Darya Silman

“Zwartendijk issued over 2,000 passports, and between 4,500 and 6,000 Jews were able to travel to Japan using Sugihara’s visas – some accounts give numbers as high as 10,000. At a time when most of the other diplomats in the region did little to help the Jews, these two men took it upon themselves to do all they could to help the refugees escape. But despite the humanitarian efforts of these two men – in the case of Sugihara, acting in direct contravention of the orders he had received from Tokyo – the great majority of Jews were unable to leave, including many who had obtained documentation from either or both men. The Jewish community now comprised the original substantial population of Lithuanian Jews swollen by refugees who arrived from Germany before 1939 and Poland thereafter. They had little choice but to trust that the Red Army would be able to defend the region if war with Germany were to come.”
― Prit Buttar, Centuries Will Not Suffice: A History of the Lithuanian Holocaust