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"Curacao Visas" issued by J. Zwartendijk during the war allowed Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara to issue transit visas permitting people to leave the country freely. While C. Sugihara's deeds are well known, very little is known about J. Zwartendijk's work neither in Lithuania nor in the Netherlands. One of its reasons - Honorary Consul's humbleness and belief that any other decent citizen would have done the same.

Monument's author - Giny Vos. Monument, light installation, is a spiral and consists of many different length LED strips assembled in one line that represent thousands of people's lives saved by Jan Zwartendijk. Each separate element stands for each visa issued to Curacao.

His Majesty Willem Alexander, the King of the Netherlands, Her Excellency President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite and Mayor of Kaunas City Visvaldas Matijosaitis witnessed Jan Zwartendijk's daughter Edith and son Rob opening the memorial plate.

Among other honorable guests there were: Life Visa recipient Marcel Weyland, Ambassador at Royal Netherlands Embassy in Lithuania Bert van der Lingen, Dutch author Jan Brokken, the Kazickas Family Foundation representative John Kazickas and others.

Jan Zwartendijk's son Rob Zwartendijk addressed the audience:

"Your Majesty, Your Excellency President Grybauskaite, Mr. Mayor, Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is the story about my father who, as a businessman in charge of Philips Lithuania in 1940, was asked to also assume the responsibility of Honorary Consul of the Netherlands in Lithuania.

Without any diplomatic experience he issued some 2,500 phony destination visa to Curacao to Jewish refugees who then could obtain transit visa through japan from Japanese Consul in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara.

He never talked about this amazing event and I only learned about it when I was in my thirties. Even then, being asked for more details my father always avoided the question and said he only did what he thought was right and that it really wasn't something special.

The only thing he was interested in was to learn how many survived the war. Sadly, the letter with the information that 90% had survived the war arrived the day after he died in 1976.

This is a story that shows that you always have a choice, my father could easily have turned down the refugees if he would have followed the protocol. being a man of high principles and values he made the right choice, saving the lives of thousands of refugees but endangering the lives of himself and his family for the rest of the war if the Nazis would find out what he had done.

This story has to be told and the well known Dutch author, Jan Brokken, here present, is finishing the book about this remarkable episode, due to be published in October of this year.

Also, in 2014, the Embassy came with the magnificent idea for a monument to serve as a permanent reminder of moral courage in desperate times. My sister Edith and I appreciate very much the tireless efforts by Ambassador Bert van der Lingen in realising this extraordinary Monument, remembering the deeds of my father during those dark days in 1940. Thank you Mr. Ambassador.

The monument by Giny Vos with its characteristic emission of light represents a touching and symbolic message of hope as experienced by the many refugees who, with the phony destination visa in their hands could escape through that door to a new future.

Also on behalf of my sister Edith: thank you to the Lithuanian Government, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of both countries, Royal Philips, the Municipality of Kaunas, the Jewish Community in Lithuania, and the Kazickas Family Foundation.

And, finally, thank you Your Majesty and Madam President Ms. Grybauskaite for including your presence here today in your busy schedule."

More about the memorial:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/dutch-king-lithuanian-president-honor-unsung-holocaust-hero/