Flight and rescue

" Flight and Rescue ... reveals the little-known story of more than 2,000 Polish Jewish refugees who escaped to safety only months before the Nazis began their campaign to exterminate the Jews of Europe. While the majority of Poland's 3.5 million Jews perished in the Holocaust, this small group managed to find refuge abroad. Temporarily trapped by the circumstances of war in Nazi- and Soviet-occupied territory, the refugees fought against enormous odds, suffering the hardships of long travel and overcoming the restrictive immigration policies of destination countries. Through a remarkable series of events involving the humanitarian intervention of Chiune Sugihara, a vice-consul of Japan, and Jan Zwartendijk, a Dutch acting diplomat, the Jews found an escape route to safety. During only a few precious weeks in the summer of 1940, Sugihara and Zwartendijk—though they never met—worked in concert to issue critical diplomatic stamps that enabled the refugees to flee eastern Europe." —Book jacket