Jewish Refugees in Shanghai Exhibition

to
Borough Park Library

This exhibition includes images and ephemera of European Jews who were displaced during the war.

When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, he issued a series of anti-Semitic decrees, depriving Jews of their civil rights. With the outbreak of WWII, many Jews chose to flee their hometowns, and a considerable number of them took refuge in Shanghai, China—a city they could travel to without a visa. Around that same time, students from the Mir Yeshiva in Vilna, Lithuania, also made their way to the far east to escape the Nazi regime, setting up yeshivas in their new home. These same students—and their families—emigrated to Brooklyn, NY, following Japan’s surrender in 1945.

This exhibit is part of the multi-branch Jewish Refugees in Shanghai Incubator program series, and is put on in collaboration with the Amud Aish Memorial Musuem and the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum.

Preview the Exhibit

Fleeing to Shanghai

Resident Certificate. Courtesy of Chaya L. Small, shown here courtesy of Amud Aish Memorial Museum

Refugee Life in Shanghai

Notion storage box made in Shanghai, China with a pair of silver candlestick holders with Chinese inscriptions and a photo Candlesticks courtesy of Menachem Shimonowitz, notion box and photo are courtesy of Chaya L. Small, shown here courtesy of Amud Aish Memorial Museum

Unforgettable History

Marking stamp of Rabbi Meir Ashkenazi and parchment used in Shanghai, China; Gift of Miriam Pogrow, shown here courtesy of Amud Aish Memorial Museum