Strange Haven: A Jewish Childhood in Wartime Shanghai

by Sigmund Tobias

Overview

In the wake of Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938, Sigmund Tobias and his parents fled their home in Germany and relocated to one of the few cities in the world that offered shelter without requiring a visa: the notorious pleasure capital, Shanghai. Seventeen thousand Jewish refugees flocked to Hongkew, a section of Shanghai ruled by the Japanese, and they created an active community that continued to exist through the end of the war.

Tobias's coming-of-age story unfolds within his descriptions of Jewish life in the exotic sanctuary of Shanghai. Depleted by disease and hunger, constantly struggling with primitive and crowded conditions, the refugees faced shortages of food, clothing, and medicine. Tobias also observes the underlife of Shanghai: the prostitution and black market profiteering, the brutal lives of the Chinese workers, the tensions between Chinese and Japanese during the war, and the paralyzing inflation and the approach of the communist "liberators" afterward.

Richly detailed, Strange Haven opens a little-documented chapter of the Holocaust and provides a fascinating glimpse of life for these foreigners in a foreign land. An epilogue describes the changes Tobias observed when he returned to Shanghai forty years later as a visiting professor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252076244
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	12/29/2008
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Sigmund Tobias, Distinguished Research Scientist, Institute for Urban and Minority Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, has contributed to many books and articles on educational psychology, instructional technology, and other aspects of learning and education.

Table of Contents

Foreword Michael Berenbaum ix

Preface xxi

1 Fleeing to Shanghai 1

2 Life in Shanghai's Lanes 12

3 Getting Used to Shanghai 24

4 War 37

5 Ghetto 49

6 A Yeshiva Student in Shanghai 60

7 Life in the Ghetto 75

8 Air Raids 84

9 Holocaust 92

10 Life in Postwar Shanghai 102

11 Going to Work 110

12 Leaving Shanghai 118

Sequel: Revisiting the Past

13 Revived Childhood Memories 133

14 Return to Shanghai 138

15 Back in Hongkew 147

Epilogue 155

Index 157