REMEMBRANCE BY PERLA (SCHOR) FRANKEL

Note: If you are a fellow Sugihara survivor who would like to make contact with Mrs. Frankel (Schor is her maiden name), please e-mail Anne Akabori, VfLF chair.

Wilek found it impossible to get into the Japanese Consulate, there were so many people waiting and pushing, trying to get in.

The Consul, Chiune Sugihara, was issuing visas which saved thousands of Jews but he did this in defiance of his Government’s order not to.

Wilek looked around the consulate grounds and saw a gate at the back of the consulate leading to the garden. He went in and found a door which led to the kitchen.

Opening it, he saw a Japanese maid who stared in amazement and then bowed. Wilek bowed back.

After much bowing by both of them, he went up the stairs and started opening the various doors to empty rooms, suddenly finding himself in a room together with a very surprised Consul Sugihara. “How did you get in?” he asked in German.

Wilek asked for forgiveness as he explained how he had entered and that he was desperate for visas for the family, particularly as two of them were children. Consul Sugihara calmly listened, picked up his pen and asked “What are their names?”

When Wilek emerged with the visas nobody understood how he had got in to see the Consul. “Magic” he replied. “With God’s help I became a magician.”

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