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Books about Jews arriving and living in Shanghai in the late 1930's are displayed at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. Photo: AFP

How Shanghai opened its doors to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war, in which an estimated 25 million civilians died, including 6 million Jews. Former US treasury secretary Michael Blumenthal recalls how his family took shelter in Shanghai after fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939.

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Michael Blumenthal was 13 when his family fled Berlin and the Nazis in 1939, boarding the Japanese passenger liner Haruna Maru to sail to Shanghai – the only city that would admit Jews without visas.

Several prominent Jewish families were already settled in the city, and when the Blumenthals arrived a month later, the Jewish community already numbered in the thousands.

Nine years later, the family left for the United States, where they settled as refugees. Blumenthal would go on to become treasury secretary in the administration of Jimmy Carter.

But he always remembers how hard life was as a teenager in Shanghai, and how the city changed when the Japanese took control of the foreign enclaves in 1941.

When he was young, he would visit a small cafe near his home. “It was called Wiener Stube, which means Vienna’s small room in German. There were seven chairs and I often sat there for three hours in the afternoon,” Blumenthal, now 89, said during a visit to the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum recently.

Community kitchen area in Shanghai's Jewish refugee camp in 1946. Photo: Corbis
“Most of the time there was war and life was very hard. Shanghai people suffered a lot and we [refugees] were suffering too,” Blumenthal said. “But in the end, we and local people lived peacefully as friends and that is a good memory for me.”

The museum is among the most significant Jewish historical structures still standing in the city. It comprises three parts – the former site of the Ohel Moshe Synagogue, which dates to the early 20th century, and two exhibition halls, displaying photos, short films and other items representing refugees’ life.

The museum changed hands several times after the war, and was reopened in 2007 after the Hongkou district government allocated funds to renovate the synagogue in line with its original design.

In his memoir, Blumenthal wrote that Jewish emigres expected life in Shanghai to be challenging but they had few other options. His parents tried to earn what little money they could trading petty items.

“Shanghai was the only place where we could seek refuge,” Blumenthal said at the museum. “Actually many who didn’t escape [from Europe] were killed.”

The Battle of Shanghai occurred two years before his family arrived, and the outcome gave Japan control over the Chinese administered parts of the city, while the International Settlement and the French Concession remained free.

Chen Jian, curator of the museum, said Shanghai accepted refugees so freely because of a “power vacuum” at the time. “Britain and France had concessions in Shanghai, but these countries didn’t issue visas for people coming to Shanghai,” Chen said. In 1943, pushed by their German allies, the city’s Japanese military authority drove Jewish refugees to a “stateless- refugee-defined ghetto” in Hongkou district, where the museum is located.

According to Chen, about 100,000 local residents and 25,000 Jewish people lived in the ghetto.

Blumenthal said the neighbourhood resembled an Austrian or German city, with German or English schools, kindergartens, sport clubs, a hospital and a synagogue. All the shop signs were in German. “We learned to speak Chinese, but not enough. Chinese people learned to speak English or German. So we could speak to each other,” he said.

Life grew more challenging during the final months of the war with the Japanese occupying the ghetto, and Americans responded by targeting the area with bombing runs.

“Over here across the street [from the museum] there was a Japanese radio station and American planes tried to hit it,” Blumenthal said. They destroyed it, but also dropped bombs on the street, killing quite a few Chinese people and 37 of our people.”

Blumenthal has returned to Shanghai eight time since he left in 1948, and each time the changes surprise him.

He said some of the hardships he faced in Shanghai affected him deeply later in life. He witnessed many dangers first-hand. “You had to give money to each policeman and to get every piece of paper issued by the government. Nothing worked without bribes.” This experience motivated him to fight corruption in the US, he said.

In his book, From exile to Washington, a memoir of leadership in the twentieth century, Blumenthal wrote that his time in Shanghai informed his political beliefs and made him care about public affairs. Witnessing such pervasive poverty ignited his interest in social sciences, especially economics, and convinced him to become a social liberalist.

The translation of his book from English into Chinese is almost complete and Chen said the museum was in contact with the publisher and publishing authorities to have it printed on the mainland.

In talks and exhibits, city recalls sacrifice and glory

Shanghai will this year host a series of large-scale events as it marks the anniversary of the end of the fight against Japan in the second world war.

Among the events are ceremonial displays, gala performances, the construction of a war-themed park and a recital of stories from Jewish refugees.

At a commemoration of the 83rd anniversary of Shanghai soldiers beginning their battle against Japan on January 28, 1932, the municipal Communist Party Committee's propaganda chief Xu Lin said the city should "study President Xi Jinping's key speeches, strictly implement the central government's instructions and spare no effort in holding the Second Sino-Japan War-related activities", the reported.

The commemoration marked the start of Shanghai's series of events to celebrate China's victory over the occupier. A war-themed park is under construction at the site where the battle was fought, and is slated to open in August.

In March, the municipal government held public lectures on the second world war. Gala shows will be held from April 28 to May 18.

Also lined up in September is a ceremony at the former site for the provisional government of the Republic of Korea on Madang Road. The building was used by South Korean leaders from 1926 to 1932 as they struggled to wrest independence from Japan.

In August, another ceremony will commemorate the Battle of Shanghai, one of the largest and bloodiest battles in the war. A photo exhibition highlighting the Communist Party's role in the war will be held at the former site of the party's first national conference on Xingye Road.

Ceremonies will be held on September 3 - the newly designated anti-Japanese war victory day - at multiple venues across the city, including Sihang Warehouse, where Chinese soldiers successfully held out against the Japanese forces.

The government-sponsored Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum plans to apply to be listed in the Unesco's Memory of the World once it collects enough material such as videos and refugees' names, museum director Chen Jian said.

During the second world war, Shanghai took in 25,000 Jewish refugees from Europe. The museum plans to design a tourism route, with direction signs and rebuilt roads, through the communities where the refugees once lived. Staff will tour Australia and Switzerland this year to set up exhibitions and seek stories from Jewish refugees and their families from around the world.

The 'Oskar Schindlers' of Japan and China

Japan’s Chiune Sugihara
China’s He Fengshan
They have been dubbed the "Oskar Schindler" of Japan and China for defying orders in helping to save thousands of Jews from Nazi death camps during the second world war.

Chiune Sugihara used his position as vice-consul at Japan's diplomatic mission in Kaunas, Lithuania, to issue life-saving transit permits for Jewish families fleeing Poland after Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded in 1939. He helped an estimated 1,000 Polish Jews travel to Shanghai.

Jews also found a saviour in He Fengshan, a diplomat who headed China's mission in Vienna from 1938 to 1940. He issued visas to about 1,200 Jews, but his daughter believes he may have issued thousands more visas.

Sugihara was honoured by the Israeli government in 1985 and died the following year. He died in 1997 without his deeds being lauded, but Israel and China have since recognised him as a hero.

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Shanghai's shelter from the Nazi storm
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