Img. ID: 444883

Memorial name

Chiune Sugihara, or Moonshine Monument

Who is Commemorated?

Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese consul, Righteous Among the Nations

Description:

This monument, made of granite, stands in a paved square in front of the Holocaust Division of the State Jewish Museum. It takes the form of an abstract human figure carrying a stone shaped like a crescent moon on its head and upright hands. The monument has a distinct “Japanese character.”

A small plaque near the sculpture bears identical Lithuanian and English inscriptions.

Inscriptions:

In Lithuanian: 

Mėnulio šviesa
tespindi
kilnios širdies
Japonijos konsului Lietuvoje
Čijunei Sugiharai,
1940 metais išdavusiam 2139 vizas
žydų pabėgėliams
ir išgelbėjusiam tūkstančius
gyvybių

Autoriai
Goiči Kitogava
ir Vladas Vildžiūnas
1992 m.

In English:

Let the moonlight
glance
to the noble man,
Consul of Japan in Lithuania
Chijune [sic] Sugihara,
who in 1940 issued 2,139 visas
to Jewish war refugees
end [sic] thus saved
thousands of lifes [sic].

Authors:
Goichi Kitogawa
and Vladas Vildžiūnas
1992

Translation: Let the moonlight / glance / to the noble man, / Consul of Japan in Lithuania / Chiune Sugihara, / who in 1940 / issued 2,139 visas / to Jewish war refugees / and thus saved / thousands of lives.

Commissioned by:

Director of the State Jewish Museum, Emanuelis Zingeris (Marcišauskytė-Jurašienė 2014, 277).

Funded by the Vilnius municipality (Guzenberg 2013, 57).