Jews in Shanghai Collection

Shanghai became a haven for Jews fleeing Nazi persecution because until August 1939 the International Settlement of the city required no visa, financial affidavits or other documents. These refugees became known as "Shanghailanders."

A Jewish community had already existed in the city with the arrival of Sephardic Jews from Baghdad, India and Hong Kong beginning in the mid-1800s. By 1930, their population was estimated to be around 1,000 individuals; many of the Sephardim were well-off economically and owned businesses with some possessing British citizenship. They had two synagogues, a cemetery, a school, a newspaper and in 1934 established the Shanghai Jewish Hospital. Shanghai also had a community of around 10,000 Russian Jews who had emigrated following the Russian Revolutions.

German Jews began emigrating to Shanghai in 1933. In August 1937 the Japanese occupied Shanghai. Due to the increased persecutions by the Nazis in Europe and the annexations of Austria and Czechoslovakia, immigration had swelled by 1939 (estimates vary from about 13,000 to 18,000 refugees). The financial restrictions imposed on Jewish immigrants from Germany meant that many reached Shanghai nearly destitute and several agencies were established to aid the new arrivals, in addition to aid from abroad from organizations such as the American Joint Distribution Committee and others. Most of the refugees settled in the area of Shanghai called Hongkew (Hongkou) due to its lower rents and prices, where refugee housing was established (called "Heime").

The refugees received much support from the Jewish residents already in Shanghai. The Committee for Assistance of European Jewish Refugees in Shanghai (often called the Speelman Committee) was founded to organize funds to house, clothe and feed refugees and the Beth Aharon synagogue became a reception center and soup kitchen. In 1939, Victor Sassoon, a prominent businessman in the community, established the Embankment Fund, which loaned funds to refugees, allowing them to set up businesses of their own to support themselves; he also donated premises for a Refugee Thrift Shop and housing. In June of that year the Shanghai Jewish Youth Association was begun (formerly the Kadoorie School), which provided education and recreation for the children.

Many of the refugees supported themselves by selling their possessions or by becoming peddlers. Other established small businesses, including tailors, milliners, grocers, and coffeehouses, along with doctors and dentists. Some small factories produced European-style foods. The Shanghai Jewish Community had several newspapers as well sports and cultural organizations such as the Shanghai Musicians' Association.

In August 1939 some immigration restrictions began to be imposed on Jewish immigrants. In June of 1940 Italy, from whose ports most ships left for Shanghai, declared war, and the immigration from Europe significantly waned. Thereafter the only route left to immigrants to Shanghai was via Lithuania, across the Soviet Union and Siberia by way of Korea or Japan, a route which was cut off the following year when Germany invaded the Soviet Union and the war intensified in the Pacific.

On November 15, 1942, the idea of a restricted ghetto was approved, and announced on February 18, 1943. All stateless refugees who had arrived after 1937 were restricted to a designated area in Hongkew (Hongkou) now called the "Restricted Section for Stateless Refugees." The economic situation for many worsened since they could not leave the section without a pass, often difficult to acquire from the Japanese official Kano Ghoya, of the Stateless Refugees' Affairs Bureau, who termed himself the "King of the Jews."

The ghetto was liberated on September 3, 1945. Most refugees left during the late 1940s, many for the United States or Israel.