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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: Celebrating the Japanese Schindler who saved thousands of Jewish lives
Description: Eighty years ago this summer, in July 1941, Nate and Susan Bluman stepped off a boat in Vancouver's port. It had been a perilous journey for the young Jewish couple, who'd escaped from German-occupied Poland to Lithuania, which was then occupied by the Russians.
From there, they received transit visas thanks to a Japanese diplomat named Chiune Sugihara.
Sugihara is often referred to as the "Japanese Schindler." He helped more than 2,000 Jews escape Europe, via Vladivostok and Japan, during the early years of the Second World War. In doing so, Sugihara, who was helped by his...