After the war, Sugihara was fired from the Japanese foreign service, ostensibly due to downsizing. In 1985, Sugihara's wife and son received the Righteous Among the Nations honor in Jerusalem, on behalf of the ailing Sugihara, who died in 1986. As well as in other countries Rescuers from Lithuania came from different layers of society. The most iconical figures are librarian Ona Šimaitė, doctor , writer Kazys Binkys and his wife journalist Sofija Binkienė, musician Vladas Varčikas, writer and translator Danutė Zubovienė (Čiurlionytė) and his husband Vladimiras Zubovas, doctor Elena Kutorgienė, aviator Vladas Drupas, doctor Pranas Mažylis, Catholic priest Juozapas Stakauskas, teacher Vladas Žemaitis, Catholic nun Maria Mikulska and others. In Šarnelė village (Plungė district) Straupiai family (Jonas and Bronislava Straupiai togehter with their neighbours Adolfina and Juozas Karpauskai) saved 26 people (9 families). Citizens of the Republic of Lithuania and foreign countries who rescue people on the territory of Lithuania and citizens of the Republic of Lithuania abroad are awarded with Life Saving Crosses. The President of Lithuania honors Jewish rescuers every year on the occasion of the National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews, which is marked on Sep. 23 to commemorate the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto on that day in 1943. Unlike many other Eastern European countries under Nazi occupation, Albania—which has a mixed Muslim and Christian population and a tradition of tolerance—became a safe haven for Jews. At the end of 1938, Albania was the only remaining country in Europe that still issued visas to Jews through its embassy in Berlin. Following the Nazi occupation of Albania, the country refused to hand over its small Jewish population to the Germans, sometimes even providing Jewish families with forged documents. During the war, about 2,000 Jews sought refuge in Albania, and many of them took shelter in rural parts of the country where they were protected by the local population. At the end of the war, Albania's Jewish population was greater than it was prior to the war, making it the only country in Europe where the Jewish population increased during World War II. Out of two thousand Jews in total, only five Albanian Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis.