Jewish Group
Related: About this forumWhere Did 20,000 Jews Hide From The Holocaust? In Shanghai: NPR
- NPR, Aug. 6, 2023.
In the late 1930s, as the Nazis stepped up their persecution of German and Austrian Jews, many countries in the West severely limited the number of visas they granted to refugees.
But there was one place refugees could go without even obtaining a visa: Shanghai.
Long known as an "open city," the Chinese port was tolerant of immigrants. Much of it was controlled not by the nationalist government, but by foreign powers including France, Britain and the United States that had demanded their own autonomous districts. Jewish people had been moving there since the mid-1800s, and as long as people could reach it at the time, most likely by boat they could live there.
Shanghai would go on to harbor nearly 20,000 Jewish evacuees from Europe before and during World War II. But life there was not always pretty. Japan had invaded China earlier in the decade and eventually seized control of the entire city. The Japanese army forced Jewish refugees into one working-class district, Hongkou, leading to crowded, unsanitary conditions in which disease spread rapidly.
Two bedrooms. Ten people living there," said Ellen Chaim Kracko of her family's living quarters. She was born in the city in 1947. "If you were lucky, you would have indoor plumbing, a toilet. Otherwise, what they called 'honey pots.'" A museum dedicated to this little-known chapter of history, the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, opened there in 2007. This month, it set up a small exhibit based on its collection at Fosun Plaza, 28 Liberty St., in New York City. It runs until Aug. 14 and is free...
- More + Photos, https://www.npr.org/2023/08/06/1192118339/jewish-refugees-shanghai-world-war-ii
niyad
(120,365 posts)appalachiablue
(42,980 posts)Tanuki
(15,369 posts)"Shanghai Survivor Talk: Laurence Tribe
Born to Russian Jewish refugees in Shanghai, China, Harvard Constitutional Law Professor Laurence Tribe was not yet 4 when his dad was liberated at a Japanese Prison Camp by the U.S. Military.
Born in China to Russian Jewish refugees who fled antisemitism in Europe, Tribe is a renown constitutional law scholar whose treatise, American Constitutional Law, is cited more than any other legal text since 1950. His Harvard Law students include President Barack Obama, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, and Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Elena Kagan.
Join us to hear how his early life in a war-torn Shanghai as the child of refugees, persecuted because of their identity, shaped his distinguished, notable career."
No wonder he stands against fascism.
appalachiablue
(42,980 posts)BigDemVoter
(4,551 posts)mitch96
(14,703 posts)He was about 90 or so at the time. My procedures were a bit long so I usually started a conversation to ease the boredom of the test..
Lots of waiting for the medicine to get where it was suppose to go.
Anyhoo this gent proceeds to tell me of his familys escape from Europe to Shanghai in late
1939-40. He spoke fluent Russian, Yiddish, Mandarin and English. He said where they were the occupying Japanese troops did not bother them.
They were HELL on the Chinese though.
They would help the Chinese any chance they could get at great peril.
What a fascinating guy that had such a great attitude on life..
m
appalachiablue
(42,980 posts)> Few, if any, of the refugees knew until after the war of the genocide that they had escaped until after the war.
Descendants of the Shanghai refugees hold stories about their ancestors' time there dear to their hearts, and also keep track of how many of their relatives are now alive as a result.
mitch96
(14,703 posts)Yup, he mentioned after the war they went looking for family... All gone.
Same with my fathers family in Russia.. all gone.
m
appalachiablue
(42,980 posts)farmbo
(3,139 posts)... "Night Angels" by Weina Dai Randel (Lake Union Publishing, Seattle,2023) is based on the efforts of Dr Ho Fengshan, a low-level official of the Chinese Consulate in Nazi occupied Vienna during the War.
After learning the horrible truth about the rounding up of Austrian Jews-- most were forced into slave labor at the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp, where at least 90,000 were killed---Dr. Fengshan (against his superiors' orders) began issuing travel visas to the local Jewish community, mostly to the City of Shanghai, where many lived out their lives in that thriving international community.