Eric Goldstaub

Shanghai Ghetto – Memories 1938 to 1949

I was born to a Viennese Jewish family in 1921 after World War One.  I was brought up in the usual protected atmosphere of Bar Mitzvah and High School until Hitler’s Nazi party took over in March 1938.  I tried with my parents and relatives to escape Austria.  My immediate family received visas for China – about 20 in all managed to leave.

We arrived in China at the end of December 1938, and after a 30 day cruise across half the world.  China was a land of mysteries, completely new to 20,000 European Jewish refugees who succeeded in escaping from Europe, finding refuge in Shanghai.  While war raged in Europe we managed to establish a community under the most difficult circumstances.

While in Shanghai life was difficult, it still enabled most of our fellow Jewish immigrants to survive and start new and productive lives throughout the world.