The Dutch Jew Nathan Gutwirth studied at a Jewish university in Lithuania. In June 1940, the Soviet Union invaded the country and the university was closed down. Fearing repression, Gutwirth decided to flee. One of his acquaintances was the Dutch honorary consul in Kaunas, Jan Zwartendijk. Gutwirth asked Zwartendijk for an entry permit for the Dutch colony of Curaçao. He could not use it to travel directly to his destination, but it would at least allow him to leave Lithuania. The Japanese consul in Kaunas, Sugihara, then issued Gutwirth with the necessary transit visa for Japan.
Gutwirth and his fiancée Nechama Mintz left Lithuania at the end of 1940. They took the Trans-Siberian Railway across the Soviet Union and reached Kobe, where they remained for several months. In 1941 they continued their journey to the Dutch colony of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). There, Gutwirth was drafted into the Dutch army, which fought Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese. Guthwirth was freed in September 1945 and married Nechama Mintz.
