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Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto
Shanghai Refuge A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto Author:Ernest G. Heppner Although Ernest G. Heppner (1921 - 2004) was a member of a privileged middle-class Jewish family in Breslau, he suffered from the constant anti-Semitic undercurrent in his surroundings. The devastation of "Crystal Night" in November 1938, however, introduced a new level of Nazi horror and ended his comfortable world overnight. Heppner ... more »and his mother used the family's resources to escape to Shanghai in 1939.
The unlikely refuge of Shanghai, the only city in the world that did not require a visa, was buffeted by the struggle between European imperialism, Japanese aggression, and Chinese nationalism. Heppner's compelling testimony is a brilliant account of this little-known haven. After Pearl Harbor he was interned in the Shanghai Ghetto by Japanese armed forces. He met and married his wife, Illo, in 1945 in the Shanghai Ghetto. In 1947 they emigrated to the U.S.« less