Wiesenthal Center Mourns Passing of Two Great Humanitarians

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is mourning the passing of two valued friends and humanitarians, Yukiko Sugihara and Rabbi Leslie Hardman, who dedicated their lives to helping the Jewsof Europe during the Holocaust and its aftermath.

Yukiko Sugihara was the wife of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat based in Kovno, Lithuania during WWII. Although he was not permitted to do so, Chiune was encouraged by Yukikoto issue exit visas for thousands of Jews trying to escape certain death at the hands of the Nazis. In addition to posthumous honors from Yad Vashem and the Japanese government,Chiune was given the Wiesenthal Center’s Medal of Valor, which Yukiko accepted on his behalf.

"Mrs. Sugihara was a worthy partner to her heroic late husband," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center. "In addition to her many honors from and visitsto the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a special highlight came in 1998, when she came to Israel as a guest of the Center and was brought to the Mirrer Yeshiva in Jerusalem. There she wasgreeted by aging Judaic scholars who were saved by the Sugihara visa a half a century ago. Mrs. Sugihara, wearing the traditional Kimono was then escorted to the Beit Medrash--wherethousands of students were studying holy Jewish texts.

Noted one rabbi, 'The Yeshiva only survived the Nazi Holocaust because of the courage and dignity of the Sugiharas -- and by extension we are all here today studying torah becauseof them.’"

Rabbi Leslie Hardman was a young chaplain serving in the British Army during the last days of the European Theater of WWII. He was sent by officers to the newly-liberated BergenBelsen concentration camp.

"Rabbi Hardman was a true ‘tzadik’ - a righteous hero, who was among the first to care for and bring hope to the dying and barely surviving Jews at Bergen Belsen concentrationcamp," said Rabbi Cooper. "He organized the first Shabbat service for the survivors, which was broadcast by the BBC and worked tirelessly to signal British Jewry the scope of thetragedy they found on the day of liberation and the urgent need for major intervention for the survivors of the Nazi Final Solution. The Simon Wiesenthal Center mourns the passingof this great Jew," concluded Cooper.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO atinternational agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.