Digital Book Report Prepared by Ms. Gil Clinton-Mendenhall Elementary

 Non-Fiction  Biography  Narrator is the son of Mr. Sugihara  First-Person Narration

 Small town in Lithuania  1940’s  WWII  Nazi occupation

 Mr. Sugihara is a diplomat from Japan stationed in a small town in Lithuania who has the authority to issue visas.  The Nazis have begun to relocate the Jews (Polish refugees) in this town.  A small group of Jews meet with Mr. Sugihara to request visas.

 Mr. Sugihara can issue a couple but not the hundreds needed to save this population.  He asks permission from his superiors three times. The permission is denied.  Mr. Sugihara must choose between “disobeying his government, or disobeying God.”

 He consults his family and decides to issue the visas.  Fatigued, Mr. Sugihara issues hundreds of visas before he is stationed in Berlin, Germany.  He even hands out blank visas from the train.

 Hundreds of Polish refugees are facing a bleak future in the hands of Nazis.  Superiors deny the request of Mr. Sugihara to request permission to issue extra visas.  Issuing hundreds of visas against government orders in order to save them.  Disobey orders and commit to a higher moral order.

 Courage: Mr. Sugihara disobeyed government orders and put his life and the life of his family in danger to save Polish Jews

 Sometimes having moral character means making difficult decisions (that may or may not put your life at risk)