https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0462-7666
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ABSTRACT
The arrival of about 1000 Polish Jews in Shanghai in 1941 has remained one of the footnotes of the Holocaust, even though most survived the War, unexpectedly trapped in the city. This article argues that, expecting to transit Shanghai, unlike the German and Austrian Jewish refugees from 1938 and 1939 who had settled as ‘stateless’ under Japanese authority, they formed a community defined by both their religion and nationality. The article examines the key elements of the community, their religious cultures, their class backgrounds, and their politics. These factors contributed to their contentious relations with the Shanghai Municipal Council, the Japanese military and civil authorities both before and after Pearl Harbor, the international Jewish community, and the other much larger refugee groups from Germany and Austria. Their Polish nationality remained in tension with their Jewish identities, though institutional support for both these dimensions were crucial in facilitating their survival. Drawing on archival material not previously available to the scholars of the late twentieth century, the article challenges contentions that the community was not helped by Polish authorities.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Andrew Jakubowicz PhD is Professor of Sociology at the University of Technology Sydney. His main research focuses on cultural diversity and social and political change. He has published widely on multiculturalism and its policy context in Australia and globally. His most recent book ‘Cyber Racism and Community Resilience’ reports global research by an Australian team on the growing impact of online racism. He has explored issues associated with the Jewish refugees of Shanghai in articles, book chapters, TV programs, and the website The Menorah of Fang Bang Lu.
ORCID
Andrew Jakubowicz http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0462-7666
Notes
1 With documents available in English, Polish, German, Yiddish, French, Chinese, and Japanese, the author acknowledges his literacy in English and limited facility with Polish, with other documents used in the paper translated or referenced from other authors with literacy in those languages fully acknowledged.
2 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews.
3 Zuroff, Attempts to Obtain Shanghai Permits in 1941, 321–351.
4 Ross, Escape to Shanghai.
5 Fiszman, The Quest for Status, 441–460.
6 Sakamoto, Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees.
7 Ristaino, Port of Last Resort.
8 Altman and Eber, Flight to Shanghai, 1938–1940, 51–86.
9 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Flight and Rescue.
10 Warhaftig, Refugee and Survivor.
11 Pałasz-Rutkowska and Romer, Polish-Japanese Co-Operation during World War II, 285–316.
12 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews; Kranzler, Restrictions against German-Jewish Refugee Immigration to Shanghai in 1939, 40–60.
13 Romer, Tadeusz Romer Fonds.
14 Ristaino, Port of Last Resort.
15 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews.
16 Fiszman, The Quest for Status, 441–460.
17 Ristaino, Port of Last Resort.
18 Sakamoto, Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees, 150 ff.
19 Margolis, Race against Time in Shanghai, 168–171, 190.
20 Armbruster, Kohlstruck, and Muhlberger, eds. Exil Shanghai 1938–1947.
21 Eber, Wartime Shanghai and the Jewish Refugees from Central Europe.
22 Hochstadt, Exodus to Shanghai.
23 Ristaino, Port of Last Resort.
24 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Flight and Rescue.
25 Saka, Regarding Evacuated Jews from Japan’ Reported by Chiaki Saka to the Ministers of Home, Foreign Affairs and Communications of Japan, August 30, 1941 Owned by the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Japan.
26 Secretariat Shanghai Municipal Council, File K 38/1 Jewish Refugees U1-4-2974.
27 Shanghai Municipal Police Files, Polish Jews Refugees – Immigration Of.
28 Ristaino, Port of Last Resort.
29 Republic of Poland Consulate Shanghai, Statystyka Uchodzcow Wojennych z polski przebywajacych w szanghaju wedlug stanu na dzien 1 czwerca 1942 R (Alphabetical list of Polish Refugees residing in Shanghai).
30 Zarzad Kasy Wzajemnej Pomocy Polskich Uchodzew w Szanghaju (Management Board of the Fund for Mutual Assistance Polish War Refugees in Shanghai), Ksisga protoklow zarzadu kasy wzajemnej pomocy polskich uchodzcov wojrnnych w szanghaju (Accounts Protokols of the Board Polish War Refugees Mutual Aid Fund in Shanghai).
31 Warhaftig, Refugee and Survivor.
32 Altman and Eber, Flight to Shanghai, 1938–1940, 51–86.
33 Gao, Shanghai Sanctuary; Pan, Uniqueness and Generality, 437–445.
34 Fiszman, The Quest for Status, 441–460.
35 Warhaftig, Refugee and Survivor.
36 Pałasz-Rutkowska and Romer, Polish-Japanese Co-Operation during World War II, 285–316.
37 Secretariat Shanghai Municipal Council, File K 38/1 Jewish Refugees U1-4-2974.
38 Shanghai Municipal Police Files, Polish Jews Refugees – Immigration Of.
39 Warhaftig, Refugee and Survivor.
40 Shanghai Municipal Police Files, Polish Jews Refugees – Immigration Of.
41 Warhaftig, Refugee and Survivor.
42 Shanghai Municipal Police Files, Polish Jews Refugees – Immigration Of.
43 Shatzkes, Kobe: A Japanese Haven for Jewish Refugees, 1940–1941. Taylor & Francis.
44 The number of permits and the numbers of people covered do not align at all. Many of the permits covered numbers of people in families or groups, some permits were faked, other permits were secured from the Japanese Consul in Moscow, Chita and other locations en route reported by Warhaftig. The Joint figures indicate that about 4000 refugees transited Japan, about half were Polish and, of those, half managed to secure onward passage somewhere. This aligns more closely with the final group of just under 1000 that is recorded in 1942 by the Polish Consulate in Shanghai Pałasz-Rutkowska and Romer, Polish-Japanese Co-Operation during World War II, 285–316.
45 Romer, Tadeusz Romer Fonds.
46 Takahashi, Ambassador Romer and the Relief of Refugees.
47 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews.
48 Zuroff, Rescue Priority and Fund Raising as Issues During the Holocaust, 305–326.
49 Republic of Poland Consulate Shanghai, Statystyka Uchodzcow Wojennych z polski przebywajacych w szanghaju wedlug stanu na dzien 1 czwerca 1942 R (Alphabetical list of Polish Refugees residing in Shanghai).
50 Warhaftig, Refugee and Survivor.
51 Shatzkes, Kobe: A Japanese Haven for Jewish Refugees, 1940–1941. Taylor & Francis.
52 Saka, Regarding Evacuated Jews from Japan’ Reported by Chiaki Saka to the Ministers of Home, Foreign Affairs and Communications of Japan, August 30, 1941 Owned by the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Japan.
53 Saka, Regarding Evacuated Jews from Japan’ Reported by Chiaki Saka to the Ministers of Home, Foreign Affairs and Communications of Japan, August 30, 1941 Owned by the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Japan.
54 While the Taiyo Maru was owned by NYK, it had been leased since October 1939 to another company running services to Shanghai. In October 1941 it returned to the Pacific run.
55 Text from a letter held in the Japanese Foreign Affairs archive translated by Hirofumi Yada of the Japan Foundation in Sydney Australia, and by Izumi Nishizono, a London-based translator. A letter of reference for one of the Polish Jews (held by the author) provided by JewCom is dated 15 September 1941; this indicates that the Taiyo Maru would have left the next day or soon thereafter.
56 Margolis, Race against Time in Shanghai, 168–171, 190.
57 Shanghai Municipal Police Files, Polish Jews Refugees – Immigration Of.
58 Rabbi Seltzer et al., Memorandumto the Joint Distribution Committee in the Matter of the Polish Refugees Being Evacuated from Kobe, Japan to Shanghai, China.
59 Rabbi Seltzer et al., Memorandumto the Joint Distribution Committee in the Matter of the Polish Refugees Being Evacuated from Kobe, Japan to Shanghai, China.
60 Ristaino, Port of Last Resort.
61 Warhaftig, Refugee and Survivor: Rescue Efforts during the Holocaust, 206.
62 Leung, The Shanghai Taotai: Linkage Man in a Changing Society, 1843–90.
63 Ristaino, Port of Last Resort.
64 Shanghai Municipal Police Files, Polish Jews Refugees – Immigration Of.
65 Secretariat Shanghai Municipal Council, File K 38/1 Jewish Refugees U1-4-2974. The official NYK (Japanese National Shipping Line) records indicate that the Asama Maru leaving on 20 August carried 287 passengers, and the Tatsuta Maru on 28 August would carry 349. Hayim indicates that the 28 August Kobe community cable had said the Asama Maru carried 350 and was about to arrive in Shanghai. The Asama and Tatsuta were NYK sister ships, and there could have been confusion in Kobe about the ship to be taken by the departing refugees. The final ship, possibly Taiyo Maru, carrying 322 in September was not managed by NYK at the time and therefore does not appear on the NYK list that provides the other material.
66 Secretariat Shanghai Municipal Council, File K 38/1 Jewish Refugees U1-4-2974.
67 Secretariat Shanghai Municipal Council, File K 38/1 Jewish Refugees U1-4-2974.
68 Rabbi Seltzer et al., Memorandumto the Joint Distribution Committee in the Matter of the Polish Refugees Being Evacuated from Kobe, Japan to Shanghai, China.
69 Actually the Taiyo Maru then also went on to spy out the route to Pearl Harbor for the Japanese attack in December.
70 It is likely this ban resulted from the breaking of formal ties between Japan and Poland: the Polish passports carried by the refugees would have been nullified and the Argentine offer to provide alternative documentation had been rejected.
71 Republic of Poland Consulate Shanghai, Statystyka Uchodzcow Wojennych z polski przebywajacych w szanghaju wedlug stanu na dzien 1 czwerca 1942 R (Alphabetical list of Polish Refugees residing in Shanghai).
72 Romer, Tadeusz Romer Fonds.
73 Margolis, Race against Time in Shanghai, 168–171, 190.
74 Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews.
75 Weyland, The Boy on the Tricycle.
76 Jakubowicz and Hadzelek, “The Polish Jews of Shanghai and the Political Sociology of Historical Memory,” 27–64.
77 Rutland, ““Waiting Room Shanghai”: Australian Reactions to the Plight of the Jews in Shanghai after the Second World War,” 407–433; Rutland, “Subtle Exclusions: Postwar Jewish Emigration to Australia and the Impact of the IRO Scheme,” 50–66.