(Jewish Group) Jewish Museum features exhibition on refugees in Shanghai

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

An exhibition that features a lesson from history about tolerance, compassion for human suffering and solidarity has made its United States premiere at the Jewish Museum of Florida- FIU .

This exhibition, called Stranded in Shanghai: Arthur Rothstein's Photographs of the Hongkew Ghetto, 1946, is on display at the JMOF-FIU, 301 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach , through May 20.


In the 1940's, 20,000 European Jews escaped certain death by spending the war years in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, which became the last hope for desperate refugees fleeing Nazi terror as they had nowhere else to go because they were turned away by so many other countries. In April 1946, the late Jewish American photojournalist Arthur Rothstein took 22 photos that captured the living conditions of these Jewish refugees in Shanghai. Rothstein's photos, which were commissioned by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, are featured in this exhibition at the Jewish Museum. They are considered a unique visual testimony to the sanctuary given to Central European Jews during the period of World War II and the Shoah.

"The Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU is thrilled to present the U.S. premiere of Stranded in Shanghai," said Susan Gladstone, the museum's executive director. "We are honored to shine a light on this little-known segment of history that mirrors so much of our present. We must know history in order to proceed successfully with our future. Rothstein's works are truthful and unflinching, and were it not for these photographs, the experiences of these refugees and the lessons we can learn from them today, would have been lost forever."

After World War II ended, these stateless refugees became "displaced persons." Although most would survive the war despite the severe conditions and deprivations of life in the Japanese-occupied port city, many were destitute at its end in 1945 and unable to return to Europe as they faced an unwelcoming world where once again most countries would not welcome Jews. Also, these 20,000 refugees would soon be forced to flee again due to the encroaching Civil War in China, so Rothstein hoped his photographs would bring attention to their plight. In the spring of 1946, he was discharged from the American Army in China and was hired as chief photographer for UNRRA, an international relief agency founded during World War II to give aid to areas liberated from the Axis powers. Rothstein's mission was to create a photographic record of UNRRA's humanitarian effort to defeat hunger and rebuild infrastructure in China.

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