Chiune Sugihara: A Psychohistorical Study of a Rescuer of Jews during the Holocaust

Authors

Christina Alanne Perris, CSUSB

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the actions of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, a rescuer of Jews during the Holocaust, utilizing a personality model developed by social scientists Samuel and Pearl Oliner. The Oliners’s altruistic personality model centers on the idea that individuals who became rescuers have a distinct personality that responds to the complex interaction between three components: 1) the external circumstances they are confronted with; 2) internal characteristics that goad them into action; and 3) their ultimate decision to take action. Although no two‐dimensional model is ever complex enough to capture the intimate complexity of a human personality, the Oliners’s model is ideal in “fleshing out” the personality of Sugihara as very little is known of the man beyond his rescue effort; he left scant written accounts of his life.

Recommended Citation

Perris, Christina Alanne (2009) "Chiune Sugihara: A Psychohistorical Study of a Rescuer of Jews during the Holocaust," History in the Making: Vol. 2, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/history-in-the-making/vol2/iss1/6