Music

00.02.00.00

Int. Dr S. Iwry

He was a man who wanted to do a thing and to save people more than he is obliged to.

Int. Mr Gutwirth

I have to see him as a tool who saved thousands of people.

Int. Rabbi R. Gray

Jan Zwartendijk was an incredible human being who acting out of a very strong base of ethics and morality found himself in a position in 1940 as the Honorary Dutch Consul in Lithuania with a situation where he was in a position to save some 2200 people who were facing certain death in the Holocaust.

V/O

The Nazis were conquering Europe.  In 1939 both the Nazis and the Soviet Union invaded Poland.  Neighbouring Lithuania was at that time still independent.  Thousands of Polish Jews then fled to the still safe Lithuania.

03.13

Int. Dr Iwry - Holocaust Survivor

It was a very peculiar time in Lithuania, running away from our home in Poland, to a place which was still neutral and belonged neither to Soviet Russia nor to Nazi Germany.  We all hoped that from that place we'd be able to get out back into the free world.

V/O

But the situation changed in June 1940 as the Russians invaded Lithuania overnight.

Mr N. Gutwirth - Holocaust Survivor

Jewish institutions, banks and schools were closed.  Everything was nationalized.  The atmosphere changed.  Nobody wanted to stay there, but no one could leave.

Mr Iwry

In order to get out of Russia you had to get some kind of End Visa.  Israel was not kosher in Soviet Russia, they considered Israel part of the enemy's coalition and to say that we wanted to go to Israel would not help us.  So at that time we looked at some countries or ways or places that would not be suspicious by the Russian Communists.  Of all the places was Curacao.

04.52

So Curacao became a possible end destination for the Jews who wanted to flee from the Russians and the Nazis.  The Dutch Consul in Lithuania, Jan Zwartendijk, was willing to break the rules.  For Curacao officially no visa was needed, only permission from the Governor in Lithuania.  Zwartendijk left the last sentence out and wrote in the passports "No Visa Needed For Curacao.  This document opened up the possibility for a lot of Jews to escape from the Soviet Union.

Mr N. Gutwirth

As soon as it became known that the Dutch Consul would issue visas the news spread very quickly.  Within a few days thousands of people were standing in line in front of the Consulate.

Jan Zwartendijk was completely surprised by the flood of people.  It was only four weeks since he had been appointed the Honorary Consul in Lithuania.  He only planned to help a few Dutch Jews escape.  The oldest son of the Dutch Consul was eleven years old in 1940.  He can still remember the masses outside the Consulate.

06.32

Int.  Jan Zwartendijk - son of Consul

I don't remember much of the work of my father, because he worked at the office.  But I do remember his stories about the mass of people and that it was very difficult to cope with such a huge crowd.  My father was shocked to see people falling on their knees begging for a visa, offering him gold etc.  That was not necessary, because he was going to give them visas anyway.  He just gave them a chance...

V/O

Consul Zwartendijk had permission from the Dutch Ambassador  De Dekker in Riga to issue the so called Cuacao visas, but issuing these visas was not without danger.

Int. Jan Zwartendijk

The Russians were not predictable.  My fater had no diplomatic protection.  There were no diplomatic relations between Holland and Russia.  They made it very difficult for him, later on, to leave the country.  We had to wait weeks.

Writing the visas had to be done in a hurry.  Zwartendijk only had nine days to issue 220 visas before the Russians closed the Dutch Consulate at the beginning of August in 1940.

Int. Jan Zwartendijk

It must have been a busy period.  He went to the office very early.  People were standing in line from 5am onwards.  He worked four days, had one day's rest and worked another four days.  That was all the time he had.

V/O

Zwartendijk was never very talkative about the Curacao visas after the closure of the Consulate and his departure from Lithuania.  That is also what his youngest son remembers.

Int. Robert Zwartendijk - son of Jan Zwartendijk

He never talked about it.  You just did what you had to do.  You're certainly would not be proud of it and tell stories about it.  He was more interested in what happened to them afterwards.

09.33

Jan Zwartendijk -

son

You have to remember that he did not know if people actually got out of Russia and if they survived.  What he had done was not a big issue for him.

Robert Zwartendijk

In 1963 an article in a Los Angeles newspaper brought the story of a Dutchman from Phillips who had helped Jews.  But no name was mentioned.  A Dutch paper traced my father down and he gave an interview.  My father only wanted to know how many people got out and survived.

10.30

The article in the Los Angeles paper was for Jan Zwartendijk the first signal that there were survivors.  Years later it appeared that he had saved many more lives than he thought.

Jan Zwartendijk

That happened in 1976.  Thirty six years later he heard how many people he had saved.  An historian knew the correct numbers and that there were more than 2000 people.  He heard that just before he died.  He could not believe it.  He was happy with the news.

Jan Zwartendijk died in September, 1976.  After his death it became clear what Zwartendijk had meant for the Jewish community in Lithuania.  The American-Jewish organisation Boys Town in Jerusalem has been inspired by the deeds of the Dutch Consul and has even issued an award in his name.

12.20

Int. Rabbi Ronald Gray of Boys Town in Jerusalem

The award was established in Jan Zwartendijk's name and is called the Jan Zwartendijk Award For Humanitarian Ethics and Values and it is going to be presented annually, not necessarily to individuals that represent that same type of principled action who are doing the right thing because its the right thing to do and in the model of Jan Zwartendijk its will very likely be just an ordinary person who is doing something extra ordinary.

Int. Mr Gutwirth

It was a useless piece of paper, but it meant a life.

Int. Mr J. Zwartendijk

It was something he had to do.  History came past his door and he just did it.

Int. Dr S.

I think he was what we call in our tradition, one of the righteous of the gentiles, of the nations.

ENDS

14.19