A rescuer of refugees in Tokyo. Polish Ambassador Tadeusz Romer

The problem of the rescuing of war refugees, especially Jews, Polish Jews as well, during World War II, the problem of who saved who, and why he saved, is still very important and widely discussed. This problem applies also to Polish Jews and Poles saved from Nazi Germans and Soviet Russians, who escaped death or exile in Siberia via Kaunas in Lithuania, and Japan. Relatively well-known rescuers of Jews acting in Kaunas at the beginning of the war were two consuls, Sugihara Chiune from Japan and Jan Zwartendijk from the Netherlands. The authoress focuses in the article on a lesser known stage in those rescue efforts – on the role that Tadeusz Romer, Polish Ambassador to Japan (1937–1941), and later special mission ambassador in Shanghai (1941–1942), played in these efforts.