first-ever Sugihara Week celebrations in Lithuania from September 2 to 8 in Kaunas. The week-long celebration commemorates Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who saved not less than 6,000 Jewish lives in Kaunas together…