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Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday, an annual national memorial for six million Jews killed during WWII. It has been 73 years since the end of WWII, but some Jews in Israel recall memories of families “saved” because they escaped to Shanghai, China.
We met Chana Persoff, born in the “Shanghai Ghetto” in 1946, who talked about her family’s escape from Nazi persecution.
The Shanghai ghetto: My parents always felt it was a heaven
Chana Persoff‘s birth certificate /CGTN Photo
Chana’s mother, 30 at the time, felt it was no longer safe to stay in Poland. She sat down with her parents and warned, “It’s time to get out.”
Her parents said she was crazy and ignored her pleas.
In 1940, she left with a group of Jews that included her future husband Yitzhak. They traveled from Poland to Lithuania, across Russia to Vladivostok, took a boat to Japan and then another boat to Shanghai.
“Shanghai was just amazingly open. You didn’t need a visa to get in,” said
Chana Persoff, 2nd Generation Holocaust Survivor.
Life in the ghetto
The final postcard from family in Poland
/CGTN Photo
During WWII, Shanghai was home to around 23,000 Jews fleeing Europe and Nazi persecution.
According to her parent’s stories, Chana said life in Shanghai for Jews was surprisingly open. They moved about freely, opened schools and places of worship and started businesses.
In 1943, however, the Japanese – occupying Shanghai at the time, introduced a crackdown. All Jews were moved into Shanghai’s 1-square-mile Hongkou District, and their movement was restricted. Overcrowding, disease, and starvation were rampant
Shanghai Ghetto /Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Photo
“My parents were lucky. They had three children in the Shanghai ghetto and all three of us survived. Other families weren’t so lucky,” said Chana Persoff, 2nd Generation Holocaust Survivor.
They were also lucky to have gotten out of Poland. Batya received postcards from her brother until 1941 – after that there was silence. Her parents and siblings were all killed.
Shanghai to Israel via New York
Chana's Father: Shanghai ID /CGTN Photo
Chiang Kai Shek’s military wrested back control of Shanghai from the Japanese in 1945 and liberated the ghetto. The most Jews left for the US, Israel, Europe while some stayed in China.
In 1947, Chana’s family traveled to New York to stay with relatives and then settled down there. As an adult, Chana moved to Israel where she lives today.
She keeps records and mementos from her family’s seven years in Shanghai including original Chinese birth certificates and health records and local hand-embroidered linen napkins and tablecloths.
(CGTN)
