Before the wave of European Jews hit China at the beginning of WWII, there was already a small establishment of Jewish immigrants living in Shanghai. They were Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews who, starting in the 1930s, had fled their prospective nations to set up businesses and start a new life in Shanghai. When the first group of Jews arrived from Europe in 1933, there were already about 5,000 Jewish people living in Shanghai.

Jewish refugees arriving in Shanghai, circa 1940

-Haaretz.com

Newspaper clipping describing money problems caused by the influx of refugees at the B’nai B’rith Polyclinic in Shanghai 

- The Jewish Post and Opinion 

Two prominent Jewish sects occupied Shanghai prior to the start of the war: Sephardi and Ashkenazi.  Although they differed in their heritages, places of worship, professions and global outlooks, they joined efforts to establish the B’nai B’rith Shanghai Lodge.  

Shanghai Jewish Hospital, Fenyang Rd. 

- Image from Wikimedia Commons

An Otolaryngological hospital currently occupies No. 83 Fenyang Road.  The hospital dates back to its founding in 1934.  The hospital’s historical context is rooted it its function as a Shanghai Jewish hospital throughout the 1930s and 1940s and the name B’nai B’rith Polyclinic.  Dr. Max Steiman played a huge leadership role throughout the clinic.  

This is an excerpt from an interview between Bruno Miles and Steve Hochstadt.  Hochstadt is a Professor of History at Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois. Miles’ interest in tropical diseases led him to Shanghai; he soon found himself serving refugees. The interview was conducted for the Shanghai Jewish Community Oral History Project directed by Hochstadt. The project aims to transcribe interviews with Jewish individuals who have experienced Shanghai.

Hochstadt: You were specializing in tropical diseases in Shanghai?

Miles: No, no, no, no, no, no.

Hochstadt: What kind of …

A Jewish physician measures medications inside the hospital in Shanghai.

- Image from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

As European Jews fled the Nazis and sought safe haven in Shanghai, existing institutions struggled to support them. These institutions included the relief fund for German Jews, which supported some of the first arrivals in 1938. There was also the International Committee for Granting Relief to European Refugees. The most powerful and helpful to Jewish refugees in Shanghai, however, was the Committee for the Assistance of European Jewish Refugees. 

A physician visits two female patients in their room in the Shanghai Jewish hospital. 

- Image from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

Two physicians stand outside the hospital in Shanghai.  

The doctor on the right is Dr. Hugo Levinsohn; he served as the chief medical officer of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.  

- Image from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

A clip from the documentary Shanghai Ghetto describing Laura Margolis’s arrival in Shanghai to assist the JDC and the committee set up in Shanghai

In 1941 the Joint in New York sent Laura Margolis to Shanghai in hopes that she could help the growing problems faced by the Committee for the Assistance of European Jewish Refugees. Laura and Manuel were both American social workers who intended to reorganize the crippled committee.

A nurse tending to a child, presumably in a hospital or clinic. 

- Image from the Werner von Boltenstern Shanghai Photograph and Negative Collection