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On 4 February in Kaunas, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė congratulated Daiva Čepauskaitė, a talented playwright, who was elected Person of Tolerance by the Sugihara Foundation Diplomats for Life. The title was granted for the activities, personal example and for openly expressing concern over xenophobia, anti-Semitism, manifestations of radicalism, intolerance of dissent, religious and ethnic persecution. Among the nominees elected this year there were also Dainius Pūras, a psychiatrist, and Vytautas Meištas, CEO of the company “Volfas-Engelman”.

During the official ceremony at Vytautas Magnus University, the Vice-Minister emphasized that it was important to courageously and frankly tell the truth about the Holocaust, like Čepauskaitė did in her play “The Pit”. Artistic director of the Kaunas Chamber Theatre staged this play under the name “Day and Night”. This spectacle agitates the soul, because it raises ethical issues concerning self-determination that belong not only to historical memory, but are also important today.

“Sometimes it may be difficult to be the Person of Tolerance. It is a demanding task to challenge stereotypes that are embedded at one time or another, sometimes stereotypes are even imposed purposefully,” Skaisgirytė Liauškienė said.

The Person of Tolerance received a diploma and a medal with the image of the Japanese Honorary Consul in Kaunas Chiune Sugihara. During the Nazi occupation, this diplomat issued visas and rescued many Jews and Poles who lived in Lithuania or sought asylum. In 1939, head of the Consulate General of Lithuania in Vilnius Antanas Trimakas, employee Birutė Verkelytė-Federavičienė and Dutch Honorary Consul in Kaunas Jan Zwartendijk also granted such assistance to persons who were persecuted by the Nazis.