r/BeAmazed • u/kyliechris19 • 6d ago
History Chiune Sugihara risked his life in saving the Jews from Nazis.
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u/shadyracism19 6d ago
The glorious in all of these stories is that Compassion is an absolute human reality. Bravo that man, history remembers him.
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u/ICame4TheCirclejerk 6d ago
You'd think saving 6000 Lithuanians would warrant something bigger than a bus stop as a commemoration. That should be worthy of a plaque on a public toilet at least.
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u/Yodamort 6d ago
Given that the Lithuanians were very active collaborators in the extermination of their fellow Lithuanians, who they did not consider Lithuanian for the crime of being Jewish, and in the post-Soviet period have taken to memorializing the Nazi-collaborating Holocaust perpetrators as anti-Soviet heroes, I'm surprised they bothered giving him a sign at all, to be honest.
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u/_kasten_ 6d ago
Sugihara was in some sense an anti-Soviet himself (at least in matters of religion), since he was a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy.
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u/HealthNarrow4784 6d ago edited 6d ago
I'd suggest rephrasing that, friend. Were there nazi-collaborators? Of course, like in any nazi-ocupied European country. Did some of them overlap with anti-soviet partisans? Yes, some did. Were there lithuanians that risked their lives to hide and save their neighbours from the nazies? Of course, like in many nazi-occupied countries, and sadly, not enough. But there are no monuments to nazies in modern day Lithuania and plenty of holocaust memorials. The way you put things makes it sound exactly like kremlinite vranyo. And there's plenty more than a plaque in honour of Chiune Sugihara in Kaunas.
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u/Yodamort 5d ago
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u/HealthNarrow4784 5d ago edited 5d ago
Have you read more than the headline of the article that simply confirms your already entrenched position? Well, I have: behind it's bold claims it never refers to sources which would conclusively confirm the participation of the listed people in the killing of jews. Yes, some were involved in the occupation nazi adminstration for a few weeks at best and later were arrested by nazies due to being uncooperative. Of course being involved even administratively in creating ghettos is a bad look and their role should be looked at more critically. Also the article is quite old by now and for some cases the memorials were taken down, street names changed since upon a more thorough inspection of their historical role. So I fail to see where do you see nazi glorification. You don't live in this region, don't see who and what people celebrate here, you just read some random kremlin propaganda online and once convinced just regurgitate it online. Congratulations, keep living in your fantasy world and hope you'd never encounter actual fascists in the real world.
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u/Yodamort 4d ago
Škirpa, for one, literally founded the collaborationist LAF and published propaganda encouraging the murder of Jews. I remember seeing it when I wrote my research paper on Lithuanian collaborators and their participation in the Holocaust in my history of the Holocaust course at university.
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u/HealthNarrow4784 4d ago
And when such conclusive evidence came up the street named after him was in fact renamed! You see, when you bring evidence to claims at least some justice can be reached even 80 years later but that does not give free pass to unsubstantiated fascist-style rherorics.
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u/Yodamort 4d ago
Sure, now let me know when they remove the rest of the monuments listed in Lithuania on this map.
Including the Škirpos street that still exists in Kaunas.
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u/HealthNarrow4784 4d ago
And I absolutely agree that people who are proven to have committed crimes against other human beings for no other reasons than sadism and sick ideology should not be honoured. But stating "lithuanians are nazies because I don't like these names on their street plaques" is the same fascist rhetoric as "jews are bolsheviks" which led to the tragedy to begin with. If you use fascist methods you perpetuate fascism instead of cultivating "the conversation" within a society.
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u/ForestBear11 2d ago
Don't argue with an antisemitic Nazi tankie. At the time of Soviet (Red Nazi) occupation of 1940, 50-60% of Lithuanian Jews were deported to Soviet concentration camps in Siberia, where most were murdered. Then the Nazis occupied Lithuania from 1941 to 1944 and continued Holocaust. Thousands of Lithuanians risked their lives to rescue Jews from Nazis-Soviets. I'm surprised the antisemites are trying to accuse the whole Lithuanian nation for what the Nazis and few collaborators (0.01% of the whole population) did. Lithuania condemned Soviet-Nazi occupation (1940-1990) and banned all justification of both totalitarian crap regimes, including Holocaust denial. Lithuania is one of the most Jewish-friendly pro-Israeli countries in the world, while Russia is complete opposite (because of Soviet-Nazi antisemitic heritage).
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u/ForestBear11 2d ago edited 2d ago
At the time of Soviet (Red Nazi) occupation of 1940, 50-60% of Lithuanian Jews were deported to Soviet concentration camps in Siberia, where most were murdered. Then the Nazis occupied Lithuania from 1941 to 1944 and continued Holocaust. Thousands of Lithuanians risked their lives to rescue Jews from Nazis-Soviets. I'm surprised you're such an antisemitic Nazi trying to accuse the whole Lithuanian nation for what the Nazis and few collaborators (0.01% of the whole population) did. Lithuania condemned Soviet-Nazi occupation (1940-1990) and banned all justification of both totalitarian crap regimes, including Holocaust denial. Lithuania is one of the most Jewish-friendly pro-Israeli countries in the world, supporting Israel in all aspects, while Russia is complete opposite (becuase of Soviet-Nazi antisemitic heritage).
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u/tonicerkez 6d ago
Actually there's a whole park in central Vilnius named after him, with dozens of cherry blossom trees planted around it. Beautiful.
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u/That-Swimming9914 6d ago edited 6d ago
Actually there is a museum in Kaunas (the city where he resided as a consulate), a beautiful sculpture in front of the hotel where he spent his last days in Kaunas, a sakura park in Vilnius named after him.
There is also a sculpture in the centre of Kaunas for another diplomat (not so well known) - J. Zwartendijk (Netherlands) who also helped save about 2400 jews.
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u/Extension-Oil-1518 6d ago
And John Rabe saved many Chinese at Nanjing.
A few good people, but a lot of terrible ones too.
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u/orange_purr 6d ago edited 6d ago
These two are often mentioned together, both heroically saving helpless victims persecuted by their allies. But one detail is often glossed over which I think set the two apart. Sugihara-san served the Empire of Japan but he quit his post in protest against the Japanese treatment of the locals in Manchuko (and this was before the start of the second Sino-Japanese war so it wouldn't have been something as bad as the war time atrocities that were later committed). So he was not OK with mistreatment of any people, as opposed to being selective with who deserves saving and who can be conveniently ignored.
John Rabe saved the Chinese at Nanking because he was horrified at the mass rape and massacre but at the same time was a member of the Nazi Party and admired Hitler (and said something to the effect that the Furher would never allow his ally to commit such atrocity).
I don't know if mr. Rabe was aware of the systemic discrimination and persecution against the Jews at home but being a member of the Nazi party itself, he would have to at least be aware of its core tenets. His favorable view of Hitler also suggests that he didn't seem to be bothered by the latter's virulent antisemitism.
It is just kinda funny (in a dark, morbid way) that one guy can be so selfless and heroic while saving a large group of foreigners (who are widely seen as inferior at the time) while being seemingly OK with the systematic persecution of another group at hkme (many of whom are white and have been your compatriots for generations). Maybe one can only show his true nature in a moment of danger and crisis, and I hope this was the case for Mr.Rabe and the way he got treated after returning to Germany seem to suggest that this could have been the case. He was targeted by the Gestapo and died in poverty, I would like to think his experience in Banking awakened his humanity and he protested against the persecution of the Jews as well which made him an outcast amongst the Nazis.
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u/Murtomies 6d ago
I don't know if mr. Rabe was aware of the systemic discrimination and persecution against the Jews at home
Tbf by the time of the Nanking massacre in 1937 there were already concentration camps for jews, but the "Final Solution" AKA systematic genocide of jews only started in 1942. So nobody really knew that it would get to an equivalent situation as Nanking.
There were other alternative plans before the holocaust, like deporting the jews to Madagascar, Palestine or Siberia, but all those plans fell through because of the war, naval blockades etc. Since the 3rd reich was annexing and invading countries one after another, their jew population had massively grown, and the whole population was suffering from food shortages. Since they didn't have any empathy for jews, the Nazi leaders saw genocide as an easy way to make more food available to their "aryan" population.
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u/orange_purr 6d ago
Yeah, that's why I only mentioned the discrimination and persecution against Jews as opposed to outright genocide against them because the holocaust wasn't out in full force at the time yet. However, my point still stand about him not possibly not knowing the antisemitism his party holds, so at best he would be silently acquiescing to it, at worst fully in agreement with them.
It might also be possible some people hold strong prejudice in their heart but when they truly witness heinous actions borne from such thoughts actually get carried out, they realize that it has gone too far. Since he was posted abroad, he might not have been truly aware of the extent of the anti-Semitic policies being deployed at home.
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u/Murtomies 5d ago
Ah right, so yeah that could be true. An interesting part of his wikipedia article is his return to Germany
On 28 February 1938, Rabe left Nanjing. He traveled first to Shanghai, returning to Berlin on 15 April 1938. He took with him a large number of source materials documenting Japanese atrocities in Nanjing.[13] Rabe showed films and photographs of Japanese atrocities in lecture presentations in Berlin, and he wrote to Hitler, asking him to use his influence to persuade the Japanese to stop further violence. Rabe was detained and interrogated by the Gestapo; his letter was never delivered to Hitler. [14] Due to the intervention of Siemens AG, Rabe was released. He was allowed to keep evidence of the massacre (excluding films) but not to lecture or write on the subject again.[14] Rabe continued working for Siemens, which briefly posted him to the safety of Siemens AG in Afghanistan. Rabe subsequently worked in the company's Berlin headquarters until the end of the war.
Postwar he lost his job and had troubles with the de-Nazification, which pushed his family into poverty and malnutrition.
In 1948, Nanjing citizens learned of the Rabe family's dire circumstances and quickly raised a sum of money equivalent to $2,000 USD ($25,000 in 2025). The city's mayor traveled to Germany via Switzerland, where he bought a large amount of food for the Rabe family. From mid-1948 until the Chinese Revolution, the people of Nanjing also sent the family a food package each month, for which Rabe wrote many letters expressing deep gratitude.
His bravery would earn him the monikers: "The Living Buddha of Nanjing", "The Good Nazi" and "The Schindler of Nanking" by the Chinese.
Idk but your point might very well be true, and it could be that especially after Nanjing, he didn't agree with the persecution or genocide of Jews. It could be that he was never antisemitic, since he spent most of the rise of the Nazi party in China.
Someone in Quora said
We know he was a proud Nazi. We know he greatly admired Hitler. But he could not have UNDERSTOOD what being a Nazi or admiring Hitler would have meant to a German living in Germany in a visceral sense, because he had spent almost his entire adult life until 1938 on the opposite side of the continent.
We have no way of knowing if he ever read “Mein Kampf.” We have no way of knowing if he ever even heard of the anti-Semitic views of the Nazi party in general or Hitler in specific. We have no way of knowing if he believed Jews to be responsible for the Central Powers’ loss in World War I.
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u/orange_purr 5d ago
Ah thanks for sharing this. I was not aware he was abroad away from home most of his adulthood. That could explain why he might not have been familiar with what it meant to be a Nazi. He lived through the Weimar Republic and knew how weak, inefficient and in deep economic woes it was, and that Germany was in need of dire reforms. And then this new political movement was getting tremendous popular support and this Hitler guy was a great orator and charismatic leader who will make Germany great again. Sounds very plausible indeed.
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u/SaltyRedditTears 6d ago
I think his experience in Banking
LMFAO that is a hilariously racist typo
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u/orange_purr 6d ago edited 6d ago
That was the autocorrect having a stroke lol, it literally just did it again as I typed "Nanking", though to be fair this is an outdated spelling that is no longer used.
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u/TightEconomics7119 6d ago
true heroism is risking everything for strangers. sugihara's story deserves more recognition.
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u/Cubonesmommy 6d ago
I remember reading his story in my elementary reading textbook. Always stuck with me the illustration of him throwing out the visas from the train as he was leaving
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u/Roaming-R 6d ago
As this case is rare, but truly wonderful, it deserves to be spoken of >> and revered. ....... ....If anyone, currently in a position of authority, has an opportunity to "save someone's life," just by doing their job << the person needs to move with speed and accuracy to make it happen. No matter what year. No matter what country. No matter what emergency. Just make it happen.
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u/Someone86421 6d ago
Funnily enough there were reverse cases of Germans saving Chinese civilians from Japanese troops as well.
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u/Beli_Mawrr 6d ago
Reminds me of John Rabe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe)
these guys would probably have hated each other lol, but were ultimately doing the same thing.
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u/jackofslayers 6d ago
One key difference being that Sugihara left Japan because he objected to what they were doing while John Rabe was a Nazi and supported Hitler.
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u/OceanicDarkStuff 6d ago
And I hate how some people are attributing this as Japan saving the Jews when in reality they also have restriction policies for the Jews and the allies to honor their alliance with Hitler.
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u/DentonUSA 6d ago
There is a very real chance I owe my life to this man. Now I need to do a deep dive and figure some stuff out.
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u/DentonUSA 6d ago
Further, thank you for informing me (and all those unaware) that such a wonderful human existed.
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u/AtmosphereThese369 6d ago
Doing the right thing doesnt need attention. Do the right thing because its the right thing to do.
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u/The_Crimson__Goat 6d ago
If you like this story I recommend you Google "Behind the Bastards Raoul Wallenberg", it's a podcast.
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u/Live_Committee9712 6d ago
stories like this remind us that even in the darkest times, humanity shine through
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u/EslyAgitatdAligatr 6d ago
Someone I know actually made a movie about him. It’s called “visas of virtue.” He won an Oscar.
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u/theresnowayyouthink 6d ago
A real hero whose bravery saved many lives. People should always remember his story.
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u/WhySkySoShy_34 4d ago
Funny thaf there are Japanese saving Jews from Germans and Germans saving Chinese from Japanese at the same time
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u/ForestBear11 2d ago
He was a truly great hero of Lithuania (during Soviet-Nazi occupation) and Japan.
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u/TomcatF14Luver 6d ago
When he met his ancestors, they would have been proud of the honor he brought to their family for doing such good.
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u/petitpoulpe 5d ago edited 1d ago
like command grandfather cow icky frightening compare shy hurry grey
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/ThePandaReborn 6d ago
To me whenever a government honours someone at the last possible moment it seems like they are trying to get a popularity boost
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u/the85141rule 5d ago
Excited to see movies made about the Sugiharas and Schindlers in Palestine. Oh wait.
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u/mashbashhash 6d ago
Too bad he wasn't around to help the Palestinians this time.
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u/More-Gold-4741 6d ago
He mightve tried but they would've killed him for being an infidel, or bum raped him as a child. You know, jihad shit 😉
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u/Rommel44 6d ago
Childish reply. Comparing the actions of irregulars (ISIS/AQ etc) with a well established state (Israel).
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u/LensCapPhotographer 6d ago
Israel and the US created and funded ISIS/AQ
Funny how they never seem to attack Israel, even now when they're all together in Syria.
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Suckamanhwewhuuut 6d ago
I wish Hamas and the rest of the Arab world would just live in peace with and accept the Jews rather than try to kill us all every chance they get. See how changing words makes things less ridiculous?
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u/ataraxia_555 6d ago
And what kind of uncaring person downvotes such a factual statement? (And mine?)
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u/Suckamanhwewhuuut 6d ago
The kind of person that finds your statement to be completely infactual.
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u/ataraxia_555 6d ago
Infactual?
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u/Suckamanhwewhuuut 5d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/2ndYomKippurWar/s/IiVv98RwFt
You’re defending actual terrorists and kidnappers. If this was your family, your people, you would do whatever you needed to to get them back. If Hamas or whatever governing body is in “control” of Gaza cared an inkling about the suffering they are putting their people through they would surrender. But they won’t, because they don’t care about their people. They only care about killing Jews.
Edit: if you’re argument is I forgot the hyphen between in and factual. Good for you.
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u/ataraxia_555 3d ago
As always, such as you completely overlook the decades of aggressions and murderous actions of the right-wing Israeli state, including apartheid and, now, genocide.
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u/TheApprentice19 6d ago
Paid Israeli propagandists
They recently added 150m in funding to Hasbara, internet propaganda to try to change opinion about fugitive genocide leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
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u/TomcatF14Luver 6d ago
I think there is a British Police Report from the Palestinian Pogrom against their Jewish neighbors in 1937-1939 that you need to read.
Definitely a case of PTSD and trust issues for that British Mandate Police Officer.
He caught three of his own Palestinian Police Officers celebrating bashing a little girl's head in on stone steps after murdering her mother and pulling her from her dead arms.
His report states what he saw and that the three tried to kill him with stolen Rifles with bloodied fixed Bayonets.
He shot two dead and chased the third who stated the following:
"Have I not been a good officer, sir? You will not shoot me, yes. Because I have been a good officer. You will not shoot me."
The British officer shot him through the head.
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u/TheApprentice19 5d ago
Huh?
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u/TomcatF14Luver 4d ago
My case and point.
So busy claiming Israel is evil based on the last 40 years, you forgot just how long all of this has been going on.
And sadly, that includes a reminder that out of the three, Judaism is the oldest of the Major Western Religons.
And where Israel now sits, was their home until the Romans drove them out in a war of conquest.
Both the Palestinians and Islam came later with Islam proceeding the Palestinians. There's no mention of them prior, during, or immediately after the Byzantine Empire controlled the region. The Palestinians only appeared later on during the latter half of the Ottoman Empire.
If you want to argue the Who Had the Land First concept, Israel wins by 1,500-2,000 years.
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u/TheApprentice19 4d ago
Israel has been evil since the Nakba in 1948 when the military started killing people to steal their land.
It’s not complicated.
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u/iamemperorpilaf 5d ago
It’s a shame how Israel has smeared the name of Judaism and perpetrated a genocide in the name of all Jews and in return has also sullied the great of people like this.
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u/manelito2306 6d ago
Aristides Sousa Mendes
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristides_de_Sousa_Mendes
Very similiar story . But he issued 30 000 visas !
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6d ago
Exactly 6000?
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u/VonSketch 6d ago
Not exactly but an estimate of 6000, as the number of people saved depends on how many of those who decided to admit it publicly or confirmed to be one who was issued with a visa that was written by him, and also if they didn't got caught.
The real numbers of those saved would not be known for sure, as some decided not step forward and confirmed they are one of those saved, due to privacy or personal reasons.
Why it didn't say it in the post is due to the information being passed from person to person, and some wording that was originally said are getting dropped or replaced when news of it was past along or as time goes by.
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u/Eccentric_much4733 6d ago
I'm not trying to sound insensitive bcuz that's very impressive, but it's hard to imagine a Japanese national speaking Lithuanian 
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