PBS will broadcast "Sugihara: A Conspiracy of Kindness," about Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who risked his career by saving thousands of Jewish refugees in 1940. It will be shown at 9:00 pm Eastern Time (click here for local listings).
Sugihara's story has been publicized in recent years by the “Visas for Life Project,” which has created a traveling exhibit about diplomats who helped rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Another diplomat featured prominently in the Visas for Life Project is Hiram Bingham IV, the US vice-consul in Marseilles, France, who worked with Varian Fry to save thousands of refugees from the Vichy French in 1940-1941.
Bingham's son, Connecticut attorney Bill Bingham was present during the filming, in Jerusalem, of a segment of the film in which Sugihara's widow, Yukiko, met with some of the rabbis who were rescued by her husband.
"It was one of the most moving events I have ever experienced," Bill said. "Buckets of tears were shed as these old men poured their hearts out in gratitude to the humble little Japanese woman whose bravery helped save thousands and may have cost her the life of her own son, who died in a Soviet camp when they were arrested because they had waited too long to escape the Sovet advance. Mrs. Sugihara told me that as she was nursing her son, she looked out into the eyes of the children and the mothers beseeching Sugihara for visas in long lines and crowds, when she finally told her husband, despite the orders to the contrary from the Japanese government, that 'we must do this!' And they did. She helped him stamp the visas day and night until they left the city by train and finally, it is said, he handed the stamp off as the train left the station - he was still stamping visas as the train moved away...Traveling with Mrs. Sugihara in Israel was among the most magical experiences of my life."
Another aspect dealt with in the documentary concerns Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who was leader of the establishment American Jewish Congress and World Jewish Congress organizations during the 1930s/1940s. It describes how an emissary of the Japanese government met with Wise in early 1940 to express Tokyo's interest in permitting European Jewish refugees to settle in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. Wise refused to discuss the proposal, saying it might seem "rather unpatriotic" for American Jews to have contact with a government with which the Roosevelt administration was not friendly.
Sugihara's story has been publicized in recent years by the “Visas for Life Project,” which has created a traveling exhibit about diplomats who helped rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Another diplomat featured prominently in the Visas for Life Project is Hiram Bingham IV, the US vice-consul in Marseilles, France, who worked with Varian Fry to save thousands of refugees from the Vichy French in 1940-1941.
Bingham's son, Connecticut attorney Bill Bingham was present during the filming, in Jerusalem, of a segment of the film in which Sugihara's widow, Yukiko, met with some of the rabbis who were rescued by her husband.
"It was one of the most moving events I have ever experienced," Bill said. "Buckets of tears were shed as these old men poured their hearts out in gratitude to the humble little Japanese woman whose bravery helped save thousands and may have cost her the life of her own son, who died in a Soviet camp when they were arrested because they had waited too long to escape the Sovet advance. Mrs. Sugihara told me that as she was nursing her son, she looked out into the eyes of the children and the mothers beseeching Sugihara for visas in long lines and crowds, when she finally told her husband, despite the orders to the contrary from the Japanese government, that 'we must do this!' And they did. She helped him stamp the visas day and night until they left the city by train and finally, it is said, he handed the stamp off as the train left the station - he was still stamping visas as the train moved away...Traveling with Mrs. Sugihara in Israel was among the most magical experiences of my life."
Another aspect dealt with in the documentary concerns Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who was leader of the establishment American Jewish Congress and World Jewish Congress organizations during the 1930s/1940s. It describes how an emissary of the Japanese government met with Wise in early 1940 to express Tokyo's interest in permitting European Jewish refugees to settle in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. Wise refused to discuss the proposal, saying it might seem "rather unpatriotic" for American Jews to have contact with a government with which the Roosevelt administration was not friendly.