Shanghai Ghetto

"Shanghai Ghetto" might sound boring at first glance: it is a ninety minute documentary.

But this film is so heavily emotional, it is so chilling and thought provoking, that it makes "Schindler's List" seem trivial.

The story is told simply enough. Narration is used when needed, but the majority of the movie is told by the very people who were there, the very Jews who escaped Hitler's tyranny by fleeing to Shanghai.

The survivors of the Shanghai Ghetto are all remarkable. They are excellent story tellers and they are able to give the audience a lot of details. The movie also does an excellent job of providing relevant visuals as they speak, so that what you hear you also see.

The thing that makes this film stand out above other Holocaust films is the combination of historical footage and eyewitness accounts. "Schindler's List" was an amazing film, but the viewer could still remain blissfully detached because we never heard an eyewitness account. But in "Shanghai Ghetto," the eyewitness testimonials give you no choice but to be personally involved.

I walked out of this film feeling overcome with emotion. In the car on the way home, I made myself promise to never allow a crime like the Holocaust to be perpetrated on humanity again. It is quite rare that I feel this emotional after seeing a movie, but "Shanghai Ghetto" is simply amazing.

I had the pleasure of attending one of the first NYC screenings last night and attending a Q&A afterwards with the filmmakers. The film moves slow at times, using much footage and interviews from those who escaped Nazi occupation by fleeing to Shanghai. The survivors speak of their family, friends and their experiences as if it were yesterday remarking stories with countless details.

My father was one of the people originally interviewed for the film, although his tale did not make it past the editing room floor. Imagine my surprise though when images of people were shown and there right in front of my eyes was a young picture of my grandmother! Apparently she was close friends with the mother of one of the men interviewed.

Overall, while the story of the Holocaust has been retold before, never has it been shown from this most personal perspective. The filmmakers followed two of the survivors as they traveled back to Shanghai many years later to see the homes they left so long ago. This is a pilgrimage that only a handful have made as this is a reminder of a most painful time in their past.

I urge you to see this film and to encourage other new filmmakers to be daring and take a chance and tell their story. Much luck to Dana & Amir!

Documentaries about the Holocaust tend to fall into two classes. The first is the wide view of central events and personalities, subjects that very many people recognize. Intriguingly, a second class of film emerges from time to time: documentaries that educate by illuminating a thread of history relatively or even almost totally unknown to most. Such a film is Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann's subtly powerful "Shanghai Ghetto," the story of frightened German and Austrian Jews who after "Kristallnacht" and before the borders were sealed found refuge in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, the great Chinese port.

With documentary footage and well-edited interviews of men and women who trekked to Shanghai and now appear to live in comfort, as well as with commentary by several academics and narration by Martin Landau, the directors tell a fascinating story.

As Western European countries, Great Britain and the U.S. fell over themselves expressing sympathy for the plight of Germany's Jews while insuring that few would find refuge within their respective nations' borders, Shanghai was a destination where, miraculously, anyone could debark from a ship without passport or visa. Shanghai before 7 December 1941 was an odd city, a metropolis where the Japanese freely and without compunction murdered and brutalized Chinese residents while respecting the international enclaves that enjoyed extra-territorial status from the days of the Opium Wars.

Why the Japanese, in league with their Nazi partners, seemed to care little about the sudden influx of European Jews isn't clear. The film suggests that the Japanese had some sort of bizarre but fixed belief that the myths about Jewish hegemony over banks and industry would somehow benefit their Empire. I doubt that explanation has any validity. I suspect that at first the Japanese simply didn't much care about these refugees and then discovered they had to deal with them. After Pearl Harbor when both British and American nationals were interned the Jews dwelled in a twilight world with some restrictions but overall a remarkable degree of freedom.

The interviewees describe harsh living conditions but it's clear almost from the first comments how relative that concept is. That many if not all the escapees lost an affluent or at least middle class lifestyle is certain. There was disease and insanitary conditions abounded but these were largely endemic to pre-Maoist China, not the result of ghettoization as in Eastern Europe. An Israeli professor and several of the elderly interviewees can't even concur as to whether the Japanese actually established a ghetto. The professor says they didn't and the former residents use the term "ghetto" repeatedly.

There is a curious juxtaposition between the interviewees describing their travails and period footage and still photos showing a fairly vibrant Jewish community with music, art, literature and sports clubs. The Shanghai Jews were free to form their cultural groups and pursue their interests as they wished. This was not Theriesenstadt with its horrific Nazi-created Potemkin Village orchestra and drama company.

Of course the uprooted refugees suffered hardship and a few of them on this film suddenly draw a sharp breath before a sob and tears interrupt the flow of their narrative. In one of my favorite Manhattan theaters, (the small Quad on 13th Street between 5th and 6th) the house was packed people running in age from about thirteen to their eighties. The impact of learning this chapter of Hitlerian monstrosity was palpable.

Near the end of the film familiar stock footage of Nazi death camps and crematoria, replete with victims, is shown alternating with the interviewees' honest, to a degree anguished, reflection that, as several say, they were living in "paradise" compared to the many relatives they lost in the cauldron of evil. Or the survivors in Europe. Not until the war ended did the Shanghai refugees learn the fate of European Jewry.

Whatever the relative scales of suffering by widely separated survivors, the producers/directors have added a unique chapter of Holocaust history to the archives. "Shanghai Jews" is a thoroughly engrossing work, complemented by the music of Sujin Nam and largely performed on the Chinese erhu.

This film won't be shown in many venues but it ought to be widely televised and certainly made available for rental or purchase.

9/10.

Being a Chinese this documentary moved me in many different ways. The Jewish refugees who were interviewed in this movie viewed the hardship they experienced in the Shanghai Ghetto as positive in general. Even though they were often sick from various diseases because living conditions were poor, and they were often hungry. They appreciated the Chinese spirit, their work ethics, and their ability to survive under the harsh Japanese occupation during the war. Most of all they were grateful to have been able to live in China and were spared the death camps many of their family members were not able to escape. This movie is a testament of the triumph of human spirit over the horrendous adverse conditions and oppression they endured during that turbulent period. All high schools/colleges should show this very well made movie to their students because they can learn so much from watching it. I am so glad I did.

My grandfather was a Jew in Shanghai during the holocaust. I have done a lot of research about the Jews in Shanghai and it is nice to see that this documentary was put together to inform people about this part of history that is not widely known. It is both touching and heartfelt, sad and liberating. I have always wondered exactly why China opened its doors to the Jews. I am thankful for all they did for my grandfather and thousands of other Jews. China's compassion has touched many generations and I feel indebted to the Chinese because of their kindness and understanding. This part of my heritage has sparked an interest for me about China and I will be teaching English there in a few months. I have traveled to China twice and have made many wonderful friends. The first time I went, I had a chance to go to Shanghai and I saw the memorial dedicated to the Jews of Shanghai. That trip is something I will always remember.