Comments on: The Return of Jerry Moses and the Jewish Migration to Shanghai

The Return of Jerry Moses and the Jewish Migration to Shanghai

matteo — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 12:59:35 -0800

"Ala ZongGoNin! Ala YouTaNin!". Jerry Moses last walked on Gaoyang Road in 1947. It was called Chaoufoong Road then, and it was home to many of the 18,000 European Jewish refugees who had sought refuge from Nazi Germany in Shanghai's Hongkew District (today known as Hongkou) during the run-up to World War II. He casts his gaze at the lane, his brow loosens and he begins to nod. "This is it, this is it," he says softly. "I know this is it." One week into his first visit to Shanghai in almost 60 years, Moses has found his third home in an exile that lasted from 1941 to 1947. He strides into the space, his manner now much closer to that of the 12-year-old boy who had left than the 70-year-old man who has returned. More inside.

By: matteo

matteo — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:07:30 -0800

From the main link:

Like most of the Jews who fled to eastern China in the 1930s and early 1940s, the Moses family was German Jewish, with the German half as important as the Jewish. Originally from Breslau, they belonged to a 20,000-member Jewish community that strongly influenced the city's cultural life. Jerry's father, Max Moses, was a fabric buyer for a Jewish-owned department store chain. At an employee holiday party, he met Frida Koritofsky. They were married in 1932. Jerry, born in 1934, was the second of three children. His childhood memories are vague and impressionistic until the infamous Kristallnacht in November 1938. Two days of Nazi-organized riots destroyed hundreds of Jewish businesses, homes and synagogues. Max was among the more than 25,000 Jewish men imprisoned. According to Moses, his father would have died in a concentration camp if not for Frida's determination to free him, and Nazi Germany's determination to expel its Jews. "Like a lot of wives, she wanted to get her husband out of jail. And she was told that if my father left Germany in, like, 48 hours, they would let him go." But few countries would accept fleeing European Jews. "Somehow, my mother found out that the only place he could go without a permit was Shanghai."
*** Photograph of costumed children celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim, Shanghai, 1929. *** The Jewish Company of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps Compared With Other Jewish Diaspora Fighting Units by Benis M. Frank Chief Historian of the U.S. Marine Corps

By: ttrendel

ttrendel — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:30:58 -0800

Wow. Awesome post. Thanks matteo.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:48:06 -0800

There is an exhibit related to this, that is currently running in Rockland County, NY.

By: joseph_elmhurst

joseph_elmhurst — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:56:22 -0800

Excellent post matteo. There's a pretty decent documentary on this subject out on video.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 14:40:33 -0800

Incredible. Another excerpt from the main link:

In early 1941, Frida Moses and her children still were in Germany, waiting to join Max in Shanghai. The Nazis were about to make extermination—and not emigration—the solution to their so-called Jewish problem. Exit permits were almost impossible to obtain, and the widening war had closed the sea routes to Shanghai used by most European refugees. "My mother is the hero," says Moses. "Without her, we'd all be dead." Frida took the direct approach: She went to Breslau's Gestapo headquarters and demanded an exit stamp or death. According to her son, who often heard the story recounted, the commanding officer replied: "You're brave for a Jew."

I'm a sucker for anything about Shanghai before the Communist takeover (I've been reading White Russian memoirs lately), and this is a superb collection of links and stories. Thanks. (The Wikipedia page on Shanghai has a 1933 map, but it's unreadable; does anybody have a better link to a pre-WWII map?)

By: Adamchik

Adamchik — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 15:44:07 -0800

You can also check out the Shanghai Jewish Center, with a nice website about Shanghai's Jewish history (including pre-WWII Jewish imigration from Iraq, India, and Russia).

By: melissa may

melissa may — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 15:54:55 -0800

matteo, I truly had no idea about any of this, and I've read a great deal of historical material and literature of the Holocaust. Thank you so much -- I am grateful.

By: jalexei

jalexei — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 16:40:26 -0800

Ignorant of this as well - amazing stuff....

By: davy

davy — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:10:15 -0800

I read somewhere that a lot of Jews from the Russian Empire fled to Harbin, Manchuria, only to run up against the Russian emigre fascists in the Pu Yi days. Didn't a lot of these Jews re-emigrate to Shanghai too?

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 20:15:26 -0800

languagehat: 1904, 1918, 1919, and 1928 maps of Shanghai on this page. Each link gives you the option of downloading a hi-res pdf detail or overview.

By: feathermeat

feathermeat — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 20:38:20 -0800

Awesome, awesome post.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 05:17:27 -0800

Thanks, oneirodynia! Now I know where Chaoufoong Rd is.

By: of strange foe

of strange foe — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 09:01:04 -0800

According to my mom, the richest man in Shanghai 'back then', Hardoon paid for the paving of the five main roads in the city. Thank you for leading me to this wonderful site.