The Shanghai Ghetto

July 1939. 

At the Evian conference, 32 countries discussed options for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution, most refusing to accept any. As the Nazis imposed harsh laws against Jewish Germans that stripped them of their rights and forced them out of society, many looked for an escape and found the world unwelcoming.

This summer, as an intern at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, I’ve had the opportunity to get involved with the Stories Survive program. This week, I interviewed Jerry Lindenstraus, a member of the Survivors Bureau and a Holocaust survivor who escaped to Shanghai. 

Jerry, born Gerd, lived in East Prussia with his family. They were happy, assimilated members of society, who were well-off, and supported by the profits from Jerry’s father’s department store. As they witnessed the rise of Hitler, Jerry’s father was forced to sell his store at a drastically reduced price, and in November of 1938, they experienced Kristallnacht. As Jerry described it, this was the moment when his father decided they had to leave as soon as possible. His parents were divorced, so in July of 1939, Jerry left his home behind, boarding a German luxury ship with his father and stepmother. They were forced to purchase first-class tickets, as his father would have done anything to get his family out of Germany. Shanghai was, in Jerry’s words, an incredibly international city. Colonial powers like the United States, France, and Great Britain had great influence there, and there was also a large population of Sephardic Jews. Most importantly, Shanghai was one of the few places in the world for Jewish refugees as visas were not required. In total, 18 to 20 thousand Jewish refugees found refuge there. 

The voyage was enjoyable, and Jerry recalled playing in the ship’s pool and not feeling fear. His father had made plans to provide for the family in Shanghai, though these quickly fell through. He had sent 500 pounds to a cousin in England, who was to wire them to Shanghai to support the family’s new life. Upon arrival, however, Jerry’s father discovered only 150 pounds in the wire transfer. This money was meant to allow them to stay in the wealthier French Concession of Shanghai, but they could only stay there for a few months before the money ran out, and they were forced to relocate to Hongkew, a Chinese working-class district.

Jerry’s family remained strong through this: his parents opened a market stand selling luxury German goods like perfumes and colognes, but, soon again, tragedy struck. During their first winter there, Jerry’s father contracted pneumonia and died, leaving Jerry’s stepmother to provide for them. Jerry explained how, while times were hard, he recognized how many of the Chinese were suffering alongside them, and that Jews were not being singled out or uniquely discriminated against. He recalled that having friends was important, as he wasn’t able to bring any toys or games from Germany, and he learned English there to play with other European Jewish refugees. 

After Pearl Harbor, in 1941, Japan occupied Shanghai, and Germany mandated that the Shanghai Jews be forced into a ghetto. This ghetto—about one square mile in area—was located in the Hongkew district. There, Jerry was able to attend a Russian synagogue, but since there was only one for the large Jewish population, he recalled service and religious events given in movie theaters. Jerry was able to attend a school for Jewish refugees, though he was mandated to learn Japanese in school as well. Though it was against the law, Jerry joined a Boy Scouts group composed of Jewish refugee children and received a certificate for war service. 

Life in the Hongkew ghetto brought unique struggles as well. Tropical diseases ran rampant; Jerry contracted malaria and experienced jaundice, and his stepmother experienced side effects of malaria for the rest of her life. Food was hard to access, even with his stepmother’s income, and he explained that they never had enough to eat. They received little news of the war, and only rarely heard information from Japanese soldiers, often about the Pacific front and not the European. While allied forces knew of the refugees’ location, sometimes the ghetto underwent artillery fire or bombings, resulting in the deaths of refugees, as well as Chinese and Japanese people, as there were high-priority Japanese military assets located nearby. 

Jerry recalled liberation well, as American soldiers came in, and he was able to eat chocolate and sugar—purchased from the American army stores—for the first time in years. He soon dropped out of school and received a job working for the U.S. military as they occupied Shanghai, working as a messenger and then in a factory. 

Liberation brought about a new chapter in Jerry’s life, as it allowed his birth mother to contact him. She had left Germany to live in Colombia, and after 10 years apart, she invited him to join her. He felt conflicted leaving behind his stepmother, who had raised him through these incredibly trying times, but he recalled other relatives around him saying that blood was thicker than water, and so he went. 

He lived in Columbia for years, where he learned to speak Spanish fluently. Then he relocated to the U.S., where he reconnected with his stepmother, married, and started an exporting business, bolstered by his connections in Colombia.

These days, Jerry keeps very busy. He emphasized that he doesn’t get stuck in the past, but will keep telling his story anyway. He plays chess, loves baseball and tennis, and spends time with his family. He works to make people aware of the thousands of Jews who once lived in Shanghai, and to ensure that we never forget the Holocaust. Days after, I couldn’t stop thinking about Jerry’s story. His positivity shone through, and his legacy lives on.