Shanghai Jewish Businesses

In Dr. Levitsky’s Holocaust Literature class at Loyola Marymount University we have examined an array of Holocaust diaries, journals, memoirs and poetry throughout the Spring 2015 semester. More specifically, we have spent the semester on a digital humanities project that focuses on Jewish refugees in the 1930’s and 1940’s in Shanghai. Our group closely examined the Jewish involvement in Shanghai businesses.

Jewish Refugees in Shanghai. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, NY.

In the year 1938, Jews began to trickle into Shanghai and established businesses in the Shanghai community. Jews made the great escape to Shanghai and were capable of entering China due to the fact that Shanghai was the only place in the world that did not require a Visa. Frankly, Jews moved to Shanghai because there were no other options. Secondly, desperate refugees moved to Shanghai because it looked like a more promising option than staying in Germany. 

“By 1943, the majority of Jews in the city were forced into the Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees in Hongkou district, an area which would become known as the ‘Shanghai Ghetto’” (Griffiths). After moving to the city of Shanghai, Jews began to establish businesses that allowed them integrate into the community for means of income and to establish a way of life. 

Jian Chen, Director of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum

The Shanghai Ghetto “was overcrowded and unsanitary, although conditions were not dramatically better in the rest of the city. Diseases such as typhus spread and starvation was rampant for years. Half of the Jewish population survived on donations from charity or other private funds” (Friedman, Wiener).  These miserable conditions partially contribute to the opening of businesses throughout the Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees in Houngkou district.  Betty Grebenschikoff, a refugee told Global Times “‘We had our theater shows, newspapers, radio programs and other entertaining activities to make life more cheerful here’” (Jialei). 

During World War II Shanghai remained one of the rare free transit ports and because no visa, police certificate, health affidavit or proof of financial independence was needed, became a popular place for Jews to take refuge from the Holocaust. Because there was no set quota, many found this as the only solution. Many of the Jewish businesses that developed in Shanghai during this time can be traced back to the Baghdadi Jews, many of whom which were merchant traders fleeing religious persecution. The Sassoon family is responsible for not only for the many of the thriving businesses that sprouted up from in the Jewish communities within Shanghai, but also for housing hundreds of refugees in their Shanghai Mansions. (“The Chronology of the Jews…”)

Pictured above David Sassoon (seated) and his sons Elias David Sassoon, Albert Abdallah David Sassoon and Sassoon David Sassoon.    

Dated circa 1850
Unknown photographer, mid-19th century

The Sassoon family moved to China in 1844 and founded David Sassoon & Co. In the middle of the 19th century, Treaty Ports were declared open to foreign trade. David Sassoon who settled in Bombay, India, in 1832, established a firm dealing mainly in cotton, tea, opium and silk. Before the treaty he traded with Canton in South China and gained a predominant position in these trades. After the Treaty Ports were opened, David Sassoon decided to extend the interests of his growing firm by sending his sons to establish branches in China. Elias, David’s son, did a great deal to further the family's’ interests in Shanghai. By encouraging young Jewish men to work for them, and by preferring those who married into the family, much of the business and Jewish culture can be traced to the Sassoon family. Many Shanghai Jews were either part of the Sassoon family or employed by them. (“The Chronology of the Jews…”)

David Sassoon born in 1792 was the patriarch of the Baghdadi Jews, and the leader of the illustrious Baghdad family. Son, Elias Sassoon, was the pioneer of the Baghdadi Jewish settlement in Shanghai. Because the Sassoon family was heavily involved in the shipping and production of opium during this time, there business was profiting.

This picture features the building process of Sir. Victor Sassoon’s Metropole Hotel built in 1930.  Now called 新城饭店 it can now be found at the junction of Fuzhou and Jiangxi Roads.The hotel was centered in the hub of Shanghai and was known by guests to have been luxurious and comfortable. The hotel was designed by the well known architectural firm of Palmer and Turner and the construction was carried out by Sin Jin Kee Building Contractors. The same team built both Victor Sassoon’s Cathay Hotel and Hamilton House, adjacent to the Metropole. (“The Metropole Hotel”)

Top Image: Metropole Hotel and Hamilton House under construction, Shanghai, October 1930. BSPA collection, BS-s13: © 2011 British Steel Project Archive.

Bottom Image: Metropole Hotel under construction, Shanghai, September 1930. BSPA collection, BS-s11: © 2011 British Steel Project Archive.