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Shanghailander and excited a variety of responses. For some, whose photos were exhibited and stories told as part of the exhibition, this was their Shanghai. Others complained that the exhibition failed to show the diversity of Jewish life in Shanghai: in brief, that the focus on the „Shanghai ghetto“, Hongkew, precluded representation of the people who lived relatively, or even absolutely, comfortable lives. The exhibition was curated in a context provided by the Holocaust. As against the deaths of nearly six million Jews in Europe during the war, how could the historical experience of people who lived comfortably through the war years in Shanghai matter? The central event of Jewish history in the twentieth century seemed best represented by the creation of the „Shanghai ghetto“ in Hongkew (the „Designated District“), which was a violation of the civil liberties to which European Jews were becoming accustomed before the rise of Fascism. But there seems little historical point in confusing Shanghai with Lodz. Uschi Becher (née Hirsch) made this point in the course of an interview: Some years ago I went back to Berlin at the invitation of the mayor. They had built a community centre where one of the largest synagogues in Berlin to stand. I walked in and saw a huge memorial wall there, and on it was written ,,Ghetto Dachau“, „Ghetto Belsen“ ... and finally „Ghetto Shanghai“. I was terribly upset because I felt I had no right to be there. Hardly anyone got killed, and we didn’t suffer anything like people did in the concentration camps. Here is a clear expression of the problem of historical representation which emerges implicitly from a survey of the literature on Shanghai’s Jewish communities. Uschi Becher’s observation can be validated by reference to empirical evidence: the so-called ,,ghetto“ in Shanghai shared few features with its European counterparts. The great value of oral history and memoirs lies not, however, in verifiable facts, but in the light they shed on history as human experience. From this point of view, the challenge posed to the historian by differences in persoanl accounts of Shanghai is not how to resolve these differences, but how to allow them full play. Anmerkungen 1 David Kranzler: Japanese, Nazis and Jews. New Jersey, 1988. 2 See Antonia Finnane: Far From Where? Jewish Journeys from Shanghai to Australia, Melbourne 1999; Suzanne D. Rutland: Waiting Room Shanghai: Australian Reactions to the Plight of Jews in Foto: Heinz Gert Friedrichs, Sammlung Paul Rosdy Shanghai After World War II, Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, vol. 33, 1987, pp. 407-33. Israel Kipen: A Life to Live. Burwood, Vic. 1989. 4 Rena Krasno: Strangers Always: A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai. Berkeley 1992. 5 See Cecil Roth: The Sassoon Dynasty, London, 1941; Stanley Jackson: The Sassoons, London. 1968. 6 Forarare comment, see Felix Gruenberger: The Jewish Refugees in Shanghai, Jewish Social Studies, vol. 12, 1950, p. 340 w Antonia Finnane, geb.1952, Dr. phil., ist Senior Lecturer am Department of History der Universität Melbourne mit dem Schwerpunkt Chinesische Geschichte. 1999 erschien in Melbourne ihr Buch „Far from where? Jewish Journeys from Shanghai to Australia“. After I returned home, I felt compelled to reveal my personal feelings about our trip to Europe, which was in all aspects a bittersweet experience. I also wish to make it clear why we, my wife Yvonne and I, included Vienna, a city where recent racist and anti-Semitic overtures were made by a candidate chosen by the people of Austria. I may add at this point that because of my parents and stepfather’s struggle with the Nazis before they had to flee from their homeland, Germany and Austria respectively, my trip to Vienna, Budapest and Prague was viewed with a different perspective. Let this, however, not be construed as an alibi or rationalization for visiting the city of Vienna. While strolling along the narrow streets (Gassen) in Vienna, and the wide boulevards in Budapest and Prague, I envisioned the late 30’s and 40’s when Nazi SS and SA were rounding up Jews from the streets and from their homes. I visited my stepfather’s apartment in Vienna that he told me so much about du71
