A Place to Save Your Life: The Shanghai Jews

22 minutes
Source: Filmakers Library

Seeking refuge from Nazi terror, some 17,000 Jews traveled to Shanghai, one of the few places that did not require a visa. Although a few Jews already lived in China, the Europeans found life there strange and difficult. Juxtaposing interviews with survivors with archival photographs, this film recounts the days when Jews lived in China under Japanese rule. Although the Japanese forced the exiles into a ghetto, they did not follow Hitler's extermination plan.