Hiding in a Cave of Trunks: in Shanghai ,By Ester Benjamin Shifren, 2012 276pg

    A Prominent Jewish Family's Century in Shanghai and Internment in a WWII,  24/8/23

1800s her family Nuriel and Miriam Isaacs travelled from Calcutta , India to the Yangtze River on a ship captained by Nuriel. The youngest child Matama was born in 1871 in Chinkiang and they later moved to Shanghai    “The Paris of the East,” is 40 miles up the Yangze River. David Moses David met up with the Sassoon's and Kadoorie's families that had come earlier and they encouraged family members from Bagdad and India to join in the business adventure.

The work coolie means "bitter strength " referring to the unskilled laborer's. The binding of women's feet was the ultimate manifestation of female subordination in China since the 10C it often lead to the death of many women. It was banned in the new Chinese republic in 1911but carried on till as late as 1949. 

Her maternal grandfather Rabbi Yeheskei Jacob arrived in Shanghai from Persia in 1918 he had studied at the Rabbinical collage in Bagdad. With his wife Haviva who conversed in Judio-Arabic  had 6 children including her mother Liza. The children spoke English.

Flagships from all the treaty powers could be seen with flags from Britain , US, Italy, France and Japan. The city has a skyline of building that represent the different architecture of the different cultures.

At the English school they suffered anti-Semitism , no one escaped the levels of snobbishness of the caste system which included Eurasian children. Her mothers brother Jack took violin lessons and later became a member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Her Grandmother Matana went to a school run by French nuns and became fluent in French. She married at 19 to Mantook Nissim from Allahabad British India (today Pakistan) The chewed betel leaf a carcinogen that causes oral cancer as happened to this grandmother who died in 1947 before the family scattered to the 4 corners of the earth.

The grandfather David Benjamin had shares in 2 rubber plantation in Chemor, British Malaya, with warehouses on the Whampu River(today Singapore). The grandfather had 6 racehorses and often won big at the races where a lot of business deals were made. They regularly travelled to Burma , Manilla , Japan.

1920 Sir Jacob Elias Sasoon endowed the synagogue in Shanghai.

The Astor House Hotel was the first place in China to be electrified. It had been visited by Ulysses Grant , Albert Einstein Scott Joplin, Charlie Chaplin and Bertrand Russel.

1937 Her father worked for a big radio shop that had just opened and also did real estate dealing as he could speak Chinese well.

1937 The author was born the year the Sino -Japan war began. Japan thought they could defeat China easily and take possession of Shanghai in 2 weeks but for Chinese resistance and the population started streaming into the foreign settlements. Bundles of abandoned baby girls were picked up by the Chinese Benevolent Society. Desperate starving parents often sold their daughters or even murdered them.

The British gave evacuation orders and shipped out their national  about 1300 to 1500 mostly women and children  to Hong Kong  as well as her mother but her father remained in Shanghai. Thousands of  Canadians and Americans also left. Then Shanghai returned to normal and her mother returned.

Ester was born in the Matilda hospital Hong Kong and 1955 the movie Love Is a Many Splendid Thing was filmed there so she was able to see the movie of the place.

1937 Nanking  because of Chiang Kai Shek resistance in the battle of Shanghai there were 50,000 Japanese soldiers bent on taking revenge and the Chinese forces were disorganized and 90,000 Chinese troops surrendered and were killed  and half the population of Nanking's 600,000 were massacred. The slaughter lasted about 6 weeks and 20,000+ women were gang raped. Then the Japanese pacified the population with opium turning thousands into addicts. 300,000 fled to the safety zone.

There were always stray dogs or cats and each time she was scratched or bitten had to get anti-rabies injections. They only drank boiled water and put potassium permanganate in water to wash  on fresh lettuce or fruit. Every year they were inoculated against cholera , typhoid. Jaundice , ringworms and also perils, and you always slept under mosquito net tent.

1938 Nov. Many Jews arrived before Kristallnacht, in  Germany anyone who heard that Shanghai could be entered without a visa scrambled for a ticket. Those who fled 

 after Kristallnacht found themselves in a extreme sad plight and the Sephardi and Russian Jews  helped them there.  In June was the typhoon season and the International settlement was usually flooded, so rickshaws worked hard to make as many fares as possible. Umbrellas were probably invented in China and used against the sun the royal family used only red and yellow ones and the public could only used blue ones.

Most of these new refugees had no English language but to practice doctors or professionals needed no license.

1939 William Joyce or Lord Haw -Haw left England and went to Germany and broadcast Nazi propaganda could be heard in Shanghai on the radio .He later died on the gallows in 1946

1939 August, the Japanese succumbed to pressure and closed the gates. The Nazi's sent Colonel Meissinger to Shanghai with special orders but the Japanese refused to take part in the "final solution" In 1904 when everyone refused aid to Japan , the Jewish banker Jacob Schiff offered aid in the war against Russia. Other wealthy Sephardim also offered Japan aid and they believed all Jews wielded a lot of power. The Japanese issued a proclamation concerning restriction of residences of stateless refugees forcing them into certain poor neighborhoods. Note they never used the word Jews.. Here Jewish refugee children and Chinese children played together and learned Chinese.

1941 Dec 7th Pearl Harbour and the Allies were at war with Japan. The Japanese took over key British and American  companies but left the people in charge until they learnd to run them

1942 Dec. From then Japanese started interning foreigners, however they had a Russian aunt who was not interned. They had to hand in their car. All steel fences and radiators were ripped out for the Japanese war effort. They were eventually interned in early 1943.

1986 When the author was living in South Africa she visited her parents in Israel and started questioning her father on what happened till he died in 2002. They were lucky to have been interned late maybe because they had young children. The camp was run internally by the ex  Shanghai commissioner of police. Her mother took on kitchen duties and father the duty of making coal bricks and keeping the kitchen fire burning and keeping the camp hygienic. There were only 3 Jewish families in the camp and so she suffered the usual doses of anti-Semitism. Everyone was skinny and hungry but morale was kept high with her mother organizing plays and stage dancing. Once the children outgrew their shoes the went barefoot. Every morning the children had classes on the material that was available. The best meat available was given to the children. Women got together and made clothes and they gave ballet lessons. There were nuns and priests interned with them and they had many dedicated teachers, they were kept very busy and had no boredom.

A few people got out and joined Chiang Kai-shek army  in Chungking. If someone escaped the Japanese stopped giving out the Red Cross parcels. After the war warehouses were found full of these. There were about 1000 interned in this camp. Used tea leaves were used as tobacco by desperate smokers.

Before the war her mother had taught Japanese soldiers English so it seems they already knew the agenda to come.

A few moths before the end of the war they were hastily moved to Yangtzepoo which was an undercover arms and ammunition depot which was targeted for bombing by the allies. On the roof they painted POW with a code which luckily averted the bombing. The Japanese commander at this stage knew Japan was losing the war and treated the interns better. 

1945July a number of US air raids attempting to get the Japanese transmitter in Hongkew and the airfield in Chiagwan , some bombs fell wounding the refugees.

1945 Aug 10 they heard that the war is over, soon Japan had agreed to the Potsdam Terms, which was issued on July 26th by Truman , Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek The Japanese here still knew that there were over a million soldiers in China and they might go on fighting. A copy of Readers digest circulated with the "Nightmare of Nanking" Allied planes began appearing dropping pamphlets over Shanghai . They must remain in camp for their own protection signed by A.C Wedemeyer of the Lt Gen US Commanding.

The Japanese simply disappeared and they put up national flags of Britain the USA, China , Russia, Holland Belgium and Australia.

Colorful parachutes, fell containing food, underwear, cigarettes and even American comics. Friendly GIs came and brought the latest music and dances. Droves of American and British military were to be seen.

20,000 Jews were still living in Shanghai and they started emigrating. More that 30 million Chinese were killed or wounded by the Japanese. About 1500 refugees died during the war from various reasons.

They had relatives who survived the war in Tientsin where there was a big British colony. They were interned at Welhsien

Shanghai British school reopened and they returned to their apartment to find everything gone, the business was still there as it had carried on under the Japanese control. Goods began to arrive and trade returned. Her father found his car at the station and took it back this was unusual as few recovered confiscated cars.. In 1946 all appeared to be going well and her father travelled to do trade but then the situation began deteriorating.

While the war was on Moa Tse Tung and Chiang Kai-shek joined to fight the Japanese now it was Communist against Nationalists. Foreigners were leaving in droves and England began to repatriate but we were denied passage as we were not originally from England. Australia's quota was full and Canada wanted a bond of $10,000. So they relocated to Hong Kong, where they spoke Cantonese a different dialect from Shanghai.

1949 May 27 the Communists took control of Shanghai.

In Hong Kong she went to the CBS or Central British School, later it became the George V School It had been used as a hospital under the Japanese. Sir Alexander Grantham was governor of Honk Kong in 1948.

1941 Dec Stonecutters Island was a British Naval base taken over by Japan who set up a radio transmitter there and had a snake farm to milk the venom as antidotes for their troops. In Hong Kong opium was finally outlawed in 1940.

After WW2 thousands left mainland China as refugees and there were 300,000 Chinese squatter living there, this strained Hong Kong's already struggling resources

Her grandmother uncle and all her fathers sisters went to Australia where they spent the rest of their lives.

1950 June  North Korea invaded South Korea and General Mc Author led the war The Allies started placing embargoes on Hong Kong as the cargoes went through the back door to the Communists. In 1950 Dec they moved to the newly declared State of Israel. They flew out of the Kai Tak Airport which the Japanese army had expanded in 1942 by destroying the Kowloon Walled City wall to do that. 

In the Bamboo Wireless bulleting in October 1945 are pictures of Ester with children on the HMS Belfast enjoying a party. They had never enjoyed so much food and over indulged. There was a great demand for jelly by the kids. In 2005 on the ,TV program Well meet again this was 60th anniversary of the end of the war on VE day. She was with 10 other children and they saw the film footage  from that party with her mother, brother and sister in it nearby.

In 1951 the family moved to Israel where she served 2 yeas in the Israeli army, married a South African and then spent 36 years in South Africa then moved to Canada, and 5 years later to Los Angeles in 1997

1994 a plaque in Chinese , English and Hebrew was dedicated by the Hongkew district government - Area of the Stateless Refugees, who fled from the Nazis.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------__Jews of Hong Kong by Benjaman Schwarts

Hong Kong the Fragrant Harbor by the mid 1850s Bagdadi Jews migrated under the wings of the British Imperial expansion in the Middle East through India into the China coast and then even to Japan. The had international family networks with intermarriage almost as important as capital for generating business. By 1858 got land for the community and 1901 the Ohel Leha Synagogue (After Leah Sasoon) had a trust to maintain the property. In 1925 a cantor was brought from Bagdad and majority of Jews spoke Judio Arabic. Sasoon, Kadorie, Somech Sopher Gabbai families. The Kadories set up the HK Power and Light Co. as well as the HK Tram Co. The pluralistic society was made up of various clubs and the Jewish recreation club built in 1905 was very much in tune with the British Colonial style. Among the Prominent Jews were Sir Elly, Sir Ellis, Sir Horace and Lord Lawrence Kadoorie. Sir Ellis Kadoorie was a philanthropist that set up school to teach the Chinese English in HK Ganzon and Shanghai. He helped Chinese obtain work in foreign firms that he set up all over the world. Sir Mathew Nathan was the Governor 1904 to 1907 saw to urban planning and roads and railways Sir Piers Jacobs was the finance secretary 1980 to 1990s From the 1960 with increase in trade with China Jews came from the UK and especially the US Since the 1960s, Israel also began to appoint Honorary Consuls to Hong Kong. Today there are as many as 6000 Jews there with 4 synagogues. By the 1989 census Jews in Hong Kong 39% were American, 27%British ,17% Israeli. 71% were Askenazi. Jews came to China Kaifeng along the silk road. The community seems to have lost contact with the Jewish world but it was so small that it did not present a threat . Tulmud found there was the same as in Europe so missionaries could not longer claim it was a forgery. With WW2 Orthodox Yeshiva Jews arriving as well as German Jews. In 1937 there was an influx of Jews into China but most of them moved onto America, Australia and Israel which became independent 6 months before the Communists moved into Shanghai.  

שנגהי נגהש____________________________________________________________________________

New beginnings : From Japanese prison camps to Aliyah by Shoshanna Lehrer.205pg 2013 25/8/18 This is a grandmothers autobiography written for her grandchildren. The family originated from Bukovina and fled Vienna Austria in 1938 and got to the Dutch East India Batavia (Jakarta) where the father worked as a doctor. The book starts with information of Jews who lived in the Dutch East Indies mostly Dutch but also from Bagdad but their is no evidence of an organized Jewish community and their are many cases of Europeans taking on native wives including one of the author's uncles. The story on living through the Japanese occupation after 1942 and starving in internment camps. They were lucky to survive and when Japan capitulated. Japanese soldiers had to protect them against Indonesian independence fighters till British Gurkha troops and later Dutch arrived. She went with her mother to the Netherlands while her father stayed with his girl friend and her daughter. She studied in the Netherland later in England. They returned to visit Austria to claim their property and she saw post war bombed out Europe. They also received a one time payment from the Japanese as compensation. The book takes us to Paraguay under Stroesner where her husband Wim and 2 children ran the Phillip electrical distribution. They are aware that many Nazi's took refuge here. Later they live in Ecuador and when they visit Mexico city find people her family knew in Vienna. They return to the Netherland where she has 2 more daughters, divorces Wim and in 1982 decides to move to Israel where she finally feels she belongs. She now discusses her grandchildren and the fact the she finally has arrived in the country she feels she belongs.