The Curaçao Visa - Dutch Consul Zwartendijk and the hidden origins of Visas for Life


Image: ©JDC / Alyza Lewin / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
 

The exhibition "The Curaçao Visa - Dutch Consul Zwartendijk and the hidden origins of Visas for Life" has been organized by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tokyo to provide more background to the famous ‘Visas for Life’ of Chiune Sugihara by introducing the people who created the Curaçao Visa, and transformed it into the foundation of Visas for Life. Together they saved thousands of Jews from persecution and death in 1940. Extra attention is paid to the involvement of Jan Zwartendijk, Dutch national, Philips employee and honorary consul who was at the center of the Curaçao Visa, but always humbly told his family that he was just “trying to do the right thing”. The exhibition tells the story of the visa through well-researched bilingual panels and with displays of personal objects of Jan Zwartendijk.

The exhibition will be opened at the ambassor's residence of the Netherlands Embassy on Tuesday 21 February 2023 and will be on public display at the Dejima Lounge on the embassy's compound from Thursday 23 until Sunday 25 February. The exhibition will travel to Tsuruga City (Fukui Prefecture) and will be on display at the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum from Thursday 16 March until Tuesday 30 May, 2023. More locations will follow. 

Please find the Japanese version of this page here.

Dear Visitor,

Welcome to this exhibition, which will take you to another time and to another place. To a time of war in Europe when many had to flee to save their own lives.
It tells the story of men and women who at great personal risk did what they could do to help Jewish refugees find a safe way out, by providing a visa, or in other ways.

My father, Jan Zwartendijk, was one of them. He rarely talked about it because he felt that he did nothing special. I am happy and honored that the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands decided to bring his story and the contributions of others to the people of Japan.
They deserve their place in history and I hope they can be a source of inspiration in our time.

Thank you,
Rob Zwartendijk

The Curaçao Visa - Dutch Consul Zwartendijk and the hidden origins of Visas for Life

During WWII, Nazi Germany and its collaborators kill six million Jews—almost two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.
Escape to another country seems impossible. Refugees require a destination visa allowing them to live there. But countries barely accept any refugees.

They cannot just pack their bags. To travel through a country requires a transit visa. But countries issue these only to refugees with a destination visa.
Two Jewish refugees and a Dutch diplomat think up a solution, a make-believe destination visa for Curaçao—a Dutch island in South America.
A Polish refugee leader spreads the word about the Curaçao Visa, Dutch Consul Jan Zwartendijk actually issues them, and Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara accepts them as the basis for   his well-known Visas for Life.

This exhibition introduces the people who created the Curaçao Visa, he foundation of Visas for Life. together they saved thousands of Jews from persecution and death.
 

1930s - The gathering storm

The 1930s are a painfully challenging time.
The massive Wall Street stock market crash of 1929 causes the collapse of the international financial system. This in turn causes a global economic downfall, the Great Depression. People all over the world lose their jobs and experience debilitating poverty.
Populist leaders take advantage of the uncertainty, fear, and anger to incite hate and intolerance against minorities, claiming that they caused the problems.

The situation is especially extreme in Germany. In 1933, Hitler effectively becomes a dictator. That same year the first concentration camp is opened, Dachau. Over the following years, Germany annexes neighboring countries and enacts laws which discriminate against Jews and other minorities, including the disabled. The laws strip Jews of their civil rights, prohibit them from most jobs, and force them to wear a Star of David.
In 1938 Nazis attack Jews and destroy Jewish property all over Germany and annexed Austria. Thousands of Jews are arrested and marched to camps. The action becomes known as Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.
 

Invasion of Poland - Murder and treachery

"Our country had been swallowed up by two greedy and cynical powers, each intent on world domination. Polish Jewry, numbering three and a half million and constituting the largest Jewish community on earth, was now in mortal danger."
Refugee leader Zorach Warhaftig, postwar memoir.

WWII officially starts when on September 1, 1939 German forces invade Poland.
The Polish forces fight hard but are outmatched by the heavily mechanized German forces. After just a week German troops reach the outskirts of Warsaw, the Polish capital.

They are ruthless and massacres start immediately. The German air force attacks civilian targets and even columns of refugees.
The situation becomes hopeless on September 17 when German’s secret agreement with the Soviet Union kicks in. Soviet forces invade and the Polish military is trapped.

By October 6, German and Russian troops are in full control of Poland.
Almost three and a half million Jews live in Poland. A third of Warsaw's population consists of Jews. Nazi extermination camps in occupied Poland are not built until 1942, but many Jews realize that they are in great danger.
 

Search for a Safe Haven - A short respite in Lithuania

"This is so horrible. The entire world is closed to us, and the storms waging over Europe are arriving here."
Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, head of the Mir Talmudic school.

After the German invasion, hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees escape eastwards. They travel any way they can—mostly on foot—and take only what they can carry. 

About 15,000 end up in neutral Lithuania. But in June 1940, more than 200,000 Soviet soldiers cross into Lithuania and start to incorporate it into the Soviet Union. 
The refugees are stuck. They cannot escape from Lithuania because many countries have adopted strict immigration quotas in order to limit Jewish immigration. Embassies and consulates offer little help.
All hope seems lost.

Two Jewish refugees with a Dutch background—Peppy Lewin and Nathan Gutwirth—change that. With the help of a Dutch diplomat, they discover an unexpected way to freedom.

Peppy Lewin - A pivotal promise

Born in 1911, Pessla (Peppy) Sternheim grows up in Amsterdam. Peppy is intelligent and studies at the University of Berlin. She speaks fluent Dutch and German.
In the 1930s, Peppy loses her Dutch citizenship when she marries Polish Jewish Isaac Lewin. They settle in Lodz, the second largest city in Poland. Lewin is elected to city council. In 1936 a son is born, Nathan. The future seems bright.
 
But after Nazi atrocities against German Jews, Peppy anticipates that Germany will invade Poland. She makes Isaac make a promise: that they will immediately evacuate the family if this happens.
Peppy’s family is visiting from Amsterdam when the Germans do indeed invade. Her father returns to Amsterdam, her mother and brother join the Lewin family as they rush to Lithuania.
 
To cross into the country they walk through a forest in the middle of the night. The three-year-old Nathan is told that wolves will devour him if he makes a sound.
On September 12, a German death squad enters Lodz and starts killing Jews. Thanks to Peppy’s foresight, her family has narrowly escaped.
 

Curaçao - The distant island of hope

"The Dutch Consulate in Kaunas hereby declares that for the admission of foreigners to Surinam, Curaçao and other Dutch possessions in America an entry visa is not required."
Text of the Curaçao Visa. 

All Polish refugees in Lithuania frantically search for destination visas. Few succeed. But Peppy has an idea.
She writes a letter to the Dutch envoy in Latvia, Leendert P. J. de Decker. As a former Dutch citizen is there any Dutch colony where her family can go? Surinam and Curaçao—in South America—allow entry if she receives permission from the governor, answers De Decker. But it is rarely given.

Peppy suggests an audacious plan. Will he write a declaration in her passport that no visa is needed for these places, but omit the required authorization? "Send your passport," writes De Decker. It returns with the requested text, dated July 11. The declaration is a bluff, but looks completely authoritative.

On July 22, the Dutch honorary consul in Lithuania, Jan Zwartendijk, copies it into Peppy’s husband’s travel document.
Now they need a transit visa. There is only one route left open to South America—via the Soviet Union and Japan. On the 25th and 26th the family visits the Japanese consul, Chiune Sugihara. He accepts the Curaçao Visa and issues them Japanese transit visas.
There is a way out.
 

The Crucial Moment - Nathan Gutwirth and Zorach Warhaftig

"We had memorized atlases and the globe and had become experts in outlining to ambassadors and consuls the most intricate travel routes. Where no route existed, it was for us to create one—if only on paper, for the time being."
Refugee leader Zorach Warhaftig, postwar memoir.

Nathan Gutwirth grows up near the Hague in the Netherlands. In 1935 he moves to Lithuania to study at a Jewish school for law and religion.
Gutwirth approaches De Decker and Zwartendijk and asks if his non-Dutch friends can receive the notation as well. They are in danger of the Nazi and Soviet threats. The answer is “yes”. 

This is the crucial moment. The Curaçao Visa now becomes a lifesaver for many. The news spreads rapidly.
A Polish lawyer and refugee leader, Zorach Warhaftig, takes the next step. He is negotiating with diplomats about escape routes and instantly understands that the Curaçao Visa can be the basis for a transit visa.

He receives one on July 24—two days after Peppy’s husband. On July 27—one day after Peppy’s family visited Sugihara—Warhaftig and four other refugee representatives meet the Japanese consul. Can he issue transit visas to everybody with a Curaçao Visa?
When Sugihara agrees, Warhaftig travels all over Lithuania to persuade skeptical refugees to get the two visas. Crowds start assembling at the two consulates.
 

Jan Zwartendijk - The honorary consul with a strong moral compass

"Do what you think is right and then keep quiet."
Jan Zwartendijk as recounted by his children. 

Consul Zwartendijk, who issues the Curaçao Visas, is actually not a diplomat but a businessman. In 1938 he becomes the director of the Kaunas-based Lithuanian branch of Philips, one of the world’s largest radio and light bulb manufacturers.

In May 1940, Dutch envoy De Decker asks him to become honorary consul. Zwartendijk  knows nothing about consular affairs, but agrees as he considers it his duty.
It is an exceptional situation. Germany occupied the Netherlands in May and the Dutch government goes in exile in London. Lithuania is a neutral and free country so diplomatic relations continue. He is officially appointed on June 14. The next day the Soviets invade Lithuania.

By July it is chaos. Businesses are nationalized. Banks, Jewish institutions, and diplomatic missions are closed. Around this time Warhaftig starts sending Jewish refugees to the Dutch consulate who come in crowds.

Zwartendijk, who has a strong sense of right and wrong, does not hesitate a moment to start writing Curaçao Visas. Within two weeks he issues at least 2,345 of them. He secretly continues even after the Soviets close his consulate and nationalize the Philips branch on August 3.
 

Risk and Danger - Acting without diplomatic immunity

Issuing the Curaçao Visas is a risky proposition for Zwartendijk. It looks official, but it is not a true visa and hides the required landing permission.

The Netherlands and the Soviet Union do not have diplomatic relations. So Zwartendijk has no diplomatic immunity. He cannot predict how Soviet officials will react to his actions.
The risks become evident when the Soviet invaders send his landlord—a Lithuanian professor—and his wife and 5-year-old daughter to Siberia. They can take only a single suitcase. Many Lithuanian intellectuals suffer the same fate. Countless people simply disappear.

Additionally, the Netherlands is occupied by German troops. If the Zwartendijks can make it back home, the Gestapo—Nazi Germany’s secret police—might discover his actions.
Envoy De Decker recognizes the dangers. By mid-August 1940 he orders the destruction of all consular records. Zwartendijk’s 11-year old son Jan helps burn them in a potbelly stove.
The proof of Zwartendijk’s actions vanishes in smoke. They remain unknown even to the Dutch government.
 

Chiune Sugihara - Intelligence Officer and savior

"What I did might have been wrong as a diplomat. Still, I couldn’t abandon those thousands of people depending on me. I did not do anything special—I just did what I had to do."
Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara, postwar memoir.
Consul Chiune Sugihara and his family arrive in Kaunas in 1939. The new Japanese consulate there is created so he can collect intelligence about German and Soviet military activity. 

Sugihara is perfect for this job. He speaks fluent Russian and previously gathered intelligence on the Soviets in Manchuria.

He starts working with Polish intelligence officers. They provide him with information about the Soviet military, he gives them passports for Japanese government officials and transit visas. 

Suddenly, this work is interrupted. On July 27, 1940—the day after he has issued transit visas to Peppy’s family—hundreds of Jewish refugees assemble in front of the Japanese consulate.

Sugihara invites five refugee representatives inside—including Warhaftig and his secretary. For two hours he listens to their pleas for transit visas.

Sugihara immediately starts issuing transit visas to the refugees, most of them based on the Curaçao Visa. When the consulate is closed at the end of August, he has issued over 2,100.

The Journey - Via Moscow and Vladivostok to Japan

"We knew what we were trying to get away from, but we had no idea where we [would] end up."
Refugee Marcel Weyland (13 years old in 1939), interview Where but into the Sea (documentary), 2021. 

After obtaining the two visas, refugees first travel to Moscow. Here, many say, they feel more like tourists than refugees. Most stay at the stately New Moscow Hotel for a few daysand go sightseeing before boarding the Trans-Siberian Railway connecting Moscow with the port of Vladivostok. In Vladivostok they board a ship to Tsuruga, Japan.

It is a long trip: some 10,000 kilometers across eight time zones requiring one and a half to three weeks. Frequent security checks frighten the refugees, but the visas protect them.

Niek de Voogd - Savior of last resort

In March 1941 a frightening episode shows the power of the make-believe Curaçao Visa. That month 74 refugees are refused entry into Japan when they arrive at Tsuruga port. They have Sugihara transit visas, but no Zwartendijk destination visas. They are returned to the Soviet Union where they are likely to be deported to a Gulag labor camp.

Gutwirth, in Japan since December 1940, hears about the tragedy and immediately contacts the Dutch consul in Kobe, Niek de Voogd. He persuades De Voogd to provide Curaçao Visas for the 74. It works. They are allowed to return from Vladivostok and enter Japan.

Kobe and Beyond - The end of the Curaçao Visa

After the long and stressful journey, Japan feels like paradise to the refugees. Most travel to Kobe where Jewcom—an aid organization created by the local Jewish community—arranges housing, food and clothing, and intercedes with officials.

The Curaçao Visa was an effective way to get a transit visa and escape the Nazi and Soviet threats. But the refugees require a real destination visa to leave Japan. They immediately start a desperate search.

Polish Ambassador Tadeusz Romer swiftly responds to the refugees’ needs and negotiates for destination visas with the diplomatic missions of other countries. His efforts generate visas for over 1,000 refugees—to Palestine, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Central and South American countries.

As Japan starts preparing for its attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941, the remaining refugees—almost 1100—are deported to Shanghai in Japanese-occupied China. Most are stuck there beyond the end of WWII.

Legacy - "Angel of Curaçao"

By creating and issuing the Curaçao Visa, De Decker and Zwartendijk start a chain reaction which is extended by Sugihara. Sugihara never seems to meet his Dutch counterparts—he only calls Zwartendijk a few times urging him to slow down as he cannot keep up with hand-writing the transit visa for the stream of refugees with a Curaçao Visa. Yet, this informal team saves thousands of refugees.

Zwartendijk first learns that the Curaçao Visas did indeed save the refugees in 1963 when a Los Angeles newspaper publishes an article titled "The Angel of Curaçao." Zwartendijk is relieved but, modestly, says that the title belongs to De Decker because he originated the idea and text. He rarely talks about the visas, he feels he did nothing special.

Just before his death in 1976, Zwartendijk’s son Jan tells him that most refugees with a Curaçao Visa survived. Sadly, the report with details arrives on the day of his funeral.

In 1997 Zwartendijk is recognized as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations," an award the state of Israel gives to non-Jews who risk their life to save the lives of Jews.

Then and Now

This exhibition tells the story of the men and women whose compassion, creativity, and courage saved thousands of people from certain death. It tells of a few that saved many—at great personal risk.
As Jan Zwartendijk later told his family, they were only trying to do the right thing.

This exhibition cannot honor all who contributed to saving the Jewish refugees. It sheds light on a few whose story is barely known in Japan and thereby contributes to our understanding of history.
The actions of these heroes speak to us across place and time. Also in our days, refugees from all over the world are fleeing persecution or war. Their fate makes an appeal on each of us individually and on the world community as a whole to protect the rights of refugees.

Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tokyo

Credits

Organized by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tokyo
Japanese Editor - Atsuko Hirano

DESIGN & VIDEOS
Tanseisha

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Akira Kitade
Akinori Nishikawa (Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum)
Olga Coolen & Sergio Derks (Philips Museum)
Magnus de Jong
Elyza Lewin
Arlette Stuip
Egbert & Renee de Voogd
Hans de Vries
Faygy Wasyng
Marcel Weyland
Ton van Zeeland
Bert van der Zwan
Edith and Rob Zwartendijk
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Vilnius

IMAGE CREDITS
Alyza Lewin
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)
Anne Frank House
Ewa Rutkowska
Faygy Wasyng
FPG/Getty Images
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Nationaal Archief
MeijiShowa
Petras Malukas
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Yad Vashem