Hillel Levine

This book attempts to document Chiume Sugihara's life, put his actions in historical context and try to determine why he did what he did. It succeeds at all of those -- and certainly any effort to make known this obscure Righteous Gentile is praiseworthy.

I do, however, think it begins too slowly and ends too quickly. The book starts out with Sugihara's birth, and it goes into great detail -- too much detail, I think -- describing the struggles of Japan to pull itself into the modern world during this time period. Sugihara doesn't actually reach Kovno and start issuing visas until around page 200 or so. And then at the end, he shuts up his consulate and leaves, and the rest of the more than forty years of his life take up just a few pages.

A flawed book, but worth your time I think.… (meer)