On October 22, I had the honor to present my research on some of the most interesting post-Habsburg Central European lives in Republican China. Those who tuned in the Royal Asiatic Society’s Shanghai Branch’s Zoom event were introduced to the fascinating political backdrop and personal stories of Jewish emigrants fleeing Hitler’s Third Reich to Shanghai and their locally settled benefactors: the Austrians, the Czechoslovaks, and the Hungarians.
1940s
Publication News: “The Flag of Paul Komor was Published in Hungarian
Today my article about the tragedy of Shanghai Hungarian Paul Komor was published. Written in Hungarian, it is introducing Komor, the savior of the Shanghai Jewish refugees, and the long time quasi-consul of the local Hungarian diaspora in Republican/Japanese occupied China (1915-1943).
Despite being the selfless benefactor of destitute Central Europeans for decades, Paul Komor was abandoned in his troubles by the Hungarian state during World War Two. Today, everyone, including the current Hungarian government’s culture diplomats and the Shanghai Hungarian Consulate General, is right to be proud of Komor. However, the less glorious parts of the story that were left to fade into oblivion now come to light.
Those reading in Hungarian, click on this link for the article on the online historical magazine Újkor.hu. Everyone else waiting for an English version, there might be coming up soon one in the form of an academic publication, so stay tuned! (In the meantime, perhaps a Google translation can give you the gist of the content.)
The Archives of the United Nations in New York: Some impressions and a basic Guide
In this post you can read about the UNRRA documents concerning refugees and displaced persons in China after World War Two, some practical advice, as well as my general impressions about the UN Archives.
It isn’t quite the same to visit an archives in the skyscraper jungle of Manhattan than going to the ones that sit imperiously in the more flat and spread-out parts of Mainland Chinese cities. Unlike the massive yellow-tiled Municipal Archives of Tianjin between a university campus and a large waterpark or the Second Historical Archives that nestles is the old Ming palace of Nanjing, the metropolitan surroundings of the UN Archives in New York have more common with the Shanghai Municipal Archives. But while in the Pearl of the Orient the tired researcher’s wondering eyes can gorge on the colonial facades of the Bund and the modern towers of Pudong across the Huangpu, for the visitors of the UN Archives it’s a 300 m walk to reach the East River where the flat box of the UN Headquarters is soaring high.
United Nations Headquarters in New York City, view from Roosevelt Island (Wikipedia)
“The only salutary regulation” of the Japanese in wartime Shanghai’s Jewish Ghetto: A short excerpt from Hungarian refugee-journalist László Frank’s memoir
How many times can you be vaccinated? In this post I will share a paragraph describing a Central European refugee’s encounter with Japanese anti-cholera vaccination practices in wartime Shanghai. Before the translated quote, I will give a short introduction of the author, who might become a regular guest on this blog in the future.
(L) A hand bill from New York City, 1832 with some outdated public health advice (New York Historical Society) and (R) Chinese Red Cross Juniors explaining cholera posters to street crowd in Shanghai, 1920s (picryl.com)
“How does a Hungarian Jew get to make an appeal for Austria?” A 1940 anonymous marginalia on the page of a Shanghai daily newspaper
There is a certain excitement to being in the former library of the Shanghai Jesuits, hunching over old newspapers in a dim reading room. Shutters closed, shimmering reading lamps, heavy wooden desks. It doesn’t take too long to get immersed in the past. The environment helps if only you are able shut out a soft male voice set on eternal repetition – the faint but steady sound of the visitors’ introduction to the building. But what’s this atmosphere compared to the thrilling moment when you realize that you aren’t alone reading the now-tattered pages from the 1940s? Well, you are alone, but you discover that someone before you left their comments on the margins with a red pencil. Judging from the vehemence of the note, it must have been written by someone contemporary, responding to what they were reading, back on that March 11, 1940, in wartime Shanghai. That adds a layer between you and the first author who you thought you were alone with.
1) The Biblioteca Zikawei (Xujiahui Library 徐家汇藏书楼) from the outside (by M.M.); 2) from the inside (by Michelle Qiao, Shanghai Daily) 3) (Baidu.com)
The main page of the Gelbe Post (March 15 1940 issue) [Read more…] about “How does a Hungarian Jew get to make an appeal for Austria?” A 1940 anonymous marginalia on the page of a Shanghai daily newspaper