High School History Department has organized several activities which center on “Jewish people in Shanghai”. Mr. Paul Deichmann and 9-10 students are still busy preparing for a historical play on refugees in Shanghai during the1930s-1940s. After Ms. Betty Barr gave a wonderful lecture about her life during WWII when SHSID was the site of the Lunghwa C.A.C., a Japanese internment camp for American and British civilians (1943-1945) on March. 11^th, the students were lucky enough to have another chance to listen to Mr. Michael Heppner’s story about Shanghai refugees in room 127 of the Zhong Xing Building on March. 27^th. The leader and members of the Jewish Memorial Volunteer Club of SHSID also took the opportunity to learn more about life of the Jewish people in Shanghai.

Michael Heppner is a British Jew and his uncle, Ernest Heppner, spent two years in the Shanghai ghetto before the city was liberated in 1945 and later published a book named Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto. Although he was just a baby during that period, Mr. Heppner experienced the hard life of Jewish people during the WWII, as well as researched the stories of other Jewish refugees. He shared his uncle’s experience and his own feelings with the students and teachers. He talked about a long waiting list (his uncle was No. 60,000) of the Jewish people to move out from Germany and the culture shock they encountered in Shanghai. Many Jewish families spent a lot of money and traveled a long way to Shanghai to survive. But when they arrived, they became very poor and struggled. What made it worse was that in order to satisfy their allies (Germans), the Japanese who were in charge of the government during WWII strictly restricted the Jewish communities to the region of Hong Kou.  Finally, the Heppner family survived despite of the tough life with the inconvenient correspondence system. Some of his family members died in Shanghai, while some went to the US, UK, or other places. Mr. Heppner later answered questions from students and teachers who learned a much from his lecture.

(Written by Shen Zhou         Pictures by Shen Zhou)