An Unlikely Refuge: Surviving the Holocaust in Shanghai

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As a follow-up to WQED’s PBS national documentary, “Harbor from the Holocaust” this 30-minute local documentary examines the Pittsburgh connections to a little-known story of Jews who found refuge in Shanghai during the Holocaust. Segments include the stories of a Chinese diplomat who saved thousands of people by providing visas, a woman who taught scores of Jewish refugee children, and the remembrances of a Pittsburgh man born in the Shanghai ghetto.
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[@user-zn6km1ry4s]

My father, his parents and his sister survived the war in Shanghai. I still have his report cards from the Kadoori school. My mother in law and her family, the Walkins, were there as well. This is a beautifully done video.

[@SHAYuanRongBing]

I am from Shanghai, China, and I think the transcripts and related items of your parents in Shanghai will be quite precious historical materials

[@peteryang8991]

If China didn't fall to Communist rule after WW2, Shanghai probably have the largest or 2nd largest Jewish community outside Israel today. (Right now New York got the largest Jewish community outside Israel)

[@Juizhaigou]

I was born in Shanghai in 1951. My father was from Malaya and my mother was Shanghainese. Together with other members of the family, we left China in 1956. During the final year, we lived in a tenement in a courtyard building near Jiujiang Road. I would certainly love to visit the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum one day.

[@lanzhang9623]

I am familiar with Jiujiang road. Since I am Shanghainese.

[@Juizhaigou]

@@lanzhang9623 Wunderbar. I made my first visit back in 2001.My cousin brought me back to where I used to live. Unfortunately, the neighbourhood has been torn down for redevelopment.

[@enochwu545]

I was born in British Concession of old Shanghai during that terrible era (1939), and luckily my family survived the ravages of the Japanese army in WW2. My wife and I migrate to Canada in 1973, after both of us retired, we visit Shanghai every two years, in the trip of Oct 2019, we also visited Shanghai Jewish refugee museum & had a cup of coffee in the famous Jewish coffee shop White Horse Inn, Just across the road of synagogue.

[@donna-mariebell1192]

Wow! God bless all descendants of Feng Shan Ho!

[@rareword]

Jakob Rosenfeld. one of the Austrian Jew who fled to Shanghai was a doctor. He became something like Mao Zetong's health minister at some point and was known by the Chinese as General Luo Shengte . There is a statue which commemorates him somewhere, probably in Bejing.

[@anonymous-kw2cu]

China built a memorial hall which commemorates Hakb Rosenfield in Shandong province.

[@Sonlokill]

a Jew having something to do with communism, thats something new

[@TheEricShen]

@@Sonlokill the fuck is that supposed to mean?

[@qiqihaer6949]

Wonderful stories!

[@luzlara1389]

Wonderful? Interesting maybes

[@user-iw1dy8wr4r]

Belajar dari pengalaman bagaimana China walau dalam keadaan susah disituasi perang masih bisa membantu kaum Yahudi, maka disaat ini sebaiknya berfikirlah negara Israel untuk bekerjasama yang erat dengan negara China yang tidak pernah sekalipun menyakiti kalian walau kalian masuk blok Barat tapi kalian tetaplah kaum yang selalu akan dipersekusi bila situasi memburuk.

[@yufish6576]

It will be a better document if some Shanghai Chinese are interviewed.

[@jackreacher8858]

An old old old Chinese saying ' IN THE 4 CORNERS OF THE FAR SEA ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS

[@Weeping-Angel]

Harry was a brave boy.

[@peterrodby2786]

The Jews were given thousands of passports by a Chitsune Sugihara (i believe) a Japanese diplomat while other nations turned a blind eye.

[@davidw.2791]

So they can get out of Europe via Portugal, right?

[@apebored]

😅 I believe it was a Chinese ambassador issued thousands of passports to Jewish refugees, zh.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/何凤山

[@paulho6412]

There were many people helping the Jews in those days. The Japanese diplomat was one of them. For those Jewish refugees to Shanghai, it’s the work of the Chinese diplomat in Austria, Dr Feng Shan Ho.

[@yapyapyap2805]

Did the Japanese allow the Jewish refugees into Japan like the Chinese did ?

[@unclesuworld]

Yes japanese diplomat too issued a few hundred visas

[@gonzalesfrederic6213]

Meanwhile some Chinese found a (not-absolutely-safe, but a better then than any place around) safer place than Shanghai in Macau. The Japanese went in and out of that territory as they wished, or almost so, but the neutrality of the Portuguese-ruled enclave gave some enormous safety if compared to Japanese-occupied Chinese land. ln the end, if a Jew in WWII and threatened in Nazi-Occupied countries, l would have found places not that safe then, such as Gibralar or Malta (besieged) or Liechtenstein (let free by the Nazi, but that could change overnight), suddenly look very safe. So, Shanghai, though it was not that safe then with the war the Japanese waged horrificly in China, may well, due to the circunstances, have been an option sought after.

[@davidw.2791]

In short, over there they won’t kill you for being Jewish, but they may kill you if they think you’re a communist, or any brand of Chinese resistance.

[@maxinearnold8812]

Didn't Japan bomb Shanghai to dust?

[@supeskrim]

The real target is the allies and mil but not for genociding specifically.

[@liulo823]

Almost, they didn't bomb foreign concession

[@dima6042]

Don’t badmouth Japanese too much. Good or bad japanese accepted Jewish refugees and maybe the treatment wasn’t perfect but it was a paradise compared to Europe.

[@lewisricky8470]

Don't bad moth japanese ??? Wow that's rish coming from whoever you are ! Just because japanese accepted jews justify their evil crimes all across the world ?

[@shaneguo7579]

you really don't understand anything.... it's so embarrassing

[@liulo823]

Japanese accepted Jewish refugees? They send them to camp, just didn't kill them. It doesn't mean they r good, if u looked what they did to Chinese, they r not only bad, they r evil. Exactly their 713 army.

[@apebored]

You know nothing about how Jewish refugees in Shanghai were tortured by Japanese back that times.

[@jx1256]

More than 10 million Chinese people were killed when Japan invaded China.