In the 1930s, anti-Semitism was spreading like a cancer throughout the world, especially in Nazi Germany. And even though Adolf Hitler's regime was criticized for its treatment of Jews, no one stepped forward to help them.
In mid-1938, 32 countries met at the French resort of Evian to discuss the Jews’ dilemma. But they did not open their doors (except the Dominican Republic), citing a variety of reasons. Not even the Kristallnacht pogroms four months later changed the posture of the world. The message was loud, clear and depressing: European Jews were on their own.
Through word of mouth or information from travel agencies, Jews from various parts of Europe discovered that Shanghai was an open port. No visas or passports were required. One could just step off a ship onto the mainland.
About 20,000 refugees made the decision to flee from impending extermination-leaving behind their highly civilized and sophisticated culture for a haven that could not have been more unlike the life they had experienced.
Shanghai Remembered… is a collection of first-person accounts telling how these refugees found themselves traumatized, stateless and penniless in a strange and inhospitable place.
