Japanese life-saving-visa
1940 Geek passports used for fleeing Europe.
Much has been written and told about the courageous and extra ordinary Japanese individual Chiune Sugihara, when acting as Japanese consul to Lithuania in the years 1939-1940, issued close to 2,400 lifesaving visas; visas that aided the users, mostly Polish Jewish refugees, to survive the war. He was working together with Dutch consul, Philips representative as well, Jan Zwartendijk.
But the article today will not be about a travel document baring visas by the two above mentioned men, but of another visa issued ALSO by a Japanese diplomat who was posted to Europe as well, but in a different location, an unusual place for issuing such an important visa that would most likely save the lives of its users at the beginning of the war.
Recently surfaced 3 Greek passports, though their covers are shabby and with rough usage and some old water staining, the inner condition is very pleasing, preserving the pages and the detailed information kept inside of them as well. Greek passports that were issued at the beginning of the war, one in 1939 and the other two issued the following year, all at the capital Sofia, Bulgaria.
Passport No. 533 was issued on December 23rd, 1939 to 28-year-old Lili Leon Levi and daughter Heli-Rachel aged 2, passport No. 170 issued on June 1st the same year to Berta Gershon Levy aged 27 and the last example No. 109 was issued to Leon Gershon Levy aged 39 on May 14th 1940 at the Royal Greek legation in Bulgaria. Besides the brief 1-week trip to neighboring Yugoslavia as indicated inside Lili’s passport, all three passports bare the same important 3 visas that enabled them to leave, transit and reach the US safely on December 23rd, 1940.
All passports have a US visa (No. 46, 47, 48, 50 – Section 6 (a) (3)) issued on October 26th 1940, two days before the Greco-Italian War erupted. I can assume with a high probability that these events and those that followed at their home country pushed them to take drastic measures not only to leave their current place of residence but to opt NOT to return back home either. The father of the family took all passports to the US diplomatic mission and obtained the immigrant status visas, all approved and issued by vice-consul Rudolph W. Heftl. Next step was obtaining the important and very odd destination Japanese visa, 3 visas (No. 28, 29 & 30) all being issued November 5th and hand signed by the Japanese ambassador to Bulgaria, recently arriving to his post, Teruo Hachiya 輝雄蜂谷 who arrived at the beginning of December 1939 and was recalled back home on August 22nd the following year, part of a reshuffle at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo (official online records state his term started on December 28th as well). He was sent as senior Japanese representative to occupied Taiwan around January 8th, 1940. And last, 3 Soviet visas (No. 74/55650, 75/55651, 76/55649) issued by the chief-consular section of the legation on November 15th, and all indicate optional points of entry at the ports of Odessa or Kherson and departure at Vladivostok, on the eastern coast of the Soviet Union, facing Japan.
The family all departed Varna seaport at the Black Sea, on November 18th and reached the port of Odessa the following day. We can assume that they boarded a train that took them all the way east, departing Vladivostok on December 1st and reaching Japan 4 days later at Fukui Prefecture (福井县). The entry mark is valid until January 3rd, 1940 (back of the passports have applied stamps & chops for currency conversion of US$117 at Mangoku Currency Exchange Store (the 萬国両替店) and the red chop of the clerk Seisuke Koyasu (子安精助).
Important:
All entry markings are also accompanied by an additional handwritten message that clearly indicate the holders are destitute and without substantial means. Their stay in Japan is guaranteed by the Jewish community (this is the first time that I have seen such remarks inside a passport, surely adding to its importance and unique WW2 & Holocaust connection).
The family reach Vancouver, Canada, on December 23rd, good for 1 day stay only and most likely crossing over the border into the US.
These samples are a rare and important contribution to understanding the flight and travel of Jewish refugees escaping Europe during the war and a vital contribution to the events of the day.
Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.
