He Wrote Visas Until the Train Left

He Wrote Until His Hand Bled His government told him no, three times. So he picked up his pen anyway, and saved six thousand lives. This really happened. Lithuania, 1940. Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat, in a small consulate. One morning, hundreds of Jewish families were waiting at his gate. They needed a visa to escape before it was too late. He asked Tokyo for permission. The answer was no. He asked again. No. A third time. Still no. He talked to his wife Yukiko. They decided: we cannot leave these people. So he started writing visas by hand. Up to eighteen hours a day, for weeks, until his hand ached. When he was ordered to leave, he kept writing in his hotel, and then at the train station. As the train pulled away, he was still handing visas out of the window. Those visas saved around six thousand people. Today, their families number in the tens of thousands. That's Chiune Sugihara. He broke the rules, to save lives. Comment HERO.