FORMER JEWISH GHETTO SITE

It stretches over several blocks of homes around Huoshan Lu (霍山路). At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Jewish community in Shanghai had 20 000 people. It had a strong influence on the commercial activities and cultural life of the city, especially from the 1930 s. Located mainly in the Hongkou district, in what was called La Petite Vienne, there were newspapers, performances of Yiddish theatre, concert concerts, Jewish schools, etc. The Broadway Theater on the Huoshan Lu testifies to this time: many Yiddish shows were programmed there. In 1937, at the time of the Japanese invasion, Shanghai was one of the only cities in the world where one could travel without a visa. Jews from Germany and Austria fleeing Hitler's Nazi regime went to mass and felt safe there. But in February 1943, the Japanese occupiers decided to bring together tens of thousands of Jewish refugees to install them in a ghetto, a little perimeter of a few blocks, around Huoshan Lu. Into with more than 100 000 Chinese, deprived of everything, they were victims of the brutality of the Japanese army. But solidarity has allowed these refugees to survive and from the community has a special relationship with the city of Shanghai. We can still see at No. 119/121 Huoshan Lu, the site of the Jewish Distribution Committee, which was helping to organise the lives of refugees. In Huoshan Park, a memorial was erected by the municipality in tribute to the Jewish community and in memory at this black period in the history of Shanghai.