Last Refuge:
The Story of the Jewish Refugees in Shanghai
As Hitler’s plan to eradicate the Jewish People was becoming abundantly clear, millions of European Jews were desperately seeking refuge in any country that would accept them. Under pressure from Nazi Germany, most countries closed their doors to them, except for Shanghai, China, a city that most European Jews   had never heard of. Shanghai became the only place in the world that required no entry visas or permits.  Thus, from 1938 to 1942, about 18,000 Jews successfully escaped to Shanghai.

Shanghai was the largest port city in China and the Far East.  It was also a city comprised of two civilizations:  western and Chinese. Known as the "Paris of the East", Shanghai was a colonial paradise to many westerners.

However, at the time when these Jewish refugees arrived in Shanghai, most of the city was occupied by the Japanese. In such an unfamiliar city, along with their Chinese neighbors, the Jewish refugees went through the most extraordinary experience in their lives: the hardship of wartime Shanghai; surviving the Japanese ghetto; and the moment of liberation. Some lost their lives, but most of the refugees survived the war in that city whereas their families and friends, who were not able to find their ways to escape, lost their lives in the Nazi concentration camps.

Like many untold stories in the history of mankind, the story of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees has its unique significance, which, in this film is revealed by the survivors' first-hand accounts, scholarly analysis, and valuable historical stock footage.

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ISBN 1-56082-304-6
50 min., #184, Color, DVD, $39.95