I learned about Shanghai Remembered… Stories of Jews Who Escaped to Shanghai from Nazi Europe by Berl Falbaum after reading the novel Shanghai by Joseph Kanon. I obtained this book as an interloan from the Toronto Public Library.
Up until the late 1930’s, Shanghai and the Dominican Republic were the only ports in the world that did not require a visa to enter. Falbaum, who was a “Shanghailander” refugee himself, compiled stories from Jews whose families had escaped from either Germany or Austria to settle in Shanghai. Falbaum contacted refugees who by now had settled in the United States, but there were a few testimonials from those who were based in Israel. The stories were all rapid reads, and I raced through each family history as the survivors told about the worsening anti-Semitism, Kristallnacht and the threat of deportation to concentration camps that led all of them to decide to emigrate. Although there were 23 different stories I found almost all of them similar yet in spite of feeling that I was reading the same story over and over, I did not find the book boring by this repetition.
Gary Silvers (né Gert Siegbert Silberschlag) recalled how his father had come across the idea of settling in Shanghai. The reaction of his family members was similar to other testimonials:
“I do not know who recommended Shanghai to my father. I can imagine that he was incredulous to hear about Shanghai. What was there? How could we exist? How would we get there? These are but some of the questions he must have had.
“He discussed Shanghai with his Jewish relatives. All thought he was crazy. ‘Are you out of your mind going to Shanghai with your family? We already know that you go against the grain by marrying a Christian woman, but this is even crazier. Nothing is going to happen–you are a German citizen.’ The family split two ways–the very rich stayed put and all died in the concentration camps. The less rich considered leaving.”
All of the Jewish families spent just under ten years in Shanghai. Their testimonials told of a hard time at first, settling in to crowded and filthy dorms without any sanitary facilities and rampant with disease. Yet they pooled their resources and formed businesses and community groups. One refugee summed it up by saying that food was plentiful, yet money was short, so many had to sell off the possessions they had brought from home. As the threat of Mao’s Communist takeover grew near after the end of WWII, the refugees were on the run again. This time, however, countries were more welcoming to accept them. One refugee, Gertrude Kracauer, revealed:
“Having made all the necessary preparations, we were ready to leave after a sad farewell to our European and Chinese friends. It was not that easy for us to leave after this nine-year experience. True, the years were often hard and difficult, but also fascinating and eventful. The time was an unforgettable chapter in my life.
“After arriving in the United States and hearing about the atrocities in Europe, I realized how thankful we needed to be that the doors of Shanghai were open to us and other refugees, thus saving about 20,000 Jews.”
A photo insert showed what life was like in Shanghai and in the squalid Hongkew ghetto.
Ralph Harpuder evaluated his time in Shanghai with this remembrance:
“Shanghai will always be remembered in two very distinct ways: To the foreigners and Jews who settled in Shanghai long before the war began, Shanghai will be remembered as a carefree city in which fortunes were made. To 20,000 Jewish refugees who fled the horrors of Nazism, Shanghai will be remembered with gratitude for being the last place of refuge, a city that spared them from the Holocaust.”
By the beginning of the 1950’s the entire Jewish population had left, yet there are still reminders of the community even today. Some buildings and synagogues still stand, converted now for other purposes. In some of the testimonials, former refugees told of their return visits to Shanghai, in some cases over half a century later.