Chiune Sugihara Writes Visas Until the Train Leaves

In Kaunas, Lithuania, Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara ignored three direct refusals from Tokyo and spent his final weeks in post hand-writing thousands of transit visas for Jewish refugees, working until his hands cramped and passing the last papers through the train window as he departed. An estimated 6,000 people escaped on 'Sugihara visas'; their descendants today number in the tens of thousands.