'Japanese Schindler' film shoot underway in Wroclaw
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
09.10.2014 16:44
A Japanese-Polish film crew is shooting parts of a movie in Wroclaw about Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who aided several thousand Polish and Lithuanian Jews during WWII.
Chiune Sugihara. Photo: wikipedia
Chiune Sugihara served as Japan's deputy consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, as of 1939.
In 1940, with Lithuania and eastern Poland occupied by the Soviet Union, he began issuing exit visas to Jews.
This was against orders from Tokyo, which was on the verge of signing an alliance with Nazi Germany.
Yet faced with a river of refugees from Nazi-occupied Poland, he decided to take the matter into his own hands.
Many years later, Chiune Sugihara downplayed his role, in spite of being declared a 'Righteous Gentile' by Israel.
“It is the kind of reaction anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes,” he said.
“He just cannot help but sympathize with them.”
The film is being co-produced by Poland's Akson Studio (Katyn, Walesa: Man of Hope), and several noted Polish actors are starring in the production, including Zbigniew Zamachowski, Borys Szyc and Agnieszka Grochowska. (nh)
Source: Gazeta Wroclawska