Korczak - Wajngarten - Chiune Sugihara - Jan Zwartendijk
Hur räddades Janusz Korczaks vän och medarbetare Jerachmiel Wajngarten.
Året var 1940. Tyskland och Sovjet delade Polens territorium i september 1939. Många polska medborgare som flydde österut ville fly vidare, undan Förintelsen.
Genom ett unikt samarbete mellan en japansk och en holländsk konsul räddades tusentals Judar. Den japanske konsuln Sugihare utfärdade ett transitvisum (således ut ur Sovjet) till Japan varifrån de skulle vidare till den holländska ön Curaçao i Västindien precis utanför Venezuelas kust. Den slutliga destinationen intygades av Jan Zwartendijk, den holländske konsuln som stämplade in en lämplig stämpel med Curaçao som slutdestination. Annars så tillämpade Curaçao inga inreseviseringar.
Således så krävdes det tre dokument:
Intyg att man var polsk medborgare,
Japanskt transitvisum från Sugihare och
Slutdestinationvisum till Curaçao från Zwartendijk.
 |
| Första dokument för att kunna överhuvudtaget ansöka om transitvisum var bekräftelse att man var polsk medborgare. |
 |
| De typiska två viseringarna från den japanske och holländske konsuln. |
 |
En del tycks ha ändrat slutdestinationen i sina transitvisum från Curaçao till Palestina och Irak. |
Curaçao är numera ett autonomt område inom Konungariket Nederländerna.
The occupation and division of Poland by Germany on September 1st, 1939 was followed by the invasion from east by Soviet troops. Several millions of Polish citizens ended in two different zones. Among them Yerachmiel Wajngarten that ended on the Soviet occupied territories.
Yerachmiel Wajngarten (1902 – 1982) was Korczak’s close friend that started his cooperation with Korczak when he arrived to Warszawa from his home town Sierpc. He was accepted as bursa student at Dom Sierot and later he was the deputy editor of the gazette Mały Przegląd (The Little Review).
In order to leave the the Soviet territories, actually the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, the war refugees needed to obtain transit visas, thus, leaving Soviet for another country. As Soviet had a border with Japan such visas could be issued by the Japanese Consul General in Kovno Chiune Sugihara. Mr. Sugihara fully understood the situation of Jewish refugees and agreed to issue the visas on the condition that the people promised not to stay in Japan and had to prove their Polish citizenship. In the summer of 1940, when most of the foreign consulates already had been closed, the Dutch Honorary Consul Jan Zwartendijk, having the permission from his chief L. P. J. de Decker, agreed to issue the so-called “Curaçao visas”, which showed the Caribbean islands as the final destination of the war refugees.
Sugiharas visas were valid for little more than travel across Russia and a 14-day stay in Japan. The final destination of Curaçao in the Caribbean was put on paper because it did not require an entry visa, but no one ever really intended to reach the island. Having obtained the visas in Kovno, the refugees still needed to get permissions to leave the Soviet. After that they just needed to buy a Trans-Siberian Railway ticket and were fully set for the long journey to Vladivostok. From Vladivostok the refugees were usually arriving by ship to the Japanese port city of Tsuruga. Delegates of JEWCOM from Kobe gave the refugees a warm welcome and paid for their transport from Tsuruga to Kobe.
Two persons associated with Korczak got this type of Sugiharas visa Yerachmiel Wajngarten and Marta Heyman.
With these visas, Jews were able to obtain exit visas from the Soviet government and take the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, destination Tsuruga, Japan.
With these visas, Jews were able to obtain exit visas from the Soviet government and take the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, destination Tsuruga, Japan.
None of the visa holders actually reached Curaçao. There is, however Jewish colony after Jewish settlers in 1634.
Wajngarten mentioned Korczak in the book written in Yiddish A velt in flamen, milkhome iberlebungen (The World in Flames. The War Experience) that was published in Montreal as early as in 1942 and printed with the financial help of “a group of the author’s friends from New York who came from his native town Sierpc, Poland.” Wajngarten is also the author of the book Janusz Korczak, the Jewish Martyr. A Memoir of His Life and Time (in Yiddish and Hebrew.) Both of these books are difficult to find.
