Where 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
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