"Back then, I did not fully understand what the three of them had done, or why it was so important. I do now.... If you save the life of one person, it is as if you saved the world entire.”
Ages: 6 - 11
Grade Level: 1+
Location: Kaunas, Lithuania
Pages: 32
Time Period: 1940
Hiroki Sugihara was just five-years-old when, one day, he and his family woke up to find a huge crowd of desperate people at their gates. The people were Jewish refugees who fled Nazi persecution and certain death in Poland. Hiroki's father, Chiune Sugihara, was a diplomat for the Japanese government and could grant the visas these people needed. However, when the Japanese government refused to grant Chiune permission, the Sugiharas faced a hefty decision: obey their government or obey God? Based on the words of Hiroki Sugihara himself, Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story by Ken Mochizuki is an incredible nonfiction picture book about a true tale of heroism during the Holocaust; "... a story that proves that one person can make a difference".
The art was created by scratching details into beeswax and finished with oil paints and colored pencils; giving the book a uniquely textured and dramatic look. There is also an "Afterwards" in the back written by Hiroki Sugihara that I highly encourage you to read.
Resources:
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Content Warnings
Content that some individuals may find controversial or objectionable. Attention was given to include content which may offend people of a particular culture, race, or religion and details which the sensitive child may find unsettling or troublesome. There are two categories: "No Spoilers" and "Spoilers."
No Spoilers:
Mentions of Antisemitism and Jewish and Christian beliefs (in text). Mentions of imprisonment (in the afterward).
With Spoilers:
Past Philosophies & Ideologies
Refugees are fleeing Poland and risk being killed because they are Jewish.
Religions, Spirituality, & Other Beliefs
Mention of how the family attends a Hannukah celebration.
Chiune says that to obey his government would be disobeying God.
Violence
Several mentions that the refugees would be killed if they stayed or didn't receive help.
+Other
In the afterward, Hiroki Sugihara mentions how his family was imprisoned for 18 months in a Soviet internment camp.
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