Three World War II-era Passports – Rare Transit Visas Issued by the Japanese Consulate in Sophia

Three World War II-era Passports – Rare Transit Visas Issued by the Japanese Consulate in Sophia
Three passports issued by the Japanese consulate in Sophia to a Jewish family that escaped from Europe via Japan. Sophia; issued in 1939-1940.
The passports were issued to Leon Levi, Lili Levi (with her daughter) and Berta Levi and bear various stamps tracing their escape from Europe to Canada in late 1940: entry visas to the US issued by the embassy in Sophia, exits stamp from Bulgaria via Varna, entry stamp to the USSR and an exit stamp from east USSR, entry stamp to Japan and finally – entry stamps to Canada from 23.12.1940. All three passports bear Japanese transit visas issued in the embassy in Sophia on 5.11.1940, with handwritten inscriptions (in Japanese) and additional stamps.
Between 1940 and 1941, Japanese consuls in Europe issued thousands of transit visas to Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany (the most famous of them is Chiune Sugihara, Japanese consul in Kaunas, the Righteous Among the Nations who on his own issued thousands of visas). Transit visa recipients had to embark on an arduous journey – crossing Russia from west to east, travelling to Japan and then to a third country willing to accept them; yet these visas helped save thousands of lives. The Japanese consulate In Sophia, Bulgaria, did not issue many visas. An official document of the Japanese government from February 1941 indicates that only three transit visas were issues in Sophia to Jewish refugees – as many as these passports.
Three passports, approx. 15.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, creases and blemishes. The covers are worn and scuffed. Long cracks to exterior front hinge in two passports.
See: Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees, by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto. Westport: Praeger, 1998. pp. 119-120.