The sad outcome of his life and career stand in sharp contrast to the happy family pictures, some dating back to 1898. Artistically, these are the finest photographs in the show. Particularly striking is one of the diplomat, leaning against an automobile, with Rabbi Chaim Kruger, a member of the Jewish community who influenced the Portuguese consul to help other Jews. The calm dignity of the bearded rabbi reaches out to the viewer across the years. Another of deSousa Mendes as a young man, dressed in Turkish garb, is like a Velasquez painting in black and white.
Some pictures are blurry, emphasizing their age.
Others, from glass negatives, show astonishing detail. There are only eight photographs in the skimpy section devoted to Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk, mostly stiff official portraits. Chiune Sugihara, like Zwartendijk a consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, issued more than 6,000 transit visas to escaping Polish Jews, many of whom lined up at the gate of the Japanese consulate from early morning to night during one month in 1940. The photos of desperate refugees are particularly moving. One, hastily or ineptly taken, shows faces that are nearly obliterated in the eerie light.