Shanghai ghetto
Encyclopedia
The Shanghai ghetto, formally known as the , was an area of approximately one square mile in the Hongkou District
of Japanese-occupied
Shanghai
, to which about 20,000 Jewish refugees
were relocated by the Japanese-issued Proclamation Concerning Restriction of Residence and Business of Stateless Refugees after having fled from German-occupied Europe before and during World War II
.
The refugees were settled in the poorest and most crowded area of the city. Local Jewish families and American Jewish charities aided them with shelter, food and clothing. The Japanese authorities increasingly stepped up restrictions, but the ghetto was not walled and the local Chinese residents, whose living conditions were often as bad, did not leave.
persecution such as the Nuremberg Laws
(1935) and the Kristallnacht
(1938) drove masses of German Jews to seek asylum abroad, but as Chaim Weizmann
wrote in 1936, "The world seemed to be divided into two parts—those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter."
The Evian Conference
demonstrated that by the end of the 1930s it was almost impossible to find a destination open for Jewish immigration.
According to Dana Janklowicz-Mann:
of Shanghai was established by the Treaty of Nanking
. Police, jurisdiction and passport control were implemented by the foreign autonomous board. Under the Unequal Treaties
between China and European countries, visas were only required to book tickets departing from Europe.
Following the Battle of Shanghai
in 1937, the city was occupied
by the army of Imperial Japan
, and the port began to allow entry without visa or passport. By the time when most German Jews arrived, two other Jewish communities had already settled in the city: the wealthy Baghdadi Jews
, including the Kadoorie
and Sassoon
families, and the Russian Jews
. The last ones fled the Russian Empire
because of anti-Semitic pogroms pushed by the tsarist regime and contre-revolutionary armies as well as the class struggle manifested by the Bolsheviks. They had formed the Russian community in Harbin
, then the Russian community in Shanghai
.
, the Japanese consul in Kovno, Lithuania
. Sugihara is said to have cooperated with Polish intelligence, as part a of bigger Japanese-Polish cooperative plan.
They managed to flee across the vast territory of Russia by train to Vladivostok
and then by boat to Kobe
in Japan. The refugees in number of 2,185 arrived in Japan from August 1940 to June 1941. Tadeusz Romer
, the Polish ambassador in Tokyo
, had managed to get transit visas in Japan, asylum visas to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Burma, immigration certificates to Palestine, and immigrant visas to the United States and some Latin American countries. Finally, Tadeusz Romer arrived in Shanghai
on November 1, 1941, to continue the action for Jewish refugees. Among those saved in the Shanghai Ghetto were leaders and students of Mir yeshiva
, the only yeshiva
in occupied Europe to survive the Holocaust
.
Similarly, thousands of Austrian Jews were saved by the Chinese consul-general in Vienna Ho Feng Shan
, who issued visas during 1938-1940 against the orders of his superior the Chinese ambassador in Berlin, Chen Jie.
later described their three-week journey with plenty of food and entertainment — between persecution in Germany and squalid ghetto in Shanghai — as surreal. Some passengers attempted to make unscheduled departures in Egypt
, hoping to smuggle themselves into the British Mandate of Palestine.
First German Jewish refugees, twenty-six families, among them five well-known physicians, had arrived in Shanghai, already in November 1933. By the spring of 1934, there were reportedly eighty refugee physicians, surgeons, and dentists in China. On August 15, 1938, first Jewish refugees from Anschluss
Austria arrived by Italian ship. Most of the refugees arrived after Kristallnacht
. During the refugee flight to Shanghai between November 1938 and June 1941, the total number of arrivals by sea and land has been estimated at 1,374 in 1938; 12,089 in 1939; 1,988 in 1940; and 4,000 in 1941. In 1939-1940 Lloyd Triestino ran a sort of "ferry service" between Italy and Shanghai, bringing in thousands of refugees a month - Germans, Austrians, a few Czechs. Added to this mix were approximately 1,000 Polish Jews in 1941. Among these, all the faculty of the Mir Yeshiva
, some 400 in number, who with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, fled from Mir
to Vilna and then to Keidan, Lithuania. In late 1940, they obtained visas from Chiune Sugihara
, the Japanese consul in Kaunas
, to travel from Keidan, then Lithuanian SSR
, via Siberia
and Vladivostok
to Kobe
, Japan. By November 1941 the Japanese moved this group and most of others on to the Shanghai Ghetto in order to consolidate the Jews under their control.
Finally, a wave of more than 18,000 Ashkenazi Jews
from Germany
, Austria
, and Poland
immigrated to Shanghai until the Attack on Pearl Harbor
by Japan in December 1941.
Much needed aid was provided by International Committee for European Immigrants (IC), established by Victor Sassoon
and Paul Komor
, a Hungarian businessman, and Committee for the Assistance of European Jewish Refugees (CFA), founded by Horace Kadoorie
, under the direction of Michael Speelman. These organizations prepared the housing in Hongkew (today known as Hongkou District
), a relatively cheap district compared with the Shanghai International Settlement
or the Shanghai French Concession
. They were accommodated in shabby apartments and six camps in a former school.
The Japanese occupiers of Shanghai regarded German Jews as "stateless persons".
In 1943, the occupying Japanese army required these 18,000 Jews to relocate to a 3/4 square mile area of Shanghai's Hongkew district where many lived in group homes called "Heime" or "Little Vienna".
The Baghdadis and later the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
(JDC) provided some assistance with the housing and food problems. Faced with language barriers, extreme poverty, rampant disease and isolation, the refugees were able to make the transition from being supported by welfare agencies to establishing a functioning community. Jewish cultural life flourished: schools were established, newspapers were published, theaters produced plays, sports teams participated in training and competitions and even cabarets thrived.
The Ohel Moshe Synagogue served as a religious center for the Russian Jewish community since 1907 (currently the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, located at 62 Changyang Road, Hongkou District). In April 1941, a modern Ashkenazic Jewish synagogue was built (called the New Synagogue).
, the wealthy Baghdadi Jews
(many of whom were British subjects) were interned, and American charitable funds ceased. As communication with the US was broken, unemployment
and inflation
intensified and times got harder for the refugees.
The JDC liaison Laura Margolis, who came to Shanghai, attempted to stabilize the situation by getting permission from the Japanese authorities to continue her fundraising effort, turning for assistance to the Russian Jews who arrived before 1937 and were exempt from the new restrictions.
describes the episode when the Japanese military governor of the city sent for the Jewish community leaders. The delegation included Amshinover rabbi
Shimon Sholom Kalish
. The Japanese governor was curious: "Why do the Germans hate you so much?"
According to another rabbi who was present there, Reb Kalish' answer was "They hate us because we are short and dark-haired." Orientalim was not likely to have been said because the word is an Israeli academic term in modern Hebrew, not a word in classical Yiddish or Hebrew.
On November 15, 1942, the idea of a restricted ghetto was approved. On February 18, 1943, the Japanese authorities declared a "Designated Area for Stateless Refugees", ordering those who arrived after 1937 to move their residences and businesses into the one-square-mile area within three months, by May 15. The stateless refugees needed permission from the Japanese to dispose of their property; others needed permission to move into the ghetto. While the ghetto had no barbed wire or walls, a curfew
was enforced, the area was patrolled, food was rationed, and everyone needed passes to enter or leave the ghetto.
According to Dr. David Kranzler,
Although a few temporary passes were issued to work and to 16 students of St. Francis Xavier College outside the ghetto, these were granted arbitrarily and were severely curtailed after the first year. But the fact that the Chinese did not leave the Hongkou ghetto meant the Jews were not isolated. Nevertheless economic conditions worsened; psychological adjustment to ghettoization was difficult; the winter of 1943 was severe and hunger was widespread.
The US air raids on Shanghai began in 1944. The most devastating raid started on July 17, 1945 was the first attack on Hongkua. In this air raid 33 refugees were killed (Chinese death were never confirmed but far more than refugees), and approximately 500 Chinese and Jewish refugees were wounded (mostly Chinese), and 700 left homeless (again mostly Chinese) by an attack on a Japanese radio transmitter in the Hongkou district. The bombings by the US 7th Air Force continued daily until the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, which ended the air raids.
Some Jews of the Shanghai ghetto took part in the resistance movement
. They participated in an underground network to obtain and circulate information and were involved in some minor sabotage and in providing assistance to downed Allied aircrews. In addition, over 90% of the residents were unable to leave the Ghetto until after the liberation in August 1945.
's army to take political credit for the liberation of Shanghai. With the establishment of the State of Israel
in 1948 and the fall of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, almost all the Shanghai ghetto Jews left. By 1957, only 100 remained, and today only a few may still live there.
The Government of Israel bestowed the honor of the Righteous Among the Nations
to Chiune Sugihara
in 1985 and to Ho Feng Shan
in 2001.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and China in 1992, the connection between the Jewish people and Shanghai
has been recognised in various ways. In 2007, the Israeli consulate-general in Shanghai donated 660,000 Yuan
, provided by 26 Israeli companies, to community projects in Hongkou District
, in recognition of the safe harbour provided by the ghetto. The only Jewish monument in Shanghai is located at Houshan Park (former Rabin Park) in Hongkou District.
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Hongkou District
Hongkou District is a northern district of Shanghai proper, People's Republic of China. It has a land area of and population of 799,700 as of 2001.It is the location of the Astor House Hotel, Broadway Mansions, Lu Xun Park and the Lu Xun memorial....
of Japanese-occupied
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, to which about 20,000 Jewish refugees
Jewish refugees
In the course of history, Jewish populations have been expelled or ostracised by various local authorities and have sought asylum from antisemitism numerous times...
were relocated by the Japanese-issued Proclamation Concerning Restriction of Residence and Business of Stateless Refugees after having fled from German-occupied Europe before and during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The refugees were settled in the poorest and most crowded area of the city. Local Jewish families and American Jewish charities aided them with shelter, food and clothing. The Japanese authorities increasingly stepped up restrictions, but the ghetto was not walled and the local Chinese residents, whose living conditions were often as bad, did not leave.
Jews in 1930s Germany
At the end of the 1920s, most German Jews were loyal to Germany, assimilated and relatively prosperous. They served in the German army and contributed to every field of German science, business and culture. After the Nazis were elected to power in 1933, the state-sponsored anti-SemiticAnti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
persecution such as the Nuremberg Laws
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...
(1935) and the Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
(1938) drove masses of German Jews to seek asylum abroad, but as Chaim Weizmann
Chaim Weizmann
Chaim Azriel Weizmann, , was a Zionist leader, President of the Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952....
wrote in 1936, "The world seemed to be divided into two parts—those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter."
The Evian Conference
Evian Conference
The Évian Conference was convened at the initiative of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in July 1938 to discuss the issue of increasing numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. For eight days, from July 6 to July 13, representatives from 31 countries met at Évian-les-Bains, France...
demonstrated that by the end of the 1930s it was almost impossible to find a destination open for Jewish immigration.
According to Dana Janklowicz-Mann:
“Jewish men were being picked up and put into concentration camps. They were told you have X amount of time to leave — two weeks, a month — if you can find a country that will take you. Outside, their wives and friends were struggling to get a passport, a visa, anything to help them get out. But embassies were closing their doors all over, and countries, including the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, were closing their borders. … It started as a rumor in ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
… ‘There’s a place you can go where you don’t need a visa. They have free entry.’ It just spread like fire and whoever could, went for it.
Shanghai after 1937
The International SettlementShanghai International Settlement
The Shanghai International Settlement began originally as a purely British settlement. It was one of the original five treaty ports which were established under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking at the end of the first opium war in the year 1842...
of Shanghai was established by the Treaty of Nanking
Treaty of Nanking
The Treaty of Nanking was signed on 29 August 1842 to mark the end of the First Opium War between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Qing Dynasty of China...
. Police, jurisdiction and passport control were implemented by the foreign autonomous board. Under the Unequal Treaties
Unequal Treaties
“Unequal treaty” is a term used in specific reference to a number of treaties imposed by Western powers, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, on Qing Dynasty China and late Tokugawa Japan...
between China and European countries, visas were only required to book tickets departing from Europe.
Following the Battle of Shanghai
Battle of Shanghai
The Battle of Shanghai, known in Chinese as Battle of Songhu, was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China and the Imperial Japanese Army of the Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War...
in 1937, the city was occupied
Military occupation
Military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a hostile army. The territory then becomes occupied territory.-Military occupation and the laws of war:...
by the army of Imperial Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
, and the port began to allow entry without visa or passport. By the time when most German Jews arrived, two other Jewish communities had already settled in the city: the wealthy Baghdadi Jews
Baghdadi Jews
Baghdadi Jews, also known as Iraqi Jews, are Jewish emigrants from Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, who fled religious persecution and formed immigrant communities in their new homelands...
, including the Kadoorie
Kadoorie
The Kadoorie family were originally Mizrahi Jews from Baghdad who in the mid-18th century migrated to Bombay India and later to British Hong Kong and Shanghai, China.It includes a number of notable individuals:...
and Sassoon
Sassoon family
The Sassoon family was an Indian family of Iraqi Jewish descent and international renown, based in Bombay, India. It was descended from the famous Ibn Shoshans, one of the richest families of medieval Spain...
families, and the Russian Jews
History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
The vast territories of the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest populations of Jews in the diaspora. Within these territories the Jewish community flourished and developed many of modern Judaism's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of...
. The last ones fled the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
because of anti-Semitic pogroms pushed by the tsarist regime and contre-revolutionary armies as well as the class struggle manifested by the Bolsheviks. They had formed the Russian community in Harbin
Harbin Russians
The term Harbin Russians or Russian Harbinites refers to several generations of Russians who lived in the city of Harbin, a major junction city on the Chinese Eastern Railway , from approximately 1898 to the mid-1960s....
, then the Russian community in Shanghai
Shanghai Russians
The Shanghai Russians were a sizable Russian diaspora that flourished in Shanghai, China between the World Wars. By 1937 it is estimated that there were as many as 25,000 anti-Bolshevik Russians living in the city, the largest European group by far...
.
Chiune Sugihara, Tadeusz Romer, and Ho Feng Shan
Many in the Polish-Lithuanian Jewish community were saved by Chiune SugiharaChiune Sugihara
was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from...
, the Japanese consul in Kovno, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
. Sugihara is said to have cooperated with Polish intelligence, as part a of bigger Japanese-Polish cooperative plan.
They managed to flee across the vast territory of Russia by train to Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
and then by boat to Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
in Japan. The refugees in number of 2,185 arrived in Japan from August 1940 to June 1941. Tadeusz Romer
Tadeusz Romer
Tadeusz Romer was a Polish diplomat and politician.He was a personal secretary to Roman Dmowski in 1919. Later he joined the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he served as Polish ambassador to Italy, Portugal, Japan and the Soviet Union...
, the Polish ambassador in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, had managed to get transit visas in Japan, asylum visas to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Burma, immigration certificates to Palestine, and immigrant visas to the United States and some Latin American countries. Finally, Tadeusz Romer arrived in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
on November 1, 1941, to continue the action for Jewish refugees. Among those saved in the Shanghai Ghetto were leaders and students of Mir yeshiva
Mir yeshiva
Mir Yeshiva or Mirrer Yeshiva may refer to:* Mir yeshiva * Mir yeshiva * Mir yeshiva...
, the only yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
in occupied Europe to survive the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
Similarly, thousands of Austrian Jews were saved by the Chinese consul-general in Vienna Ho Feng Shan
Ho Feng Shan
Dr. Ho Feng-Shan born September 10, 1901, Yiyang, Hunan, China—died September 28, 1997, San Francisco, California, USA) was a Chinese diplomat in Vienna who saved more than one thousand Jews, risking his own life and his career. Ho's actions were recognized posthumously when he was awarded the...
, who issued visas during 1938-1940 against the orders of his superior the Chinese ambassador in Berlin, Chen Jie.
Arrival of Ashkenazi Jews
The refugees who managed to purchase tickets for luxurious Italian and Japanese cruise steamships departing from GenoaGenoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
later described their three-week journey with plenty of food and entertainment — between persecution in Germany and squalid ghetto in Shanghai — as surreal. Some passengers attempted to make unscheduled departures in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, hoping to smuggle themselves into the British Mandate of Palestine.
First German Jewish refugees, twenty-six families, among them five well-known physicians, had arrived in Shanghai, already in November 1933. By the spring of 1934, there were reportedly eighty refugee physicians, surgeons, and dentists in China. On August 15, 1938, first Jewish refugees from Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
Austria arrived by Italian ship. Most of the refugees arrived after Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
. During the refugee flight to Shanghai between November 1938 and June 1941, the total number of arrivals by sea and land has been estimated at 1,374 in 1938; 12,089 in 1939; 1,988 in 1940; and 4,000 in 1941. In 1939-1940 Lloyd Triestino ran a sort of "ferry service" between Italy and Shanghai, bringing in thousands of refugees a month - Germans, Austrians, a few Czechs. Added to this mix were approximately 1,000 Polish Jews in 1941. Among these, all the faculty of the Mir Yeshiva
Mir yeshiva (Poland)
The Mir yeshiva , commonly known as the Mirrer Yeshiva or The Mir, was a Haredi yeshiva located in the town of Mir, Russian Empire...
, some 400 in number, who with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, fled from Mir
Mir, Belarus
Mir is an urban settlement in Kareličy raion, Hrodna Voblast, Belarus on the banks of Miranka River, about 85 kilometers southwest of the national capital, Minsk....
to Vilna and then to Keidan, Lithuania. In late 1940, they obtained visas from Chiune Sugihara
Chiune Sugihara
was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from...
, the Japanese consul in Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
, to travel from Keidan, then Lithuanian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...
, via Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
and Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
to Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
, Japan. By November 1941 the Japanese moved this group and most of others on to the Shanghai Ghetto in order to consolidate the Jews under their control.
Finally, a wave of more than 18,000 Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
immigrated to Shanghai until the Attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
by Japan in December 1941.
Much needed aid was provided by International Committee for European Immigrants (IC), established by Victor Sassoon
Victor Sassoon
Sir Ellice "Victor" Sassoon, 3rd Baronet, GBE was a businessman and hotelier from the Sassoon banking family. He succeeded to the Baronetcy on the death of his father Edward Elias Sassoon in 1924...
and Paul Komor
Paul Komor
Paul Komor was a Hungarian businessman and diplomat.He had lived in Shanghai since 1898, and had been involved in relief work as trustee of the Komor Charity Fund and chairman and treasurer of the Hungarian Relief Fund since 1924. Komor held the title of Honorary Consul General for Hungary in...
, a Hungarian businessman, and Committee for the Assistance of European Jewish Refugees (CFA), founded by Horace Kadoorie
Kadoorie
The Kadoorie family were originally Mizrahi Jews from Baghdad who in the mid-18th century migrated to Bombay India and later to British Hong Kong and Shanghai, China.It includes a number of notable individuals:...
, under the direction of Michael Speelman. These organizations prepared the housing in Hongkew (today known as Hongkou District
Hongkou District
Hongkou District is a northern district of Shanghai proper, People's Republic of China. It has a land area of and population of 799,700 as of 2001.It is the location of the Astor House Hotel, Broadway Mansions, Lu Xun Park and the Lu Xun memorial....
), a relatively cheap district compared with the Shanghai International Settlement
Shanghai International Settlement
The Shanghai International Settlement began originally as a purely British settlement. It was one of the original five treaty ports which were established under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking at the end of the first opium war in the year 1842...
or the Shanghai French Concession
Shanghai French Concession
The Shanghai French Concession was a foreign concession in Shanghai, China from 1849 until 1946, and it was progressively expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The concession came to an end in practice in 1943 when the Vichy French government signed it over to the pro-Japanese puppet...
. They were accommodated in shabby apartments and six camps in a former school.
The Japanese occupiers of Shanghai regarded German Jews as "stateless persons".
In 1943, the occupying Japanese army required these 18,000 Jews to relocate to a 3/4 square mile area of Shanghai's Hongkew district where many lived in group homes called "Heime" or "Little Vienna".
Life in the Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees
The authorities were unprepared for massive immigration and the arriving refugees faced harsh conditions in the impoverished Hongkou District: 10 per room, near-starvation, disastrous sanitation and scant employment.The Baghdadis and later the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is a worldwide Jewish relief organization headquartered in New York. It was established in 1914 and is active in more than 70 countries....
(JDC) provided some assistance with the housing and food problems. Faced with language barriers, extreme poverty, rampant disease and isolation, the refugees were able to make the transition from being supported by welfare agencies to establishing a functioning community. Jewish cultural life flourished: schools were established, newspapers were published, theaters produced plays, sports teams participated in training and competitions and even cabarets thrived.
The Ohel Moshe Synagogue served as a religious center for the Russian Jewish community since 1907 (currently the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, located at 62 Changyang Road, Hongkou District). In April 1941, a modern Ashkenazic Jewish synagogue was built (called the New Synagogue).
After Pearl Harbor (1941–1943)
After Japanese forces attacked Pearl HarborPearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, the wealthy Baghdadi Jews
Baghdadi Jews
Baghdadi Jews, also known as Iraqi Jews, are Jewish emigrants from Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, who fled religious persecution and formed immigrant communities in their new homelands...
(many of whom were British subjects) were interned, and American charitable funds ceased. As communication with the US was broken, unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
and inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
intensified and times got harder for the refugees.
The JDC liaison Laura Margolis, who came to Shanghai, attempted to stabilize the situation by getting permission from the Japanese authorities to continue her fundraising effort, turning for assistance to the Russian Jews who arrived before 1937 and were exempt from the new restrictions.
Further restrictions (1943–1945)
As World War II intensified, the Nazis stepped up pressure on Japan to hand over the Shanghai Jews. Warren KozakWarren Kozak
Warren Kozak is an American writer, journalist, a former contributor to National Public Radio and the New York Sun, and a former writer for ABC News...
describes the episode when the Japanese military governor of the city sent for the Jewish community leaders. The delegation included Amshinover rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Shimon Sholom Kalish
Shimon Sholom Kalish
Shimon Sholom Kalish was the Hasidic Rebbe of Amshinov–Otvotsk.He was the son of Rabbi Menachem Kalish , the 2nd Rebbe of Amshinov in Mszczonów , Poland, and the brother of Rabbi Yosef Kalish, Rebbe of Amshinov Shimon Sholom Kalish (1882–1954) was the Hasidic Rebbe of Amshinov–Otvotsk.He was the...
. The Japanese governor was curious: "Why do the Germans hate you so much?"
"Without hesitation and knowing the fate of his community hung on his answer, Reb Kalish told the translator (in YiddishYiddish languageYiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
): "Zugim weil mir senen orientalim — Tell him [the Germans hate us] because we are Orientals." The governor, whose face had been stern throughout the confrontation, broke into a slight smile. In spite of the military alliance, he did not accede to the German demand and the Shanghai Jews were never handed over."
According to another rabbi who was present there, Reb Kalish' answer was "They hate us because we are short and dark-haired." Orientalim was not likely to have been said because the word is an Israeli academic term in modern Hebrew, not a word in classical Yiddish or Hebrew.
On November 15, 1942, the idea of a restricted ghetto was approved. On February 18, 1943, the Japanese authorities declared a "Designated Area for Stateless Refugees", ordering those who arrived after 1937 to move their residences and businesses into the one-square-mile area within three months, by May 15. The stateless refugees needed permission from the Japanese to dispose of their property; others needed permission to move into the ghetto. While the ghetto had no barbed wire or walls, a curfew
Curfew
A curfew is an order specifying a time after which certain regulations apply. Examples:# An order by a government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time...
was enforced, the area was patrolled, food was rationed, and everyone needed passes to enter or leave the ghetto.
According to Dr. David Kranzler,
"Thus, about half of the approximately 16,000 refugees, who had overcome great obstacles and had found a means of livelihood and residence outside the 'designated area' were forced to leave their homes and businesses for a second time and to relocate into a crowded, squalid area of less than one square mile with its own population of an estimated 100,000 Chinese and 8,000 refugees."
Although a few temporary passes were issued to work and to 16 students of St. Francis Xavier College outside the ghetto, these were granted arbitrarily and were severely curtailed after the first year. But the fact that the Chinese did not leave the Hongkou ghetto meant the Jews were not isolated. Nevertheless economic conditions worsened; psychological adjustment to ghettoization was difficult; the winter of 1943 was severe and hunger was widespread.
The US air raids on Shanghai began in 1944. The most devastating raid started on July 17, 1945 was the first attack on Hongkua. In this air raid 33 refugees were killed (Chinese death were never confirmed but far more than refugees), and approximately 500 Chinese and Jewish refugees were wounded (mostly Chinese), and 700 left homeless (again mostly Chinese) by an attack on a Japanese radio transmitter in the Hongkou district. The bombings by the US 7th Air Force continued daily until the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, which ended the air raids.
Some Jews of the Shanghai ghetto took part in the resistance movement
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
. They participated in an underground network to obtain and circulate information and were involved in some minor sabotage and in providing assistance to downed Allied aircrews. In addition, over 90% of the residents were unable to leave the Ghetto until after the liberation in August 1945.
After liberation
The ghetto was officially liberated on September 3, 1945, after some delay to allow Chiang Kai-shekChiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
's army to take political credit for the liberation of Shanghai. With the establishment of the State of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in 1948 and the fall of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, almost all the Shanghai ghetto Jews left. By 1957, only 100 remained, and today only a few may still live there.
The Government of Israel bestowed the honor of the Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
to Chiune Sugihara
Chiune Sugihara
was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from...
in 1985 and to Ho Feng Shan
Ho Feng Shan
Dr. Ho Feng-Shan born September 10, 1901, Yiyang, Hunan, China—died September 28, 1997, San Francisco, California, USA) was a Chinese diplomat in Vienna who saved more than one thousand Jews, risking his own life and his career. Ho's actions were recognized posthumously when he was awarded the...
in 2001.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and China in 1992, the connection between the Jewish people and Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
has been recognised in various ways. In 2007, the Israeli consulate-general in Shanghai donated 660,000 Yuan
Renminbi
The Renminbi is the official currency of the People's Republic of China . Renminbi is legal tender in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong or Macau. It is issued by the People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of the PRC...
, provided by 26 Israeli companies, to community projects in Hongkou District
Hongkou District
Hongkou District is a northern district of Shanghai proper, People's Republic of China. It has a land area of and population of 799,700 as of 2001.It is the location of the Astor House Hotel, Broadway Mansions, Lu Xun Park and the Lu Xun memorial....
, in recognition of the safe harbour provided by the ghetto. The only Jewish monument in Shanghai is located at Houshan Park (former Rabin Park) in Hongkou District.
Partial list of notable refugees in the Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees
- Aaron AvshalomovAaron AvshalomovAaron Avshalomov was a Russian-born Jewish composer.Born into a Mountain Jewish family, he was sent for medical studies to Zürich. After the October Revolution, in 1917, which made further studies in Europe impossible, his family sent him to the United States...
, Russian composer. - Abba BermanAbba BermanRabbi Abba Mordechai Berman was a renowned Talmudist and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Iyun HaTalmud.Reb Abba was born on Tu BiShvat 5679 in Lodz, Poland to his father, Rabbi Shaul Yosef Berman, rosh yeshiva of Toras Chesed in Lodz and a student of the Chofetz Chayim. As a young child, Reb Abba's...
, Haredi rabbi, Rosh yeshivaRosh yeshivaRosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
. - Charles K. BlissCharles K. BlissCharles K. Bliss was a chemical engineer and semiotician, inventor of Blissymbolics. He was born in Austria, and got the Australian citizenship.-Early life:...
, whose Chinese experience inspired him to create BlissymbolsBlissymbolsBlissymbols or Blissymbolics was conceived as an ideographic writing system called Semantography consisting of several hundred basic symbols, each representing a concept, which can be composed together to generate new symbols that represent new concepts...
. - W. Michael BlumenthalW. Michael BlumenthalWerner Michael Blumenthal served as United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Jimmy Carter from 1977-1979.-Life and career:...
, served as the U.S. Treasury SecretaryUnited States Secretary of the TreasuryThe Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
. - Morris CohenMorris Cohen (adventurer)Morris Abraham "Two-Gun" Cohen was a British mercenary of Jewish origin who became aide-de-camp to the Chinese leader Sun Yat-sen and a major-general in the Chinese army.-Early years:...
, known by his nickname Two-Gun Cohen, he served as bodyguard and aide-de-camp to Sun Yat-senSun Yat-senSun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
, eventually becoming a Chinese general. - Shaul Eisenberg, who founded and ran the Eisenberg Group of Companies in Israel.
- Gunther Gassenheimer, rabbi, Temple IsraelTemple IsraelTemple Israel is the given name of numerous synagogues. It may refer to:*Temple Israel of Hollywood, Los Angeles, California*Temple Israel *Temple Israel *Temple Israel...
, Alameda, CA. - Eduard GlassEduard GlassEduard Glass was an Austrian chess master.He won at Vienna 1927, and shared 1st with Erich Eliskases at Innsbruck 1929 . He played several times in the Trebitsch Memorial in Vienna....
, Austrian chess master. - Eric Halpern, a cofounder of the Far Eastern Economic ReviewFar Eastern Economic ReviewThe Far Eastern Economic Review was an English language Asian news magazine started in 1946. It printed its final issue in December 2009. The Hong Kong-based business magazine was originally published weekly...
and its first editor. - Leo HaninLeo HaninLeo Hanin was a Zionist activist.Born into a Jewish family in Vilna , then in Russian Empire, he and his family left for Harbin, Manchuria , in 1916. There Leo joined a Zionist group and studied Jewish history at a Jewish primary school, and then studied at a Russian secondary school...
, leader of Shanghai BetarBetarThe Betar Movement is a Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, by Vladimir Jabotinsky. It has been traditionally linked to the original Herut and then Likud political parties of Israel, and was closely affiliated with the pre-Israel Revisionist Zionist splinter group...
. - Otto Joachim, German composer.
- Shimon Sholom KalishShimon Sholom KalishShimon Sholom Kalish was the Hasidic Rebbe of Amshinov–Otvotsk.He was the son of Rabbi Menachem Kalish , the 2nd Rebbe of Amshinov in Mszczonów , Poland, and the brother of Rabbi Yosef Kalish, Rebbe of Amshinov Shimon Sholom Kalish (1882–1954) was the Hasidic Rebbe of Amshinov–Otvotsk.He was the...
, Hasidic rebbe of Amshinov–Otvotsk. - Vivian Jeanette Kaplan, Author of Ten Green Bottles (book)Ten Green Bottles (book)Ten Green Bottles is a book by Vivian Jeanette Kaplan and a play based on the book. It is the true story of a Jewish family that escaped from Nazi-occupied Vienna to Shanghai under Japanese rule....
. - Yisrael Mendel KaplanYisrael Mendel KaplanRabbi Israel Mendel Kaplan or Yisrael Mendel Kaplan , known as "Reb Mendel" served as a teacher in the Hebrew Theological College in Chicago and in the Philadelphia Yeshiva to many of the men who were to become the leaders of Orthodox American Jewry.-Early life:Yisrael Mendel Kaplan was born in...
, Haredi rabbi, served as Reb Mendel. - Yechezkel LevensteinYechezkel LevensteinYechezkel Levenstein, known as Reb Chatzkel, , was the mashgiach ruchani of the Mir yeshiva, in Mir, Belarus and during the yeshiva's flight to Lithuania and on to Shanghai due to the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in World War II...
, Haredi rabbi, served as Mashgiach RuchaniMashgiach ruchaniMashgiach ruchani or mashgiach for short, means a spiritual supervisor or guide. It is a title which usually refers to a rabbi who has an official position within a yeshiva and is responsible for the non-academic areas of yeshiva students' lives.The position of mashgiach ruchani arose with the...
. - Francis MankiewiczFrancis MankiewiczFrancis Mankiewicz was a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. In 1945, his family moved to Montreal, where Francis would spend all his childhood. He was a relative of Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Herman J...
, Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. - Peter MaxPeter MaxPeter Max is a German-born Jewish American artist. At first, works in this style appeared on posters and were seen on the walls of college dorms all across America. Max then became fascinated with new printing techniques that allowed for four-color reproduction on product merchandise...
, American pop artist. - Michael Medavoy, a Hollywood executive at Columbia, Orion and TriStar Pictures.
- Rene RivkinRene RivkinRene Rivkin was an Australian entrepreneur, investor, investment adviser, and stockbroker. He was a well-known stockbroker in Australia for many years until his death in 2005.-Early life:...
, Australian financier. - Jakob RosenfeldJakob RosenfeldJakob Rosenfeld , more commonly known as General Luo, served as the Minister of Health in the 1947 Provisional Communist Military Government of China under Mao Zedong....
, more commonly known as General Luo, who spent nine years overseeing health care and who served as the Minister of Health in the 1947 Provisional Communist Military Government of ChinaGovernment of the People's Republic of ChinaAll power within the government of the People's Republic of China is divided among three bodies: the People's Republic of China, State Council, and the People's Liberation Army . This article is concerned with the formal structure of the state, its departments and their responsibilities...
under Mao ZedongMao ZedongMao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
. - Otto SchneppOtto SchneppOtto Schnepp, an Austrian-American scientist.Born in Vienna into a Jewish family, he lived in Shanghai from 1939 to 1948, where bounced between the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession as his father continued to practice medicine. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry at St....
, professor at University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university... - Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz, Haredi rabbi, served as Rosh yeshiva of the Mirrer YeshivaMir yeshiva (Poland)The Mir yeshiva , commonly known as the Mirrer Yeshiva or The Mir, was a Haredi yeshiva located in the town of Mir, Russian Empire...
in Shanghai (1941–1947), and in Jerusalem (1965–1979). - John G. StoessingerJohn G. StoessingerJohn G. Stoessinger, Ph.D. , a prize winning author of ten leading books on world politics, has been the recipient of the distinguished Bancroft Prize for History for The Might of Nations, and has served as Acting Director for the Political Affairs Division at the United Nations. On the eve of...
, Distinguished Professor of Global Diplomacy at the University of San DiegoUniversity of San DiegoThe University of San Diego is a Roman Catholic university in San Diego, California. USD offers more than sixty bachelor's, master’s, and doctoral programs... - Laurence TribeLaurence TribeLaurence Henry Tribe is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. He also works with the firm Massey & Gail LLP on a variety of matters....
, professor, Harvard Law SchoolHarvard Law SchoolHarvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, Carl M. Loeb University Professor - George ZamesGeorge ZamesGeorge Zames was a control theorist and professor at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Zames is known for his fundamental contributions to the theory of robust control, and was credited for the development of various well-known results such as small-gain theorem, passivity theorem,...
, a control theorist and professor at McGill UniversityMcGill UniversityMohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
, MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, QuebecQuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
.
See also
- Abraham KaufmanAbraham KaufmanDr. Abraham Josevich Kaufman was a Russian-born medical doctor, community organizer and Zionist who helped protect some tens of thousands of Jews seeking safe-haven in East Asia from Nazi atrocities during World War II.As a consequence of his contacts with Japanese authorities during World War II...
, a prominent Zionist in China - An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as NucleusAn Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus, was a secret Japanese government report created by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Population Problems Research Center, and completed on July 1, 1943....
(1943) - History of the Jews in ChinaHistory of the Jews in ChinaJews and Judaism in China have had a long history. Jewish settlers are documented in China as early as the 7th or 8th century CE, but may have arrived during the mid Han Dynasty, or even as early as 231 BCE. Relatively isolated communities developed through the Tang and Song Dynasties Jews and...
- History of the Jews in AustriaHistory of the Jews in AustriaThe history of the Jews in Austria likely originates in an exodus of Jews from the Roman occupation of Israel. During the course of many centuries, the political status of the community rose and fell many times: during certain periods, the Jewish community prospered and enjoyed political equality,...
- History of the Jews in GermanyHistory of the Jews in GermanyThe presence of Jews in Germany has been established since the early 4th century. The community prospered under Charlemagne, but suffered during the Crusades...
- History of the Jews in IraqHistory of the Jews in IraqThe history of the Jews in Iraq is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BCE. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities....
- History of the Jews in JapanHistory of the Jews in JapanThe history of the Jews in Japan is well documented in modern times with various traditions relating to much earlier eras.-Status of Jews in Japan:...
- History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet UnionHistory of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet UnionThe vast territories of the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest populations of Jews in the diaspora. Within these territories the Jewish community flourished and developed many of modern Judaism's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of...
- International response to the HolocaustInternational response to the HolocaustIn the decades since the Holocaust, some national governments, international bodies and world leaders have been criticized for their failure to take appropriate action to save the millions of European Jews, Roma, homosexuals and other victims of the Holocaust...
- Jewish settlement in Imperial Japan, a controversial view on the reasoning for Japan's assistance to European Jewry.
- MS St. Louis (1939)
- Proposals for a Jewish stateProposals for a Jewish stateThere were several proposals for a Jewish state in the course of Jewish history between the destruction of ancient Israel and the founding of the modern State of Israel. While some of those have come into existence, others were never implemented. The Jewish national homeland usually refers to the...
- Haavara AgreementHaavara AgreementThe Haavara Agreement was signed on 25 August 1933 after three months of talks by the Zionist Federation of Germany , the Anglo-Palestine Bank and the economic authorities of Nazi Germany...
, worked out between the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank, and the economic authorities Nazi Germany, to help facilitate the emigration of German Jews to Palestine (1933–1939). - British Uganda Programme, a British plan to give a portion of British East Africa to the Jewish people as a homeland (1903).
- Jewish Autonomous OblastJewish Autonomous OblastThe Jewish Autonomous Oblast is a federal subject of Russia situated in the Russian Far East, bordering Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast of Russia and Heilongjiang province of China. Its administrative center is the town of Birobidzhan....
, a Soviet territory intended as a Yiddish-speaking Jewish homeland in Siberia, established in 1934. - Fugu PlanFugu PlanThe Jewish settlement in Imperial Japan involved the movement of Jews to and through Japan to its occupied areas of China shortly prior to and during World War II, coinciding with the Second Sino-Japanese War...
, a Japanese plan to bring Jewish refugees to Manchukuo (1934, 1938). - Madagascar PlanMadagascar PlanThe Madagascar Plan was a suggested policy of the Nazi government of Germany to relocate the Jewish population of Europe to the island of Madagascar.-Origins:The evacuation of European Jews to the island of Madagascar was not a new concept...
, a Nazi proposal to deport European Jews to Madagascar (1938). - Kimberley PlanKimberley PlanThe Kimberley Plan, or Kimberley Scheme, was a failed plan by the Freeland League to resettle Jewish refugees from Europe before and during the Holocaust....
, an Australian proposal to bring Jewish refugees to Kimberley (1939/1940). - Slattery ReportSlattery ReportThe Slattery Report, officially titled "The Problem of Alaskan Development,” was produced by the United States Department of the Interior under Secretary Harold L. Ickes in 1939–40. It was named after Undersecretary of the Interior Harry A. Slattery...
, an American proposal to bring Jewish refugees to Alaska (1939–1940). - British GuianaProposals for a Jewish stateThere were several proposals for a Jewish state in the course of Jewish history between the destruction of ancient Israel and the founding of the modern State of Israel. While some of those have come into existence, others were never implemented. The Jewish national homeland usually refers to the...
, a British proposal of an alternative Jewish homeland in British Guiana was raised (1940).
- Haavara Agreement
- Racial policy of Nazi GermanyRacial policy of Nazi GermanyThe racial policy of Nazi Germany was a set of policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany, asserting the superiority of the "Aryan race", and based on a specific racist doctrine which claimed scientific legitimacy...
(1933–1945) - White Paper of 1939White Paper of 1939The White Paper of 1939, also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary who presided over it, was a policy paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain in which the idea of partitioning the Mandate for Palestine, as recommended in...
(Malcolm MacDonald White Paper) - Shanghai Ghetto (film)Shanghai Ghetto (film)Shanghai Ghetto is a 2002 documentary film produced and directed by Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann. Narrated by Martin Landau, the film chronicles the story of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s and their lives in the Shanghai Ghetto....
- A Jewish Girl in ShanghaiA Jewish Girl in ShanghaiA Jewish Girl in Shanghai is a 2010 Chinese animated family film written by Wu Lin and based on his graphic novel of the same name. It is directed by Wang Genfa and Zhang Zhenhui, and voiced by Cui Jie, Zhao Jing and Ma Shaohua....
Films
- Shanghai Ghetto Documentary by Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann.
- The Port of Last Resort: Zuflucht in Shanghai Documentary directed by Joan Grossman and Paul Rosdy. ' onMouseout='HidePop("64617")' href="/topics/Brandeis_University">Brandeis UniversityBrandeis UniversityBrandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
, New York Times Review by Anita Gates) - Another Time … Another Moses. 25 min. n.d. Oakton Community College, 1600 Golf
Rd., Des Plaines, IL 60016.
- Empire of the Sun. 154 min. 1987. Available at video stores.
- Escape to the Rising Sun. 95 min. 1990. National Jewish Center for Jewish Film, www.
brandeis.edu/jewishfilm.
- Exil Shanghai. 4 hrs., 35 min. 1996. Ulrike Ottinger Filmproduktion, Fichtestrasse
34, 10967 Berlin, Germany, office@ulrikeottinger.com.
- The Last Refuge: The Story of Jewish Refugees in Shanghai. 50 min. 2004. Ergo: Jewish
Video Catalog, 877-539-4748, info@jewishvideo.com.
- Legendary Sin Cities: Shanghai. 2005. 90 min. Toronto: Paradigm Pictures Corporation,
416-927-7404, or www.amazon.com.
- A Place to Save Your Life. 52 min. Filmakers Library, 212-808-4980, info@filmakers.
com.
- Round Eyes in the Middle Kingdom. 52 min. 1996–97. First Run Features/Icarus Films,
New York, N.Y., www. frif.com/new79/round_eye.html.
External links
- Ghetto Comedy
- References on Shanghai and the Jews of China
- Shanghai & the Jews of China exhibition. The Menorah of Fang Bang Lu (University of Technology, Sydney. Humanities and Social Sciences)
- Shanghai Jews
- Shanghai to Honor Its Jewish Legacy. City to Save Part of Refugees' Ghetto by Edward Cody (Washington Post Foreign Service. Page A23) September 5, 2004
- Restoring Jewish Legacy (China Internet Information Center) March 3, 2004
- The Jews of Shanghai - Stamps by Dr. Murray Frost. March 2002
- The Ghosts of Shanghai (includes a list of famous Shanghai Jews) by Ron Gluckman
- Colorful Jewish community contributed much to Shanghai by Robert Cairns (The Scribe - the Journal of Babylonian Jewry) Issue 76, Spring 2003 Maps of Shanghai ghetto Cultural life of Russian Jewish community in Shanghai by L.P. Chernikova (Oleg LundstremOleg LundstremOleg Leonidovich Lundstrem was a Soviet and Russian jazz composer and conductor of the Oleg Lundstrem Orchestra, one of the earliest officially recognized jazz bands in the Soviet Union Oleg Leonidovich Lundstrem (also spelled Lundstroem, Lundström, ; April 2, 1916, Chita—October 14, 2005, near...
Jazz Orchestra) - Rickshaw.org Website for the survivors and families of The Shanghai Ghetto
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Shanghai ghetto online exhibition
- Clinging to Life - Memoirs of Anka Voticky, by Teresa Ho and Cameron Moser