Jefferies, Ned_Senior Thesis 2026

Forgotten Legacies: Jews, China, and the Untold Story of Shanghai during World War II Ned Jefferies Senior Thesis | 2026

Forgotten Legacies: Jews, China, and the Untold Story of Shanghai during World War II Ned Jefferies

Boston University Academy 2026

Jefferies 1 Part 1: Introduction From the resplendent luxury of Sephardic business success to the tragic poverty of life in the Hongkew Ghetto, the Jewish community of 20th century Shanghai is a fascinating case study into the seemingly improbable coexistence of hope and despair, agency and powerlessness, and compassion and brutality. While it is imperative that the stories of the millions of Jews who died in death camps across Europe during the Holocaust are never forgotten, the Jewish story is not, and has never been, a story of death. Since the religion began, the Jewish people has faced persecution, bigotry, and genocide, but every time, it has emerged stronger and more resilient. The Jews who arrived in Shanghai in the late 1930s and early 1940s were not just escaping death, they were embracing life. They flourished and thrived, improving their own lives and those of the native communities around them in many ways. To better understand the firsthand experience of a Russian Jew in Shanghai, I interviewed my relative Anne Joffe who was born and raised there in the years following World War II. It was valuable for me to hear and document her stories, knowing that I have personally contributed to keeping the legacy of the Shanghai Jews alive.

The traditional narratives surrounding the role of China and its people in the Second World War have also been misconstrued in order to serve certain political agendas, most significantly that of the Chinese Communist Party. Although China played a vital role in the Pacific Theater of War, slowing down Japanese advances and bringing in American aid, the successes of the Chinese people under pre-CCP leadership have been downplayed so much over the years that nowadays, the average Westerner is probably unaware that the nation participated in the war effort at all. ​ The aim of this project is to spread awareness about the complicated legacies of Jewish and Chinese people in Shanghai

Jefferies 2 before, during, and after World War II. Traditional narratives of the war have excluded important stories of resilience, bravery, and community. The Jews were not just powerless victims of the Holocaust and the Chinese were not just subservient and irrelevant Japanese subjects. For all the familiar tales of wartime derring-do, there are countless stories and lives that have been forgotten. For every household name like Oskar Schindler, there is an unknown and unsung hero like Ho Feng-shan. It is important to remember that it wasn’t just white Europeans who risked their lives during World War II. While their achievements are, of course, worthy of praise, the following stories of courage and selflessness in Shanghai serve as a powerful reminder that diversity and collaboration across seemingly unrelated communities is always mutually beneficial.

Jefferies 3 Part 2: A Century of Humiliation, A Century of Immigration In order to better understand the Chinese people’s mindset and attitude towards Jewish refugees during World War II, as well as the reasons for the suppression of Chinese wartime accomplishments, it is necessary to go back a century to 1839, to the beginning of what is known as the nation’s “century of humiliation.” This period of Chinese history, which lasted from 1839 until 1945 or 1949 (the specific year varies based on different political agendas), was an era marked by embarrassing defeats in wars, huge losses of territory to foreign powers, and severe internal fragmentation.1 A famous French political cartoon of the time depicted China as a cake being carved up greedily by the leaders of Britain, France, Russia, Japan, and other major world powers, all countries who colonized various parts of China as a result of many unequal treaties.

Figure 1. China: The Cake of Kings and Emperors. Photo Credit: Le Petit Journal, January 16, 1898.2 1

Kaufman, Alison. The “Century of Humiliation” and China’s National Narratives. U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, 10 Mar. 2011, www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/3.10.11Kaufman.pdf, 1–2.

2 Le Petit Journal. China: The Cake of Kings and Emperors, 16 Jan. 1898, worldhistoryarchive.wordpress.com/2020/04/25/china-the-cake-of-kings-and-em perors-political-cartoon-1898/.

Jefferies 4 Historians generally consider 1839 the starting point as it marks the beginning of the First Opium War, the first of China’s major national humiliations. After China’s crackdown on Britain’s illegal opium trade, the technologically superior British overpowered the Chinese in 1842, leading to the unfair Treaty of Nanking: China was forced to open five port cities, cede Hong Kong, pay war reparations, and allow the opium trade to continue.3 This embarrassment led to widespread anti-Qing government sentiment and hatred for foreign interference. As the century progressed, China lost more territory, including Outer Manchuria to Russia, Macau to Portugal, Taiwan to Japan, and Weihai to Britain. These concessions led to internal violence, such as the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901), an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist uprising which was eventually defeated by The Eight-Nation Alliance, a coalition of the most powerful European countries.

China was forced to pay 450,000,000 taels of silver (the equivalent of $60 billion today) over forty years, severely crippling China’s economy and national pride.4 In the early 20th century, Western powers began to realize the extent of the humiliation they had inflicted upon the Chinese people, and enacted some policies intended to alleviate the damage they had caused. At the same time, however, the growing Japanese Empire turned its attention more strongly towards its neighbor to the west. The atrocities committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) were devastating, yet the war 3

The National Archives. “Hong Kong and the Opium Wars.” The National Archives, 2023, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/hong-kong-and-the-opium-wa rs/.

4 Britannica. “Boxer Rebellion | Significance, Combatants, & Facts.”

Encyclopædia Britannica, 13 Feb. 2019, www.britannica.com/event/Boxer-Rebellion.

Jefferies 5 represented a turning point in restoring Chinese national pride.

When Japan attacked Shanghai in 1937, Chinese resistance forces held them off for three months, sacrificing their lives to protect the nation’s then-largest city. Although Shanghai was eventually captured, the Battle of Shanghai represented a rare occasion for the Chinese people to take pride in their nation. The Japanese military expected to take Shanghai within a few days — Chinese resistance forces held them off for three months.5 Additionally, the hard-fought battle brought Western attention to the Pacific front for the first time. The United States and other European powers had been hesitant to involve themselves in the war, believing that China had no chance of victory, and initially preferring to focus all their efforts on the tensions in Europe. However, the strength and fortitude of the Chinese resistance strongly impressed President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who imposed an embargo on Japanese aircrafts and metals in support of China. This trade ban eventually led to the attack on Pearl Harbor which brought the United States into the war, without whom the outcome of World War II would have been very different.6 Why, then, has China’s role in World War II been downplayed to such an extent that it is practically forgotten?

Surprisingly, the culprit is China itself — or rather, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When Mao Zedong announced the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, he declared, “Ours will no longer be a nation subject to insult and humiliation.

5

Paulose, James. Three Months of Bloodshed: Strategy and Combat during the Battle of Shanghai. Georgetown University, 2012, 1.

6 Klein, Christopher. “China’s Overlooked Role in World War II | HISTORY.” HISTORY, 18 May 2022, www.history.com/articles/china-role-world-war-ii-allies.

Jefferies 6 We have stood up.” Six years earlier, Chiang Kai-Shek had proclaimed almost the same thing as the unequal treaties were repealed and China joined the USA, the USSR, and the UK as the “Big Four” powers. In Mark Metcalf’s article, “The National Humiliation Narrative: Dealing with the Present by Fixating on the Past,” he says that, in the eyes of the CCP, “history is a topic that is simply too important to entrust to those having a different perspective.”8 Ramping up the perceived humiliation of the last century strengthened the CCP’s portrayal of themselves as the saviors of China. Thus, the stories of bravery in the Second World War were silenced, the heroes were forgotten, and the history books were destroyed. But the century of humiliation helps us understand why the Chinese people treated Jewish immigrants with respect and humanity, which very few Westerners were willing to show towards Jews at this time. The Chinese knew what it meant to be a humiliated people, they knew the pain of family and friends being murdered indiscriminately, they remembered the indignity of unfair policies and foreign occupation, they understood the fear of imperialism and oppression.

China’s century of humiliation coincided almost exactly with a hundred years of Jewish immigration to the East Asian country. There were three major waves of Jews that came to Shanghai from Europe and the Middle East, all from different branches of the religion and all for different purposes. Each group brought their own traditions, cultures, and identities to Shanghai’s melting pot. In the middle of the 19th century, Baghdadi Jews 7

7

Metcalf, Mark. “The National Humiliation Narrative: Dealing with the Present

by Fixating on the Past.” Association for Asian Studies, 2020, www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/the-national-humiliationnarrative-dealing-with-the-present-by-fixating-on-the-past/.

8 Metcalf, “The National Humiliation Narrative.”

Jefferies 7 came to China’s largest port city in search of economic fortune;9 in the early 20th century, Russian Jews fled pogroms (organized massacres of Jewish communities);10 while German and other Central European Jews sought the safe haven offered by Shanghai as a refuge from the Nazi regime in the 1930s and early 1940s.11 Beginning at around the same time as the Opium Wars, a steady number of Sephardic Jews came to Shanghai through India from Baghdad, seeking the financial opportunities of the thriving port city. Many Sephardim quickly became both successful and socially respected, such as the Sassoon family which has become known as the “Rothschilds of the East.” Although they arrived at the same time as the aforementioned foreigners that the Chinese people hated, the Baghdadi Jews were treated with an attitude of tolerance that eventually grew to admiration. The Sephardic community in Shanghai was very close-knit, but notably they did not isolate themselves. Instead, they worked hard towards the economic development of Shanghai for Jews and natives alike. In his book Japanese, Nazis & Jews, David Kranzler notes that “[The Sephardi magnates] were generous to their own community and no less so to China in general and Shanghai in particular. They believed in the future of China, and took great risks in helping Shanghai grow in the future of China, and took great risks in helping Shanghai grow into one of the world’s great ports. They also contributed more than their share to civic, communal and charitable causes.”12 These contributions did not go unnoticed or unappreciated by the locals: “Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Kuomintang, recognized early the great Jewish contribution to the development of China, and reciprocated with his support of the 9

Kranzler, David. Japanese, Nazis & Jews. Sifria Distributors, 1976, 45.

Ibid., 57.

11 Ibid., 90.

12 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 55.

10

Jefferies 8 Zionist movement.” Unlike the European occupiers who came to Shanghai solely to profit at the expense of the Chinese, the Jewish immigrants were respected ultimately because they treated their hosts with respect.

In addition to their financial offerings, the Sephardim also helped advance Shanghai through a unique blending of two cultures. This is best exemplified in the architecture of the time, which incorporated Jewish and Chinese styles. In the words of Rabbi W. Hirsch, spiritual leader of the early Sephardic community, “Their houses, charmingly Jewish, were a refuge for Jewish traditions which, made more quaint by the Oriental blend, were lovingly cherished and affectionately practiced. It was very refreshing to come across such homes. They stood out with all the attractiveness of an oasis in the midst of a desert.”14 In this way, the Baghdadi Jews of Shanghai demonstrated beautifully the advantageousness of immigrants, providing both an economic and an aesthetic boost to the pre-existing society.

The Sephardic community of Shanghai also endeavored to assist other Jewish groups in China, such as the Kaifeng Jews.

These were Jews that had lived in Central China since the medieval period who had, over the years, lost all knowledge of Hebrew and had no synagogues or rabbis, but still identified as Jews. In 1900, the Sephardim in Shanghai sent a letter to this community, promising their support should the Kaifeng Jews wish to learn Jewish customs again, “so that you may walk again in the footsteps of your forefathers.”15 They even went as far as to offer financial assistance in moving them to Shanghai, saying “there are in this city men of our faith, great and wealthy, men of affairs and business, who can help to maintain yourselves and your sons and 13

13

Ibid., 56.

Ibid., 53.

15 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 54.

14

Jefferies 9 daughters.” Although various external circumstances, including the aforementioned Boxer Rebellion, prevented these two Jewish communities from ever properly intermingling, it is fascinating to see the solidarity of different groups of Jews in China.

However, the Sephardim were not initially very welcoming towards the Russian, or Ashkenazi, Jews that arrived in Shanghai throughout the early 1900s. Many of these new immigrants were far poorer than their Sephardic counterparts, having escaped violent persecution in their homeland. Their number contained many ex-soldiers, political exiles, and former criminals who opened shady businesses in the more disreputable parts of Shanghai. A reputation soon developed for the Russian Jews, stereotyping them as Schnorrers, a Yiddish term meaning “beggar” or “scrounger.” In spite of these disadvantages, the Ashkenazi community soon grew and flourished, though never quite to the same heights as the Jews from Baghdad. They constructed the Ohel Moshe Synagogue in 1927, a beautiful temple in the Hongkew district that served as the center of Russian Jewish communal life in the city. Today, it houses the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, ensuring that the legacy of the Shanghai Jews is not forgotten.

While the first wave of Russian Jews brought pogrom escapees, successive waves of emigration came due to other factors, such as the Russian Revolution in 1917 and its accompanying rise in antisemitism. Some Russian Jews also came, like the Baghdadi Jews a half century prior, in search of economic success in a new land. This last group includes members of my own family, such as my great-grandfather, Ellis Joffe, who came to Shanghai in the 1930s to join his uncle’s pharmaceutical business.

16

16

Ibid.

Jefferies 10 In fact, the pharmacy they founded is still operating in Shanghai today.

Figure 2. Ellis Joffe in Shanghai, August 1936. Photo Credit: Joffe Family Archive17 The final group of Jews that came to Shanghai were the German and other Central European Jews that fled Nazi persecution in the period leading up to World War II. The situation facing Jews stuck in Germany in the 1930s was notoriously dire.

During the Nazi Party’s rise to power under Adolf Hitler, conditions steadily worsened for German Jews, a group that made up less than one percent of the country’s population. Throughout the decade, anti-Jewish sentiment escalated from propaganda and discrimination to mass incarceration and violent persecution. It was evident that Jews had to escape Germany if they wanted to survive. However, there were barely any places to escape to. At the Évian Conference in 1938, thirty-two countries convened to deliberate on the problem of Jewish refugees (ironically, with no Jewish delegates present at all). Each country ultimately decided 17

Joffe, Ellis. Outside a Temple in Shanghai, Aug. 1936.

Jefferies 11 that it was not worth their troubles to take in any Jewish refugees, apart from the Dominican Republic, led by a white supremacist who wanted to repopulate the island with white settlers.18 With the Jews now left at their mercy, the German government gloated over the conference’s inaction, saying how “‘astounding’ it was that foreign countries criticized Germany for their treatment of the Jews, but none of them wanted to open the doors to them when ‘the opportunity offer[ed].’”19 It seemed as if there was no hope for the Jews, abandoned by society to die in death camps, until word spread of a city halfway across the globe that didn’t require a visa to enter: Shanghai, China.

It proved difficult to get to this safe haven, however. While the Jews didn’t need a visa to get into Shanghai, they did need one to get out of Europe. After Kristallnacht and the annexation of Austria in 1938, the 200,000 Jews in Austria rushed to escape the Nazis. Ho Feng-shan, the Consul-General at the Chinese consulate in Vienna, went against direct orders from his superior and issued transit visas to Shanghai from 1938 to 1940, risking his life to save Jews. While the exact number is unknown, he issued 2,000 visas in the first year alone. Often called the “Chinese Schindler,” Ho Feng-shan saved thousands of Jewish lives and was posthumously recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, an honorific conferred on non-Jews who acted altruistically to save Jews during the Holocaust. He is one of only two Chinese people in history to receive this honor.20

18

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “The Evian Conference.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2019, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-evian-conference.

19 Ibid.

20 Yad Vashem. Ho Feng Shan. Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, 2023, collections.yadvashem.org/en/righteous/4044460.

Jefferies 12 Although the period of Chinese history from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century has been dominated by labels of humiliation, invasion, and fragmentation, these narratives do not tell the full story of this transformative time period. In the midst of war and colonization, Shanghai developed into a hub of cultural exchange and modernization: Jews and Chinese, merchants and entrepreneurs, and people of all backgrounds coming together. Life for the Jewish refugees was by no means easy, which makes their successes in China all the more remarkable.

Jefferies 13 Part 3: Jewish Life in Shanghai ​ When the first German Jews arrived in Shanghai, they found a welcoming and thriving Jewish community awaiting them.

Sephardic and Ashkenazi social life was flourishing; the Russian Jews had established “The Club,” a kind of community center that was the hub of Ashkenazi social activities, such as ballet, opera and theater performances, a soccer team that participated in the Shanghai Football League, and lectures on both religious and secular topics.21 In a 2025 interview, Anne Joffe recalled how her parents first met at a ball at the Shanghai Club in the 1930s: her father saw her mother from across the hall, asked her to dance, and at the end of the night, he proposed! ​ Although the two sects of Jewish immigrants had their differences, they came together to support their fellow Jews. The Relief Committee welcomed the incoming refugees with the greeting: “Welcome to Shanghai. Now you are no longer Germans, Austrians, Czechs or Roumanians. Now you are only Jews. The Jews of the whole world have prepared a home for you.”22 They created a relief fund for the European Jews, most of whom had been forced to leave their homes with barely any possessions or money. A new organization formed in 1938, the Komor Committee, worked to provide housing and employment for the refugees. Victor Sassoon, of the previously mentioned wealthy Sephardic family, donated an office building to serve as a new refugee center.23 Additionally, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) sent valuable financial aid to their fellow Jews across the globe.24 21

Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 64–65.

Ibid., 85.

23 Ibid., 93.

24 Hanrahan, Niamh. “Humanitarian Workers and Jewish Refugees in World War II Shanghai: The Work of Laura Margolis and the American Jewish Joint 22

Jefferies 14 ​ The story of Nina Admoni exemplifies the multicultural refuge of Shanghai. She was six years old when Germany invaded her hometown in Poland. Her family first fled to Lithuania, where they received a visa from Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese consul who risked his own life to save thousands of Jewish ones, just like Ho Feng-shan. Arriving in Shanghai, Nina discovered more than just a safe place to live; she found a welcoming community of Jews and Chinese alike. In an interview with the Times of Israel, she reminisced fondly: “The Chinese people in Shanghai were very kind [...] That’s what I remember.”25 Anne Joffe expressed a similar sentiment: “They [the Chinese people] were kind to the Jews. [...] I never heard an antisemitic remark by a Chinese. I did hear antisemitic remarks by Caucasians.”26 Additionally, the lines between who was foreign and who was Chinese became far more blurred than one might think. The city was not divided cleanly into Chinese and non-Chinese, according to Anne. In her words, “People ask me: ‘Well didn’t you know who your parents were?’

Yes, I did. And yet when I looked in the mirror and I got ready for school, I saw a Chinese girl in the mirror. That’s the depths to which I identified.”27 Even though she was a Russian Jew, born to Russian Jewish parents in a Russian Jewish area, she thought of herself as Chinese. After all, she was born and raised in China, Distribution Committee.” Holocaust Centre North, 10 Jan. 2023, holocaustcentrenorth.org.uk/blog/humanitarian-workers-and-jewish-refugees-inworld-war-ii-shanghai-the-work-of-laura-margolis-and-the-american-jewish-join t-distribution-committee/.

25

Shmulovich, Michael. “Saved in Shanghai — a Young Girl’s Story Highlights a Rare WWII Place of Refuge.” Timesofisrael.com, 2025, www.timesofisrael.com/a-young-jewish-girls-escape-from-death-to-idyllic-shan ghaiduring-world-war-ii/.

26 Joffe, Anne. Memories of Shanghai. 28 Nov. 2025.

27 Ibid.

Jefferies 15 went to school and played with Chinese kids, ate Chinese food, and was constantly surrounded by Chinese culture. Nina Admoni also recalled the camaraderie and closeness of Jewish and Chinese children: “I was young, and I really enjoyed playing with my Chinese friends — although I didn’t speak a word of Chinese. You know, at that age you don’t really need a common language; children find ways to speak to each other.”28 Even though the circumstances that made it necessary were unquestionably terrible, the coming together of Chinese and Jewish communities in Shanghai allowed for diverse and harmonious relationships between the two cultures. The Jewish and Chinese children who were raised in this multicultural society, like Anne Joffe and Nina Admoni, learned the power of diversity from a very young age. In fact, heterogeneity was so ingrained in them that it wasn’t a utopia to aspire towards — it was simply a fact of life.

Figure 3. A young Jewish refugee and her Chinese girlfriends in Shanghai during World War II. Photo Credit: Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum.29

28 29

Shmulovich, “Saved in Shanghai” Shmulovich, “Saved in Shanghai”

Jefferies 16 By the beginning of the 1940s, it seemed that Jewish immigrants had finally found in Shanghai a safe place to call home. In addition to the successful Sephardic Jews and well-established Russian Jews, the new European arrivals had also settled relatively comfortably. They, too, contributed to the enhancement of the city and helped restore the beauty and vibrancy lost in the devastation of war. Many of the European Jews resided in the Hongkew district (today spelled Hongkou), which had been significantly ruined during the fighting against Japan. It was an ugly, ramshackle, and depressing area inhabited mostly by lower-class Chinese workers. When Jewish refugees arrived, however, they worked hard to revitalize the community with European houses, nightclubs, milk bars and cafés. The rejuvenated commercial hub came to be known as “Little Vienna,” reflecting the origins of the Jewish refugees who created a vibrant community where there had been desolation and ruin.30 In David Kranzler’s words, “The remarkable transformation, within two and a half years, of whole streets in Hongkew into European-style avenues [...] reflected the refugee optimism. [...] Many non-Jews, including Chinese, Japanese and Europeans, frequented the refugee stores and establishments for items and atmosphere previously unobtainable in Shanghai.”31 The enterprising refugees boosted the economy and lifted Hongkew out of its ruins. In addition to starting their own businesses, the Jews supported struggling Chinese businesses as well, helping everyone in the area build stabler, happier, and more prosperous lives even amidst the hardships of war.

30

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “German and Austrian Jewish Refugees in Shanghai.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2019, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/german-and-austrian-jewish-refugee s-in-shanghai.

31 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 117.

Jefferies 17 ​ For all the vitality that the Jewish refugees brought to Hongkew, the district’s legacy in the story of World War II Shanghai ended up being much more unpleasant. As tensions in the war increased and Nazi influence in Japan, and thus Japanese-occupied Shanghai, grew, life became harder for Jewish immigrants in the city. Hongkew became the site of the Shanghai Ghetto, where 18,000 Jews were forced to live in just forty square blocks and endured terrible living conditions. In just a couple short years, the place that they once called Heime (“home” in German) became an inescapable prison.

Jefferies 18 Part 4: In the Ghetto ​ December 7, 1941. A date which will live in infamy. The day that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor is most famous for leading to the United States’ declaring war on Japan and entering World War II, but the attack also had major repercussions for the Jewish community of Shanghai.

Anti-Jewish sentiment had been slowly bubbling in Shanghai since the late 1930s, for several reasons. Despite China’s long history of religious tolerance, some Shanghailanders began to show resentment towards the immigrants who crowded the city and raised rent prices. Nazis in the city disseminated propaganda, suggesting that the Jewish refugees were stealing native people’s jobs and greedily taking advantage of their selfless hosts. David Kranzler mentions reported comments from high-ranking Chinese officials that demonstrate the widespread impact of Nazi propaganda: “They asked whether the fact that the U.S. sends over people ‘who had an inferior status in the U.S. did not indicate that the U.S. also regarded China as an inferior country?’”32 The propaganda capitalized on Chinese fears of power-hungry foreigners invading their country by portraying Jews as a people “who dislike nationalist feelings in other nations since they lack their own homeland. That is why they are disloyal to every country that offers them a haven. The Jews [...] made fortunes in China and Japan at the expense of their hosts: no wonder Germany got rid of them.”33 Meanwhile, tensions began to rise within the various Jewish groups themselves. The cultural differences and hostilities between Central European, Russian, and Middle Eastern Jews began to manifest themselves more strongly; in August 1939, a committee made up of influential Sephardic Jews began to impose 32 33

Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 154–155.

Ibid., 487.

Jefferies 19 immigration restrictions, while the nationalistic Russian Jews concentrated their efforts on improving their own community, preferring to leave the refugee relief work to the “rich Sephardim.”34 Clearly, a storm was brewing in Shanghai, and it was only a matter of time before the thunderclouds burst open.

With the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States became the direct enemy of Japan. All financial aid from American Jewry immediately ceased, leaving destitute refugees in the hands of inept and inadequate Shanghai organizations. As unemployment and inflation rose, life became increasingly difficult for the Jewish immigrants. Meanwhile, the Nazis began to increase pressure on the Japanese to take action against the 20,000 German Jews in Shanghai. SS officer Josef Meisinger, known as the Butcher of Warsaw, was sent to Japan by Heinrich Himmler to persuade the Home Minister either to send the Jews back to Germany or establish their own extermination camps. Because the Japanese weren’t antisemitic, Meisinger portrayed the Jews as dangerous spies and saboteurs. His reasoning was that since the Jews were anti-Nazi, they must be anti-Japanese as well. In the face of these demands, the Japanese military governor came to Shanghai and gathered the Jewish community leaders. In his book, The Rabbi of 84th Street, Warren Kozak recounts the remarkable story of what happened: The Japanese governor was curious. He did not understand why these Jews were singled out from all other Europeans. [... He asked,] “Why do the Germans hate you so much?” Without hesitation and knowing the fate of his community hung on his answer, [Rebbe Shimon] Kalish told the translator 34

Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 159.

Jefferies 20 “Zugim weil wir senen orientalim — Tell him the Germans hate us because we are Oriental.” The Japanese governor, whose face had been stern throughout the confrontation, broke into a slight smile. In spite of the military alliance, he did not accede to the German demand and the Shanghai Jews were never handed over.35 By describing the Jewish people as “Oriental” like the Japanese, Rebbe Kalish emphasized the similarities between the two cultures, rather than their differences. This story epitomizes the valuable lesson of the Shanghai Jews: embracing diversity in a community can and should lead to empathy and solidarity, not division and discrimination.

Rebbe Kalish succeeded in preventing the deaths of the German Jews, but he could not stop the internment of the stateless refugees in a restricted sector of Shanghai — in other words, the ghetto. On November 15, 1942, Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō released the “Emergency Measure for Jewish People,” which stated that “due to the outbreak of the Greater East Asia War it has become necessary that our Jewish measures be subjected to reconsideration.”36 It established that Germany’s revocation of all German Jews’ citizenship on January 1 of that year meant that the refugees in Shanghai would henceforth be treated as denationalized Jews. While Russian and Baghdadi Jews were free to go about their lives, the German Jews were “placed under strict surveillance so that any hostile activity may be eliminated or supressed [sic].”37 This surveillance inevitably gave way to full-on ghettoization. On February 18, 1943, the refugee’s 35

Kozak, Warren. The Rabbi of 84th Street. Harper Collins, 13 Oct. 2009, 137.

Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 480.

37 Ibid.

36

Jefferies 21 fears came true as the “Proclamation Concerning Restriction of Residence and Business of Stateless Refugees” officially established a ghetto in the Hongkew sector.38 The impoverished area that so many German Jews helped revitalize was now their prison, along with the thousands of other “stateless refugees” scattered across the city. The words “Jews” and “ghetto” were never mentioned in the proclamation; the euphemistic “stateless refugees” (defined as denationalized European refugees arriving in Shanghai after 1937) and “designated area” were used instead. The Jews were given just three months to leave behind their houses, livelihoods, and communities and move into the ghetto.

Not all of the “stateless refugees” went quietly into the restricted sector, though. Many Polish Jews refused to enter the ghetto, arguing against Japan’s decision that Poland no longer existed. In a letter to the Japanese officials, they wrote, “We are not and we will not be stateless! [...] We are and remain Polish citizens till our die [sic]!”39 They even wrote that they would rather be interned as enemy nationals rather than suffer the indignity of statelessness in the ghetto. While some eventually gave up the fight, many of the rebels were imprisoned. Six of the Polish refugees died of typhus in prison.40 Another group of Jewish immigrants who challenged Japanese authority was the Mirrer Yeshiva, students and scholars of Talmudic studies. Considered the cultural elite of the Jewish people, they were outraged when the Japanese told them to move into a compound with prison inmates and drunks. Additionally, they were understandably uneasy at the prospect of the whole yeshiva being rounded up in one place, as many yeshivas in Europe had been destroyed by the Nazis. Even though 33 students were arrested, the yeshiva eventually won and 38

Ibid., 490.

Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 528.

40 Ibid., 529.

39

Jefferies 22 was allowed to rent private housing. Their actions ended up saving their lives, as the compound they were supposed to move into was later bombed during an air raid.41 These acts of defiance demonstrate the agency of Jewish refugees in Shanghai and their admirable resilience in the face of oppression.

Life in the ghetto was harsh. 18,000 Jews were cramped into a two square-kilometer (¾ sq. mile) area, a desolate concrete jungle with twice the population density of Manhattan, where the only greenery was said to be a green-painted bench.42 All exits were guarded by Japanese sentries or members of the Pao Chia, an organization set up by the Japanese in which all Jewish men in the ghetto were required to stand guard for several hours a week.

While most of the Pao Chia helped the refugees whenever possible, some took their role very seriously: according to David Kranzler, “If bearers of passes returned even one minute late, the guards might tear up the precious pass or they might threaten to report the refugees to the Japanese authorities.”43 There were many striking similarities between pre-war Germany and the Hongkew Ghetto. For one, all the Jews were given new I.D. cards with a large yellow stripe on them. For many of the refugees, this was a terrifying reminder of the humiliating yellow stars that Jews were forced to wear in Germany. Additionally, Japanese officials acted with the same unpredictable brutality as their Nazi counterparts.

Kanoh Ghoya, the vice-chief of the Bureau for Stateless Refugees Affairs, was in charge of issuing passes allowing Jews to leave the ghetto for short periods. Calling himself the “King of the Jews,” Ghoya was notorious for abusing the refugees physically and mentally and denying passes purely on a whim. Olga Loewy, a German refugee in the ghetto, recalled the terror associated with 41

Ibid., 530.

Ibid., 493.

43 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 494.

42

Jefferies 23 this man: “This Mr. Ghoya thought he comes first, and then comes God. He was about the most fearsome human being I ever met face to face. Everything was depending on him. If he was in a good mood, he gave you that stamp, and you could go about your business in different parts of town. If he didn’t — no way.”44 It is no wonder that residents were desperate to escape the ghetto, even if for a short period. The living conditions only worsened as time went on. In the documentary Shanghai Ghetto, refugee Evelyn Pike Rubin says that “the sanitary conditions were about the worst in the world that you could think of. Every disease known or unknown to man was rampant in epidemic proportions.”45 Alongside disease, starvation and illness spread due to severe food shortages caused by Allied blockades and rationing.

Between January and November of 1943, 102 ghetto residents died from malnutrition. The total mortality for that year was 311. By the beginning of 1944, 5,000 to 6,000 refugees depended on the Kitchen Fund for food.46

Figure 4. Food being served for Jewish refugees that had just arrived [in] Shanghai. Photo Credit: CNN47 44

Loewy, Olga. “VHA Testimony.” Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation, 1 June 1995, vha.usc.edu/testimony/2926?from=search&seg=76.

45 Shanghai Ghetto. Directed by Amir Mann, Menemsha Entertainment, 2002. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgMOOMJ3Hwk&t=1886s, 31:15.

46 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 546.

47 “Shanghai Ghetto: Wartime Refuge for Jewish Refugees.” CNN, 14 July 2015, www.cnn.com/2015/07/14/asia/gallery/shanghai-jewish-ghetto.

Jefferies 24 In the face of this arbitrary cruelty and life-threatening danger, there were many examples of Jews and non-Jews acting selflessly to make life in the ghetto more bearable. There were over 100 instances of non-Jewish wives of German Jews divorcing their husbands in order to receive extra financial support from the government and thus be able to provide extra food for their families in the ghetto.48 Most Jews were employed within the ghetto and were rarely able to visit the outside world. However, it was possible for residents to leave the ghetto fairly regularly if they had a job outside the restricted sector. Knowing this, Russian Jewish, Swiss, French, and German businessmen “provided hundreds of such certificates vouching for non-existent jobs, at great risk to themselves since they faced severe punishment if caught by the Japanese authorities.”49 Even though so much was at stake, powerful Jews and non-Jews alike took advantage of their positions to help people in need, not because they had family in the ghetto or wanted money from the refugees, but simply because it was the right thing to do.

In 1944, the United States began to conduct air raids over Shanghai. Although US pilots were given orders not to bomb civilian areas, the Japanese set up first-aid centers and organized air raid drills in the ghetto. Many refugees didn’t take these drills very seriously; on the contrary, “many refugees, especially among the young, used to enjoy the sight, and take pride in, the awesome power of the American Air Force in action.”50 This made the events of July 17, 1945 all the more tragic when, in the words of David Kranzler, “death rained from the skies.”51 Two hundred and 48

Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 495–496.

Ibid., 497–498.

50 Ibid., 553.

51 Ibid.

49

Jefferies 25 sixty-three American bombs fell on the crowded streets of the ghetto, destroying houses and killing hundreds of Chinese and refugees alike. Deborah Strobin, a ten-year-old refugee, can still remember the devastation years later: “I felt the vibrations through the earth. Buildings exploded. The sirens and the screaming and the sound of destruction. Hell. It was indescribable.”52 In the face of death and tragedy, the Jewish refugees did not succumb to despair, but responded to the dire situation with bravery and resilience. In the words of an eyewitness, “People who had previously been frightened at the sight of blood rushed to the emergency stations to offer their help. Women, otherwise nervous and fussy and given to tears easily, worked conscientiously and carried out the instructions of the doctors. The women of the old-age room made tea and coffee for the wounded and gave up their pillows and blankets.”53 Little Deborah Strobin handed out bandages to wounded victims while her brother helped stack the dead bodies. With spontaneous and efficient action, the ghetto residents stopped the disaster from becoming a complete catastrophe. To show their admiration and gratitude for the Jewish refugees, the locals brought them Chinese cakes and offered money to help repair the bombed out ghetto.27 Several weeks after the devastating air raid, hope returned for the refugees. News spread of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. As the war came to an end in the following couple weeks, the ghetto residents lived in uncertainty, hearing conflicting rumors about their fate. On August 10, Allied flags were raised in the ghetto, and jubilant 52

Strobin, Deborah. “The Liberation of the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto.” HuffPost, 27 Jan. 2012, www.huffpost.com/entry/the-liberation-of-the-shanghai-jewish-ghetto_b_12366 47.

53 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 554.

Jefferies 26 crowds took to the streets. “Pent-up feelings overflowed and everyone danced in the streets. Russians, Chinese and refugees kissed each other in a rare display of solidarity — and took the opportunity to beat up a few Japanese.”54 This turned out to be a false alarm, but on September 3, 1945, American forces officially liberated the ghetto. This time, the Jewish refugees celebrated without restraint, revelling in their long-awaited freedom.

54

Ibid., 565–566.

Jefferies 27 Part 5: Conclusion ​ In Shanghai today, only a couple thousand Jews remain.

The city that once provided a home for tens of thousands of Jewish refugees has not forgotten its legacy, though. The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum was established in 2007 on the site of the Ohel Moshe Synagogue, in the heart of the old ghetto. While that synagogue is long since closed, Kehilat Shanghai is a modern, progressive temple that continues to support the small but enduring Jewish community in Shanghai.55 ​ At the end of World War II, the three Jewish immigrant groups each faced a different future. The interned Sephardim returned to the city, but they never fully recovered their prestige and status. Many left for the recently founded State of Israel, although some, like the powerful Kadoorie family, moved to Hong Kong and rebuilt their economic empire. When the Chinese Communist Party came to power, they forced out most of the Russian Jews, who left in the late 1940s and early 1950s for the United States, Israel, and other Western countries. Like the Russian Jews, the European refugees could not return to their homeland, yet they had no pre-war roots in China. 9,700 German Jews emigrated to Israel and others to the Western hemisphere, leaving only about 100 refugees in Shanghai by 1957.56 According to David Kranzler, these later years ironically represented the peak of cooperation between the Jewish groups: “It was only during the period of the Maoist regime that the first communal cooperation existed among the three factions, when the Baghdadi, Russian and German Jews pitched in together to maintain the rapidly dwindling but now unified Jewish community.”57 55

Kehilat Shanghai. “Who We Are.” Kehilat Shanghai, 2019, www.kehilatshanghai.org/about.

56 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews, 581.

57 Ibid.

Jefferies 28 ​ There are many additional stories of courage and selflessness that did not fit into this paper. Jakob Rosenfeld, for example, was a concentration camp survivor who immigrated to Shanghai in 1939 (thanks to a visa from Ho Feng-shan). After the war, he became a field doctor and surgeon in the Chinese army, eventually becoming a general. Unwilling to stand by in the face of Japanese atrocities, Jakob Rosenfeld risked his life for a country that was not his own, and the Chinese people remain grateful for his inspirational actions.58 A stamp was issued in 2003 commemorating him. Hu Jintao, president of China, said, “As a shining example of China-Austrian friendship, he and his achievements will live on.”59 Richard Frey has a similar story; an Austrian refugee doctor, he became a Chinese citizen and introduced penicillin to the Chinese army, saving the lives of countless soldiers.60 Jakob Rosenfeld and Richard Frey are two of the many examples of the remarkable solidarity between the Jewish and Chinese people that developed during World War II. In 2025, Xiao Junzheng, the Chinese Ambassador to Israel, firmly stated: “There is no soil for antisemitism in China, nor would the Chinese government allow it to exist or develop in the country.”61 Hatred often stems from ignorance, and in World War II Shanghai, it was impossible for the Jews and Chinese to be ignorant of each other.

Because of their forced proximity, the two cultures melted into 58

Winston, Alex. “From Vienna to China: The Heroic Legacy of Jakob Rosenfeld.” The Jerusalem Post, 30 Aug. 2025, www.jpost.com/history/article-865648.

59 Ibid.

60 Ministry of Foreign Affairs PRC. “Richard Frey: An Outstanding Doctor from the Riverbank of the Danube.” Fmprc.gov.cn, 30 Aug. 2022, www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zy/jj/zggcddwjw100ggs/jszgddzg/202406/t20240606_11 377965.html.

61 Winston, “From Vienna to China.”

Jefferies 29 each other; they shared cooking techniques and medicines, they shared sorrows and joys, but most importantly, they shared community. Of course, there were inevitably Chinese people who had strong prejudices against Jews and vice versa, but this makes the overall harmony between the groups even more exceptional, especially in comparison to the relationships between Jews and citizens of other nations during World War II. Ultimately, the two groups in Shanghai emerged from the terrors of war and the misery of the ghetto as a stronger and more unified society. Although it was not a perfect community, their suffering would have unquestionably been far worse without each other’s support during this time of tragedy. Diversity only strengthens, not weakens. It is imperative that this fascinating and unique period of history is not forgotten, because there are important lessons for everyone to learn. Cross-cultural harmony is not limited to the Jews and Chinese, and it is certainly not limited to history books. In a world that insists on dividing itself, diversity is the key to healing those fractures. There is a Chinese proverb that says, “A single tree does not make a forest; a single string cannot make music.”62 May we all work together to grow the forests of our own communities and lend our own song to the symphony of humanity.

62

China Sage. “Chinese Proverbs about Working Together in Harmony.”

Www.chinasage.info, 2016, www.chinasage.info/proverbs/jointeffort.htm.

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