This volume provides a historical narrative, historiographical reviews, and scholarly analyses by leading scholars throughout the world on the hitherto understudied topic of Shanghai Jewish refugees. Few among the general public know that during the Second World War, approximately 16,000 to 20,000 Jews fled the Nazis, found unexpected refuge in Shanghai, and established a vibrant community there. Though most of them left Shanghai soon after the conclusion of the war in 1945, years of sojourning among the Chinese and surviving under the Japanese occupation generated unique memories about the Second World War, lasting goodwill between the Chinese and Jews, and contested interpretations of this complex past. The volume makes two major contributions to the studies of Shanghai Jewish refugees. First, it reviews the present state of the historiography on this subject and critically assesses the ways in which the history is being researched and commemorated in China. Second, it compiles scholarship produced by renowned scholars, who aim to rescue the history from isolated perspectives and look into the interaction between Jews, Chinese, and Japanese.
Author(s): Kevin Ostoyich, Yun Xia
Series: Palgrave Series in Asian German Studies
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 312
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction
Part I: Placing the History of the Shanghai Jews within Various Historical Contexts
Part II: Cultural Life of Refugees in Shanghai
Part III: The Jews Sojourning in Shanghai after the War
Part IV: Commemoration of the History of the Shanghai Jews
Reflections on New Pathways
References
Part I: Placing the History of the Shanghai Jews within Various Historical Contexts
Chapter 2: Jews in China and Their Contributions
A Brief History
Contributions
Business
Real Estate
Services and Manufacturing Industries
Culture and Art
Political Activism
Commemoration
References
Chapter 3: The German East Asiatic Society (OAG) in Shanghai, 1931–1945
Introduction
Germans and Jews in Shanghai
The OAG and Its Branch Group in Shanghai
The OAG between Nazis and Jews
Conclusion
References
Chapter 4: The Designated Area for Stateless Refugees in Shanghai: Exploring Aftereffects Using Unpublished Documents of Captain Toshiro Saneyoshi
Discovery of the Saneyoshi Documents
The Day after the Promulgation
Reaction of the Russian Jews
Foundation of SACRA
Reaction of the German-Austrian Jewish Refugee Community
Reaction of Polish Jewish Refugees
Is the Word ‘Ghetto’ Appropriate?
Individual Reactions to the Relocation Order
Overview and Further Research
References
Part II: Cultural Life of Refugees in Shanghai
Chapter 5: The Kadoorie School: Educating Refugee Children in Shanghai
Creation of the SJYA School
The School on Kinchow Road
A New and Better School
School and Community
The Kadoorie School as Expression of Jewish Refugee Culture
References
Chapter 6: Bruno Loewenberg and the Lion Book Shop
References
Part III: The Jews Sojourning in Shanghai after the War
Chapter 7: “A Problem of Some Delicacy”: Chinese Sovereignty, Jewish Refugees, and the West, 1945–1946
Early Warnings of Humanitarian Crisis for Jewish Refugees in Japanese-Controlled Shanghai
The Scramble to Save the Starving and Ill Jewish Refugees
Integrating Jewish Refugees in the Chinese National Reconstruction Efforts
Conflict Resolved but Unsettled
Conclusion
References
Chapter 8: The Plight of European Jewish Refugees in Post-Second World War Shanghai, August 1945–April 1948
JDC Directors’ Perception of the European Refugees and Baghdadi and Russian Jews
Caring for Refugees with the Support of UNRRA and IRO
JDC Provides Housing and Shelter for the Refugees: Cooperation with CNRRA and Altercations with Chinese Residents
Should the Refugees Stay or Leave?
Jordan’s Efforts to Facilitate Emigration from Shanghai
Destination Preferences of Jewish Refugees in Shanghai
Conclusions
References
Part IV: Commemoration of the History of the Shanghai Jews
Chapter 9: Relative Resistance: Fascist Aryanization Practices and the Bond of Victimhood in the Antifascist Animation A Jewish Girl in Shanghai
Jewish-Chinese Relations and Victory over Fascism in JGiS
Wu Lin’s Story among Holocaust Comics and Antifascist Animations
Aryanization, Fascist Greed, and Jewish Studies in China
Conclusion
References
Chapter 10: The Shanghai Jewish Refugees: History and Commemoration
Locating Chinese Scholarship within the Historiography of the Shanghai Jews
The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum
The Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai
An Evaluation of the Narrative
References
Index
