Shanghai Ghetto

"A very moving and revelatory footnote to the Holocaust. See it if you have a soul."--Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
The documentary Shanghai Ghetto tells the little-known tale of twenty thousand Jews, mostly German, who escaped to one of the few places open to non-visa holders as World War II began.

Narrated by Martin Landau, the story is told through recollections of former refugees, some of whom are taken back by the filmmakers to act as guides to the alleys of Shanghai.

There they recall suffering alongside Chinese natives under Japanese occupation and, when the city became a military target, subsequent American bombing. Most of the Jewish refugees left after the war ended in 1945, but the story of their time there is movingly conveyed here. (95 mins.)

Postscreening discussion led by Christopher Reed, Department of History, and Goldie Shabad, Department of Political Science.