Sugihara "Diplomats for Life" foundation

Sugihara foundation

The Sugihara Foundation - “Diplomats for Life” was founded in December 1999 by Lithuanian and Belgian intellectuals and businessmen: professor Egidijus Aleksandravičius, politician and businessman Ramūnas Garbaravičius and businessman Freddie Opsomer.

The initiators of the Foundation sought to mobilize intellectual efforts and funds to perpetuate and systematically foster the memory of the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara in Lithuania.

C. Sugihara's name, alongside those of Jan Zwartendijk, the then Honorary Consul of the Netherlands in Kaunas, and other diplomats from a few countries around the world who helped European Jews facing death, reminds the present generations of the threats inherent in the nature of humanity, and sets an example of tolerance, kindness, and justice.

The founders of the Foundation aim and will aim to:

To raise funds for the C. Sugihara House (former Japanese Consulate in Kaunas, Vaižganto st. 30) - an institution of memorial and educational nature - to establish and maintain;
To mobilize the intellectual potential - people of science and culture - to work together on research on tolerance and hatred.
To strengthen cultural relations between Lithuania and Japan.
To initiate and carry out scientific, cultural and educational projects presenting the situation of World War II refugees and its lessons for today's societies.
To build links and cooperation between institutions, cultural and social organizations in Lithuania, Japan, Poland, the Netherlands, the USA, Israel, Germany and other countries.