Shanghai Ghetto
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Movie Reviews of Shanghai Ghetto
Movie Review: A little-known story
Summary: 5 Stars
This film, inspired by director-producer Dana Janklowicz-Mann's own family history (her grandmother and stepgrandfather fled Germany for Shanghai in 1938, along with her then-eight year old father), tells the story of a little-known chapter of WWII. When the world closed its doors to untold amounts of people desperately trying to escape Europe before the Nazis devoured them, or played the rules and regulations game as though bureaucratic red tape and ridiculously small yearly immigration quotas that were never even filled should have mattered when lives were at stake, Shanghai gave them shelter. This was the only place in the world at the time that didn't require an exit visa, and it was also just before WWII, when the Jews of Germany and Austria were still allowed to leave instead of having even their own borders closed to them. Though there was a thriving thousand year old Jewish community in China, Shanghai was largely made up of three rather recent groups. The first were the wealthy Iraqis, who had come with the British in the 19th century; the second were the Russians who had fled after the Revolution and Civil War; and the third were the Germans and Austrians (later joined by some Poles who managed to escape through Siberia; as it's pointed out in the audio commentary, the story of the Shanghai Poles was left out due to time considerations and because the main story was already built around the experience of these Germans, not because it was deemed unimportant or because the producers didn't know about it).
Shanghai was an international city, with a thriving multicultural community; this wasn't a place where the refugees found themselves the only non-Chinese around for miles. And with rare exceptions like the powerful bureaucrat Goya, all of the Chinese were so nice to them. Though most of them had never met any Jews before, there wasn't a whiff of anti-Semitism in the air. They saw them as people who were suffering just as they were, who had been forced to leave their homes and families behind. And though the native Chinese did have it even harder, the Germans too had to go through hunger, disease, poverty, crowding (though the ghetto referred to in the title wasn't anything like the Warsaw Ghetto or Lodz Ghetto; it was more like a Medieval ghetto, just a small segregated area of a city), and the Japanese occupation. However, they actually fared much better than the Chinese under the Japanese occupation, because the Japanese were operating under the anti-Semitic stereotype of Jews being powerful and controlling the world, and didn't want to make this large new segment of the population angry, for fear there would be far-reaching repurcussions. They also treated the Russians well because they had fled from the Bolsheviks, whom Japan was at war with, holding true to the old line "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." At first the Germans had been being taken care of by the Iraqis, but after Pearl Harbor they were sent to internment camps (being British subjects) along with all of the other citizens of the Allied forces living in Shanghai. The Russian community stepped to the fore to take care of them, though they weren't quite as well-off as the Iraqis. They were also taken care of by Laura Margolis, a social worker with the JDC, even though she had to get money from local businesses and government agents to afford these services after Pearl Harbor, when America stopped giving financial aid to this land controlled by an enemy force. Yet from these harsh living conditions they managed to make a thriving community for themselves, with schools, athletic associations, religious life, cultural programming, newspapers, and literary magazines. And though things were really rough for them, as they found out after the war, they had been living in a paradise compared to the people left behind in Europe.
Extras include audio commentary by producer-directors Dana Janklowicz-Mann and her husband Amir Mann, film-maker bios, a trailer, and three additional interviews. Overall, it's a powerful and fascinating look into a little-known saga of WWII.
Movie Review: WW II Jews as Shanghai neighbors
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a well made documentary about WW II Jews escaped and took sanctuary in Shanghai, China. In the 1930s, Nazi Germany systematically implemented the Holocaust to get rid of Jews. The lucky ones escaped by ships but found many countries turned their backs and them back to Europe to be exterminated.
The Chinese Consul General in Austria, Feng-shan Ho issued over twenty thousand visas for Jews to flee to Shanghai China. This film tells personal stories of the Jews who valued and treasured this survival experience in an alien land of culture in "among all four seas are brothers and sisters" in practicing "love your neighbors as yourself". Jewish people whether long time settlers of Kaifeng or in 1930s Shanghai never have to worry about anti-Semitism. It was wonderful to hear the Shanghai Ghetto Jews told their stories and returned for home coming. I met a few Shanghai Jews who shared their story, family history and personal belongings in St Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center. I had the honor to attend this film premier show with them.
This film reminded that Jews in Europe under Nazi Germany and Chinese in Asia under Imperial Japan suffered heavily in WW II. Germany did the right thing to close the history chapter by apology and compensation with education for the younger generation. However, her Asian Ally - Japan does not have the moral courage to show remorse with attrition. Instead, they systematically worship at the Tokyo Yasukuni Shrine where housed the convicted Class A War Criminals in an attempt to resurrect militarism besides whitewash, distort and deny their aggressive war crimes in slave labor, comfort women, germ/chemical warfare, and massacres.
This film reaffirms the friendship between Jewish and Chinese peoples in difficult war time with mutual support. By working together with people of peace with justice, we will keep vigilant in preventing the horror of crime against humanity from happening again.
Movie Review: WW II Jewish refugees' experiences in Shanghai
Summary: 5 Stars
"Shanghai Ghetto" was a very interesting viewing experience for me. Though I am very familiar with the Holocaust, I did not really acquaint myself with the history of the Jewish refugees experiences in China during WW II. Watching this documentary was thus an educational experience for me.
The beginning of the documentary briefly traces the rise of Hitler and the Nazis and how persecution of the Jews begun soon after. This precipitated large-scale Jewish emigration out of Germany, and one unique location was Shanghai, about 8,000 miles away from Germany. Initially one of the reasons some Jews opted to go to Shanghai was because they didn't require a visa to get there. The journey by sea was on board the SS Hakozaki Maru, a steamer which was actually a luxury ship [the only means by which the refugees could get there].
We are given some background information as to how intially very affluent Jews settled in Shanghai, the Baghdadi Jews. This was later followed by the Russian Jews. When the German Jews began arriving, they were housed in a squalid area that became known as the Shanghai Ghetto. The conditions were far from sanitary but as some surviving refugees testified - the conditions were far better than the living conditions of the poor Chinese they had displaced.
We also learn how the Jewish Baghdadi community helped these German refugees out by setting up soup kitchens, temporary housing etc - duties which were later taken over by the JDC [the Joint Distribution Committee] and included the setting up of a makeshift hospital. Despite the best efforts of their benefactors, the refugees still lived in intolerable conditions - diseases were rampant and flooding was common.
This documentary provides an insightful look into the Jewish refugees' experiences in war-time Shanghai, and is a valuable addition to any DVD library dealing with the Holocaust/ WW II.
Movie Review: "Shanghai Ghetto" and "Ten Green Bottles" - Amazing Combination
Summary: 5 Stars
Recently our reading group leader put together an exceptional evening in which we reviewed the book "Ten Green Bottles - The True Story of One Family's Journey from War-torn Austria to the Ghettos of Shanghai" by Vivian Jeanette Kaplan and then saw the video "Shanghai Ghetto", directed by the Mann's. Both the book that we had read and the DVD that we saw were excellent in their own right, but together they so perfectly complemented each other that the total experience was truly outstanding and the best we had ever had.
"Ten Green Bottles" is a beautifully written story about a Jewish family who lived in their highly cultured city of Vienna until the Nazi's came and were barely able to escape to Shanghai. There they tried to survive under Japanese occupation and amid a city of both unbelievable poverty for most and unbelievable wealth for the privileged few. The book is written in the literary non-fiction genre with dialog and in the first person of the heroine, the author's mother, so that you experience her life in Vienna and Shanghai as if you were in her skin. When the old movie footage and pictures, recent interviews and visit to Shanghai of the people of the video "Shanghai Ghetto" were added to this, it made you feel as if you had experienced all of what we had read and saw as if we were actually there.
It was a truly amazing combination.
Movie Review: A Documentary Film that touches the heart and answers many questions.
Summary: 5 Stars
Shanghai is a fascinating city. It has always been. It has historically been one of the most cosmopolitan spots in the World. This film explains clearly and directly why so many Jewish families had to leave Germany during 1938 and 1939, and went directly to Shanghai, and not to other European or American cities. The story is set out in a very simple way and it is told by the actual people that lived the experience. It touches the heart and it produces vivid emotions. Shanghai Ghetto is a really beautiful documentary film. A must see.
J.J.Harting