5 Things You Didn’t Know About Old Shanghai

The Jewish Ghetto & The Final Solution 

Shanghai had been home to a substantial Jewish population since foreigners first started arriving at its ports. There were multiple waves of Jewish immigration into Shanghai – Sephardic Jewish traders from the Middle East arrived starting in the 1840s, and European Jews, fleeing from persecution, came throughout the 20th century (from Imperial and Soviet Russia, and Nazi Germany). During the Nazi era, when most countries limited the numbers of Jewish refugees they would take, Shanghai was a safe haven because it was an open international city and foreigners did not need a visa to enter.

Before the Japanese invasion in 1937, Jews in Shanghai lived throughout the International Settlement. The Japanese initially had no issue with Shanghai’s Jewish population – there were no historical problems, and they had plenty of other things to worry about. But when Germany delivered the message (via Josef Meisinger, the “Butcher of Warsaw”) that they should round up and get rid of all the Shanghai Jews (“Final Solution”-style), they demurred — some historians say because they were aware that their reputation was already damaged post-Nanjing Massacre. They reached a compromise: the Shanghai Jewish ghetto. There were no fences and no barbed wire, but in February 1943, Shanghai’s Jewish population* was required to move into an area of Hongkou. Coming and going from the ghetto was only permitted with passes issued by Ghoya, the tyrannical district governor. After the war was over, Shanghai’s Jews left as soon as they could – which in some cases took up to ten years.

For more on the Shanghai Jews, visit the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum, located in the former Ohel Moishe synagogue.

*Stateless Russian Jews and those who were useful to the Japanese were excluded.

The Mystery Dairy

There was a dairy in the heart of the old French Concession – but strangely, no one seems to know very much about it. According to  intrepid antique dealer Pan Zhizhong, the Culty Dairy was located at 1567 Avenue Joffre (now Huaihai Road) – where the Shanghai Library stands today. There were other dairies – the Shanghailander blog cites advertisements for 10 in Northern Jing’an — but although the Culty’s buildings stood into the 1990s, there is precious little information. (These photographs were tucked into a 1930 edition of Shanghai of Today, inscribed ‘Shanghai, 1931’. No other clues.)

France wanted to be alone

“There’s an exception to every rule, and it’s usually the French” – Patrick Cranley.

In Concession-era Shanghai, the city was originally divided into the “native city” (the old walled Chinese city), the British Concession and the American Concession. When the British and Americans decided to join together and form the International Settlement, they invited the French to join them. Mais non, said the French. And that’s not all: the French Concession had a different voltage to the rest of the city, as well as differently-sized tramcars and tram tracks, making inter-Concession travel rather difficult.

Also fun: The Concessions had no power over each other, so all a criminal in the International Settlement had to do was nip across the border to the French Concession to escape. (Unless, of course, he took the tram, and they were changing cars at the border because of the different tracks …)

Colonial police

Colonial powers tend to use native staff wherever possible, as it’s much cheaper than paying someone from their own country. This was true in Shanghai as well – Britain and France brought workers from their other colonies. The International Settlement was policed by Sikhs from British India (wonderfully researched and documented by Sikhs in Shanghai). The French employed “Annamites”, Vietnamese policemen, in addition to the French Concession’s Chinese police force (which may or may not have been run by triads).

Lost Ghosts of Old Shanghai

All those foreigners, for all those years, but have you ever wondered why you’ve never seen an old cemetery in Shanghai? Shanghai’s old cemeteries were first neglected and later destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.

The graves that were left were consolidated at the Wanguo Cemetery in Hongqiao, now part of the Soong Ching Ling Mausoleum. We’re pretty sure the bodies weren’t re-buried here, and the gravestones, for the most part, aren’t original – names are misspelled and there is no hint of religion (crosses or angels or stars of David) anywhere.

Real old Jewish gravestones kept turning up in the countryside, and until photojournalist & tour guide Dvir Bar-Gal found them, people didn’t know what they were and used them for washing!

Bubbling Well Cemetery is now Jing An Park (the only thing that’s left is an avenue of trees), the Pearl Tower is sitting on the Pootung Point cemetery and there is a tiny plot of land outside the Racing Club that was once the Jewish stable hand cemetery. And that’s just the beginning … makes you wonder if you’re living atop an old graveyard…