In these difficult days it is important that we should remember those who saved thousands of Jewish people, during World War Two, when we had nowhere else to turn.
This week we are celebrating Chanukah, the festival of lights again. Ever since my liberation from Dachau, I have been lighting an extra candle for the person who performed the miracle of Hanukah, the Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara.
The following is the story of the Miracle of Hanukah, 1939, and how thousands of Jewish people were saved by the most unlikely person to do so, considering that Japan was allied with Nazi Germany.

Returning Home to Lithuania.
A Voyage to the Past.
Part Three
 

The miracle of Hanukah in 1939, took place at our home in Kaunas Lithuania. I was eleven years old at the time and to me it was an ordinary Hanukah holiday, with lots of presents, the lighting of candles and Hanukah songs, but to forty thousand Jews who are alive today, to them their survival depended on that miracle of Hanukah, 1939.
Here is what had happened as I recorded it in my original manuscript:

Soon after the Nazi invasion of Poland, tens of thousands of Jewish refugees fled from the Nazi persecutions to the neighboring Lithuania. Lithuania was still an independent democratic country at the time and the Jewish community of Lithuania opened their homes and hearts to the refugees.
The Jewish refugees who experienced the Nazi horror first hand, were certain that Lithuania would not be sparred and besieged all the foreign embassies in a desperate attempt to obtain visas to get out of the country. But the world turned their back on the Jews and very few visas were ever issued. Then, as if by a miracle, the most unlikely person came to the rescue of the Jewish refugees. It was the Japanese consul, Chiune Sugihara, representing a country that was allied with the Nazis, who began issuing visas to the refugees. He issued them in the thousands.
The miracle began to take shape at our home in Kaunas, Lithuania, one Hanukah evening in 1939.

It was there that the Japanese consul, Chiune Sugihara made his decision to save thousands of Jews from the gas chambers of Auschwitz, as it was later told by his wife Yokiko Sugihara in her book "Visas For Life". At our Hanukah party he met the Polish Jewish refugee, Abe Rosenthal and his young daughter Lea, who told him about the horrors perpetrated by Nazis against the Jewish population.

I was eleven years old at the time and what I saw will stay in my mind and in my heart for as long as I live.

A Voyage to the Past.

It was sixty-three years later on September 20, 2003, barely a month and half ago, that I finally made my way back to my hometown Kaunas, and the house where the Sugiharas lived.
In 1998, the former Japanese consulate became a museum dedicated to Chiune Sugihara. Simon Davidovicius, the director of the Museum, who knew about my close relationship with the Sugihara family, sent a car for us.

As we were approaching the ‘Green Mountain’ district of Kaunas, where the consulate used to be, I began to recognize the area. The houses, the trees, the streets, nothing much had changed here. It was still the most elegant part of the city.
Then the car turned into the street leading to the consulate and I began to count the houses. Was it the tenth or the twelfth house on the right?
Was it exactly as I remembered it? Then we were there, in front of it, the familiar house that I remembered so well. With a beating heart and tears in my eyes I stood at the threshold of the house and I felt as if the sixty years had never passed. I was an eleven-year-old boy again. I saw Sempo Sugihara’s smile as he handed me an envelope with Japanese stamps for my collection.
 I saw Yokiko bringing a tray with cookies and Japanese tea and I saw their five-year-old son, Hiroki whom we called ‘Puppe’, riding his tricycle. But I also saw hundreds of Jews standing patiently at the gate waiting to receive a life saving Japanese visas from Chiune Sugihara. They stood for days until all of them received a visa and each visa saved a Jewish family from the gas chambers of Auschwitz. We know today that he wrote thousands of them.  I saw the records at the Japanese Foreign Office in Tokyo that confirmed it.
 

The following are excerpts from my original manuscript, the way it happened:
Sempo Sugihara, Righteous Among the Nations.

"I was eleven years old when I met Sempo Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Kaunas. It was December 1939 and we celebrated Hanukah, the festival of lights. It was a particularly favorite festival with us children, because all the family members, would give us Hanukah money. Some times we would even get money from friends of the family. But this year I had to give up all the money I collected to the Jewish refugee fund. No one really asked me to do it, but when the ladies of the committee for the refugees came to our house, on a sudden impulse, I gave them the ten Lit I had collected. Ten Lit was a lot of money, even for grown ups and I immediately regretted it, because I had lots of plans for the money, but what was done was done. The ladies were very moved with my gesture and assured me that the money would go to buy visas for the refugees who wanted to leave Lithuania.
That week Laurel and Hardy were being shown in the Metropolitan movie house. I was dying to see the new movie, but I had no money left, I gave it all to the refugees. Mother felt sorry for me and would have "lent" me the money, but father put his foot down.
"You must stick to certain principals. It was a noble gesture of yours to give your money for the refugees, but then don’t come whining to us for reimbursement. "
Father told me with that finality in his voice, which I knew only too well. What made me even more furious, was the fact that he was right.
My last hope was aunt Anushka. She would have mercy on me. She knew how crazy I was about Laurel and Hardy. I had made a date with my friends Vova and Izia, the Glass twins, who were known as the Glazukes. We were to meet at the cash register for the afternoon’s performance.
Before I left my mother made sure that I was dressed warmly and had my hat and gloves on. " Make sure you come back home before dark. "She warned me.
The snow felt crisp under my boots as it shimmered white in the afternoon sun. It was cold, but that didn’t bother me. I was on my way to the movies and I didn’t care how cold it got.
There was a war out there somewhere far away and the Nazis captured Poland, but if it weren’t for the Jewish refugees who came flooding into Lithuania, we wouldn’t have noticed it.
On the way to aunt Anushka’s shop, I saw menorahs with candles in the windows of Jewish homes, and here and there decorated Christmas trees in the homes of the Christians.
From some distance I could see my aunt’s shop window brightly lit with colored bulbs. She had a large Christian clientele who were among the richest families in Kaunas because She stocked luxurious food items from all over the world. If you wanted Beluga caviar, French champagne or some fancy Swiss chocolates, you could get it in her shop. She also catered to foreign embassies that required specific food items, which were available only in her shop.
There was a contraption attached to her door that would play a merry tune when you opened it. It was a gift from some inventor friend of hers.
When I walked in she was serving some elegantly dressed man with strange slanted eyes. Anushka was talking to him in Russian.
" Ah, my dear nephew came for his Hanukah money, I bet." She said smiling at me. She either didn’t remember that she had already given me once, or she wanted to save me the humiliation of asking for a second donation. She may have heard of my generosity with the committee ladies, and that too could have been the reason. Whatever it was, I wasn’t going to give her any argument.
" Come here and meet his Excellency the consul of Japan, Mr. Sugihara." She said when she saw me starring at the man. I walked up slowly and extended my hand.
" How do you do, Sir. " I said politely.
He solemnly shook my hand and then smiled. There was humor and kindness in those strange eyes. I took an immediate liking to this man.
It reminded me of what my grand father once told me:
"Remember, the eyes are the windows to a persons soul. If you look close enough you may see what is behind them. "
I took this saying as many other inscrutable sayings of grand father.
`But when I looked at this man I suddenly understood what he meant. There was something in those eyes that made me feel the man behind them. I sensed an aura of goodness and kindness about him, I couldn’t explain.
Aunt Anushka, who noticed my strange behavior, laughed.
"You want to go to the movies and you need a Lit. Right? "
I nodded quickly, still looking at Mr. Sugihara. While Anushka went to the cash registry, he took out from his pocket a shiny Lit and extended it to me.
"Since this is Hanukah, consider me your uncle. " He said and gave me the coin. I hesitated for a moment, then took from him the coin and said something totally unexpected:
"Since you are my uncle then you should come Saturday to our Hanukah party. The whole family will be there. "
I was astonished at my own audacity and had no idea what compelled me to say such a thing.
Anushka, who came back with the money and overheard our conversation, looked at me with disbelief.
"Come to think of it, I have never been to a Hanukah party. I would gladly come. But don’t you think that you should ask your parents first?" He said with a smile.
Anushka looked at us. " I am sure that his Excellency must be busy. "She said with some embarrassment, but then she hastily added:
"But if you are free and would like to come, you are cordially invited. "She said with some confusion.
"Then it’s done. We shall meet on Saturday." He said shaking my hand. It was getting late and if I wanted to make it to the movie I had to run. Before I left I heard Anushka making arrangements to meet him on Saturday.
When I got back home from the movie aunt Anushka was there. They all looked at me strangely and aunt Anushka was grinning. I realized that she must have told them about my bizarre behavior with the Japanese consul and the fact that I invited him to the Hanukah party.
I felt guilty, but I didn’t know what to say to my parents. Seeing my distress, father held up his hand:
"Wait, before you say anything, let me tell you that you did the right thing."
If you feel like inviting a stranger to the party, I think it is more than all right. You should never feel guilty about extending hospitality to strangers."
The candle lighting was set for six in the evening, but many of the family members arrived earlier as they had a heard some rumors about a mysterious guest arriving that evening.
Precisely at six, Anushka arrived with Mr. Sugihara and his wife Yokiko. She was dressed in a very elegant black dress and Mr. Sugihara wore a formal striped suit.
I will never forget that Hanukah evening. It will stay in my mind as long as I live.

Because of the distinguished guests we sang the Hanukah songs with a special fervor and the Hanukah candles had a special glow. There was a feeling of ambiance, of warmth and family togetherness.
Fifty five years later, when we met again in Japan, Mrs. Yokiko Sugihara told me that they had never forgotten that Hanukah party at our home in Kaunas.
In her book "Visas For Life", Mrs. Sugihara wrote :

Quote, " Chiune Sugihara’s decision to issue visas may have been influenced by 11-year old Jewish boy named Solly Ganor. He invited Mr. Sugihara to celebrate the first night of Hanukah in 1939 with his family.
This may have been Sugihara’s first contact with a Jewish in Kaunas." Unquote.

Even if I had unwittingly, the tiniest part in influencing Chiune Sugihara, I would consider it the greatest achievement of my life.

I thought about what she wrote about me in her book when we met once again at the Town Hall of New York City, on December 1998.The biggest storm of the winter hit the town and the rain came down in buckets.
On that day, Mrs. Yokiko Sugihara was invited to attend a meeting arranged by the historian Eric Saul and Lani Silver to meet the  ‘Sugihara Survivors’.  We were afraid that because of the severity of the storm, very few would show up. To our great surprise and delight the Town Hall was packed. More than a thousand people braved the storm to come and pay homage to Yokiko Sugihara who played a vital role in the decision to issue the visas. It was a very emotional evening and most of the time, we were all crying, but the scene that stands out in my mind was the thirteen year old boy who came up to Yokiko, who was sitting on the stage and gave her a big hug. With tears in his eyes he said:

‘Mrs. Sugihara, because of you and your husband, there are forty thousand of us alive today, and we have you to thank you for it. Thank you Mrs. Sugihara, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts." The crowd greeted his words with a standing ovation.
Yokiko Sugihara stood up and with tears in her eyes kissed the boy on both cheeks.

For my family who attended the Hanukah party at our home in 1939, there was no miracle; most of them perished in the Holocaust.

But for the forty thousand ‘Sugihara Survivors’, the Hanukah party was a miracle indeed. At that party Chiune Sugihara may have made his decision to help save these Jews.

Solly Ganor
 
 
 
 
 
 

Israelim.com is a registered trademark of Kelvin L.P. Content of site copyright israelim.com