CONTENTS
1. Information about the Sugihara Foundation Diplomats for Life
2. Activities
3. Structure of the Fund
4. Financial report
5. Sugihara House Museum premises
6. Support
7. General information
1. Information about the Sugihara Diplomats for Life Foundation
The Sugihara Diplomats for Life Foundation (hereinafter - the Foundation) was established in December 1999 by the efforts of Lithuanian and Belgian intellectuals and businessmen: historian Prof. Egidijus Aleksandravičius, politician and businessman Ramūnas Garbaravičius and businessman Freddie Opsomer. The initiators of the Foundation sought to mobilise intellectual efforts and funds to immortalise the memory of the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara in Lithuania. The name of Chiune Sugihara, alongside that of Jan Zwartendijk, the then Honorary Consul of the Netherlands in Kaunas, and other diplomats from a few countries around the world who were determined to help the Jews of Europe 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:
● Raise funds for the maintenance and development of the Chiune Sugihara House Museum (former Japanese Consulate in Kaunas, Vaižganto st. 30), an institution of memorial and educational nature.
● Bring together the intellectual potential of people from science and culture to work together on research into tolerance and hatred.
● Strengthen cultural links between Lithuania, Japan, the Netherlands, Israel, the USA, Germany, Poland, Sweden and other countries.
● To pay special attention to the education of young people and society, fostering tolerance, interculturalism, historical awareness and other values and competences.
2. Activities Foundation
● During more than 20 years of activity, contacts have been established and fostered with various Japanese organisations, such as the Lithuanian-Japanese Association, as well as with Japanese universities, cultural, business and administrative institutions, and with the Sugihara memorial museums in Yatosu, Gifu Prefecture, and Tsuruga.
● When the Foundation started its activities, it first and foremost focused on fostering cooperation with Japan, but soon diplomatic, cultural and educational activities began to expand through active cooperation with the embassies of the
USA, Israel, Poland, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, and the United States in Lithuania, not only through the visits of the resident ambassadors and their guests, but also by carrying out joint projects and partnership activities Thus, in 2008, the renovation of the Museum's exhibition was supported by the Japan Foundation, the first conference organised by the Foundation (2016) and the publication of its articles (2017) was supported by the Polish Embassy in Vilnius, an exhibition on Raoul Walenberg was held at the Sugihara House in cooperation with the Embassy of Sweden, film screening evenings have been organised in cooperation with the Embassies of Poland and Sweden, and in 2023 the German Embassy is funding a project by the Foundation to strengthen civic awareness and resistance to propaganda.
● The Foundation and the Museum welcome many visitors from around the globe, with the number of visitors reaching about 18,000 a year until the COVID-19 pandemic period. Among the visitors there were also outstanding individuals and delegations, including Sugihara's widow Yukiko Sugihara, the then Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Aso, Vice Minister Shigeo Uetake, Speaker of the Israeli Parliament Reuven Rivlin, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus, Honorary Consuls of Lithuania in Japan Shigehiro Komaru and Yukio Murase, Governor of Gifu Prefecture Hajime Furuta, Mayor of Yaotsu City Masanori Kaneko, Hirofumi Nakasone, Head of the Japan-Lithuania Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Group, Ellen Germain, Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, U.S. Department of State, Dani Dayan, Director of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, and her delegation, and Katharina von Schnurbein, Coordinator of the European Commission's Office for Combating Anti-Semitism and Promoting Jewish Life, as well as the staff of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and official delegations. The Foundation is regularly visited by the Ambassadors of Japan, Israel, the Netherlands, the United States, Germany, Poland, Sweden and other countries, as well as many other distinguished guests.
Sugihara House Museum
● The first exposition of the museum in 2001 was housed in a single room - the former Chiune Sugihara's study room.
● The museum space now occupies both floors of the building and consists of several exhibitions: the Visions for Life exhibition since 2008, the Casablanca of the North: Kaunas 1939-1940 exhibition since 2016, the Crystal of Kindness exhibition since 2021, and the Zwartendijk Room exhibition since 2022 (the exhibition is not yet complete). In 2022, the outdoor exhibition space of the Sugihara House and an outdoor exhibition dedicated to Chiune Sugihara, Jan Zwartendijk and their rescued persons. All the exhibitions are trilingual – in Lithuanian, English and Japanese. In 2023, interactive, adapted tours for schoolchildren are being organised, as well as experiential excursions to learn more about Chiune Sugihara and Jan Zwartendijk, but also to learn more about Japanese culture, and a virtual tour of Sugihara's house.
The Tolerance Person of the Year Award
● Since 2001, the board of the Sugihara Diplomats for Life Foundation has been naming the Tolerance Person of the Year.
● A citizen of Lithuania who, by his/her actions, public example or open word, has stood against xenophobia and anti-Semitism, persecution of other religions and
other ethnic groups, and has spoken out against radicalism and prejudice in the political and public life of Lithuania, may be declared a person of tolerance. Since 2017, he has been awarded the Leonidas Donskis Prize for his long-standing achievements in education and the promotion of tolerance and intercultural dialogue.
Recipients of the Tolerance Person of the Year Award:
2001 Tomas Šernas
2002 Irena Veisaitė
2003 Algimantas Čekuolis
2004 Saulius Beržinis
2005 Arūnas Peškaitis
2006 Robertas Povilaitis
2007 Jurga Šeduikytė
2008 Mykolas Drunga
2009 Tomas Venclova
2010 Andrius Navickas
2011 Daiva Čepauskaitė
2012 Sigitas Parulskis
2013 Andrius Mamontovas
2014 Donatas Puslys
2015 Valdas Balčiūnas
2016 Vanda Juknaitė
2017 Marius Ivaškevičius
2018 Gintaras Varnas
2019 Eugenijus Bunka
2020 Paulius Gritėnas
2021 Viktorija Voidogaitė CC
2022 Valdemaras Klumbys
The Leonidas Donskis Prize was awarded:
2017 Saulius Sužiedėlis
2018 Pranas Morkus
2019 Linas Vildžiūnas
2020 Vladimir Tarasov
2021 Rimantas Vanagas
2022 Jonas Ohman
Academic, educational activities
● The main objective of the Foundation is not only to maintain and develop the Sugihara House Museum, and to continuously update the exhibition, but also to organise academic events, public lectures and education events, publishing: since 2017, the Foundation has published two collections of scholarly articles (2017: Casablanca of The North: Refugees and Rescuers in Kaunas 1939-1940 and in 2020: Conventions, quotas, refugees: European Jews in 1938-1945), and in 2018, it published a book by Simon Streltsov entitled The Good, the Bad, the Poor. Chiune Sugihara and Second World War refugees in Lithuania. In 2021, with partial funding from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, a documentary film Kaunas - the Gate of Hope was produced, which tells the story of Chiune Sugihara, Jan Zwartendijk and their rescued survivors. In 2022, with the partial support of the Goodwill Foundation, the Foundation published a book by Linas Venclauskas, The Text File: The Lithuanian Anti-Semitic Discourse from the Second Half of the 19th Century to 1940. In July 2022, with the partial support of the Public Institution Kaunas European Capital of Culture 2022, the Foundation developed a
tourist app on the Google Store platform, The Wheel of Memory - a guided tour of the Vaižganto Street, available in both Lithuanian and English.
● Sugihara House has hosted numerous student conferences and project presentations, as well as various teacher training and educational events, as the Foundation contributed to organising the events and allocating prize funds. The Foundation develops new projects and organises educational programmes on tolerance, interculturalism, historical awareness and other educational programmes for young people and schoolchildren.
Casablanca of the North Academy
● Since 2017, Casablanca of the North Academy has been organising a continuous academic educational project Casablanca the North Academy at the Sugihara House, with various project funding or by its own financial means In 2017, a series of lectures was held to discuss the 1939-1940 period in the Lithuanian and international context. Casablanca of the North Academy featured lectures by renowned historians and diplomats. The project began with the filming of major lectures, which were later made available through the Sugihara House website, and historians from Japan, the USA, Poland, Finland, Russia, the UK, and other countries gave lectures in this informal academy.
● In 2022, Casablanca the North Academy organised a public lecture series on the war in Ukraine - The War in Ukraine and the Refugee Challenge.
Sugihara Reading Room
● The Sugihara House Museum collects a wide range of material on Chiune Sugihara, Jewish history, and casuistry. The collection includes publications in Lithuanian, English, Japanese, Russian, Yiddish, German and other languages. Many of the books were personally collected by the late Museum's Acting Director, Simonas Dovidavičius.
● To promote exploration of these themes and to promote social awareness, tolerance and other values of the Sugihara Foundation Diplomats for Life, we are making the collection available for public access, on-site reading or take-home.
3. Structure of the Fund
Founders and shareholders:
- Ramūnas Garbaravičius
- Prof. Egidijus Aleksandravičius
- Saulius Garbaravičius
Members of the Fund's Board of Directors (new Board formed in January 2023):
- Ramūnas Garbaravičius
- Prof. Egidijus Aleksandravičius
- Dr. Linas Venclauskas
- Diana Vilytė
- Jurgita Garbaravičienė
- Vygandas Blandis
- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Andžej Pukšto
- Austė Aleksandravičiūtė-Šviažienė
Honorary members:
- H.E. Kazuko Shiraishi
- Marie-Christine Opsomer
Director:
- Ramūnas Janulaitis
4. Financial performance report
Five-year report on the Fund's performance:
The Foundation's operating income comes from services provided for excursions and museum visits. A small part of its income comes from the sale of souvenir badges, pendants, postcards and books.
However, in recent years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the number of visitors to the museum has dropped significantly, which has a strong impact on generating incomes. With the loss of tourists, primarily Japanese visitors, the Foundation is making a major effort to compensate for the loss of tourists by encouraging visitors from Lithuania itself and neighbouring countries in the region.
It is likely that tourist arrivals will start to grow again after the turmoil caused by COVID-19 and the end of the war in Ukraine, and that the increase in visitors should be driven by new activities
designed to attract visitors, yet it is difficult to estimate when the new activities will yield tangible results or whether the pre-pandemic tourist arrivals will return
Currently, the Foundation is sustained only by the support of legal and natural persons, and the income generated by its activities is currently too low to sustain the Foundation.
The main costs of the Fund are related to the staff allowances, maintenance and renovation of premises, as well as the costs of contributing to project activities, as the income from successful projects is only partly financed and the Fund has to cover the remaining costs from its own resources.
Projects are improving the museum's services, but it takes time to see a return on investment. The average annual number of staff in the institution is five people
The detailed annual accounts of the Sugihara Diplomats for Life Foundation are attached as Annexes, together with the notes thereto.
5. Sugihara House Museum premises
One of the main lines of the Fund's operating costs is the maintenance of the buildingmuseum located at 30 Vaižganto Street.
Pursuant to a lease agreement signed on 12 March 2003, the Foundation has the free use of 347,03 m2 of premises and 0,09 ha of land for its activities. The lease agreement is for an indefinite period of time and the Foundation does not pay rent. For the maintenance and operation of the premises, contracts are concluded with service organisations and fees are paid on the basis of the services provided.
The Foundation had a 5-year lease agreement with Vytautas Magnus University (VMU), which expired on 01.07.2016. According to the agreement, VMU used the premises free of charge, but reimbursed operating and utility costs during the lease period. At the end of the contract the premises were returned to the Foundation.
As of 01.07.2016, the Foundation has been using all the premises for its activities.
The building is a cultural heritage site built in 1939 and in need of constant maintenance.
Since the end of 2015, the Foundation has been implementing the reconstruction and renovation of the building and the premises that house the museum, in accordance with the approved project.
Fundraising and reconstruction and renovation work is being carried out to achieve this.
The table below shows: the renovation works carried out and the money spent on them, and the balance of funds collected:
6. Support
The Foundation's activities and initiatives (maintenance of the museum and its staff, educational activities, book publishing and other activities mentionedabove) would not be possible without the support it receives.
The funding used to finance these public activities, to reimburse the operating costs of the Foundation, to implement development projects and to reimburse and maintain the reconstruction and renovation of the Museum building can be seen in the tables below.
7. General information
● Public organization Sugihara Foundation "Diplomats for Life"
o Address for registration: Vaižganto g. 30, LT-44229, Kaunas, Lithuania.
o Registered as a public body on 14 December 1999.
o Public body code: 110078468
o The data is collected and stored in the State Enterprise Centre of Registers.
o The financial statements of the public body shall be adopted by the governing board of the Foundation. It shall be approved by the General Meeting of Shareholders.
o The financial year of a public body shall be the same as the calendar year. The institution shall be operational and shall have an unlimited period of operation.
o According to the contract dated 04.01.2010, the accounting services are provided by UAB Bafos paslaugos (code 135872365) and are open-ended.
● Address:
o Vaižganto g. 30, LT- 44229, Kaunas, Lithuania
o Tel: +370 37 332881, +370 652 43 999
o info@sugiharahouse.com