Shelter in Shanghai


German historian shares story of Jewish refugees


holocaust
Illinois State University history professor Steve Hochstadt came to CMU's Plachta Auditorium on Monday night to tell of the holocaust from a rare perspective: the story of Jewish refugees fleeing to Shanghai for safety.

Steve Hochstadt, a professor at Illinois State University and a renowned German historian, came to Central Michigan University's Plachta Auditorium Monday night to explain the Holocaust from a perspective that’s almost unheard of: the story of Jewish refugees fleeing to Shanghai, China to escape Nazi persecution.

Hochstadt is the son and grandson of Jewish refugees who managed to escape persecution by leaving Austria in 1938. His father fled Vienna for New York while his grandparents made the long, uncertain trip to Shanghai.

“The anti-Semitism which led to the Holocaust was a particularly European disease which was not catching in Asia,” Hochstadt said. “The Japanese were gentle with their Jewish prisoners, and although the Germans frequently asked, encouraged, and demanded that they do something about the Jews, they never did.”

Shanghai was certainly not the preferred destination for Jews fleeing Europe, Hochstadt explained, but the immigration limits imposed by other countries, including the United States, severely limited their options. China demanded no paperwork and no special documentation from refugees, so families began to pour in during the late 1930s. However, soon after 1939, this means of escape was closed at both ends by Germans and the Japanese.

This relatively open policy, while short-lived, led to 18,000 Jews taking up residence in Shanghai, where they lived in relative peace beside their Chinese neighbors and Japanese occupiers. The Japanese, who took Shanghai out of colonial control the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor, treated Jews with respect and had no interest in persecuting them.

“By looking at the Holocaust from Asia, I think I saw more than I had realized that anti-Semitism, racial hatred and the genocide the resulted is something that is culturally specific. It isn’t about a particular people,” Hochstadt said.

Jews living in Shanghai were relegated to the slums of the city but were able to leave their designated area for work and travel. This was a far cry from the situation in the Warsaw ghetto 5,000 miles away.

Jews living in Shanghai knew almost nothing of the horrors of concentration camps and death marches. Comparably, the situation in Japanese-controlled Shanghai was livable, and it was for this reason that many Shanghai refugees were silent with their stories for many years after the end of the war. Hochstadt’s work, which included interviewing over 100 Jewish survivors, was a major breakthrough in an incredible story that may have otherwise been overshadowed by the horror of the genocide in Europe.

“It’s a responsibility. Issues of war and justice are some of the most important things to people,” said professor Eric Johnson, co-chair of the Abel Speaker’s Series Committee.

Johnson, a professor of German history and longtime friend of Hochstadt, welcomed the guest speaker onto the stage Monday night. The two have been friends since they were roommates at Brown University 48 years ago and have dedicated countless hours to studying the subject.

The Jewish presence in Shanghai may be an obscure subject for Americans, but the Chinese government is proud of the fact that Jewish refugees found asylum in their country. The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, established in 2007, is the only museum in Shanghai dedicated to a foreign culture.

Monday night’s event was sponsored by the Dr. Harold Abel Endowed Lecture Series in the Study of Dictatorship, Democracy, and Genocide, an ongoing program to educate students on the nature of such topics.

“This particular lectureship was established in 2009 in honor of Dr. Abel, who was an educator and president here at CMU for 10 years,” said Dr. Pamela Gates, dean of the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Dr. Harold Abel was the president of CMU from 1975-1985 and was CMU’s only Jewish president.

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