Anxiety was felt in Jewish circles here today over the fate of the more than 20,000 Jewish refugees now marooned in Shanghai as well as of the local Jewish population in Manchukuo which is completely under Japanese control.
With an anti-Jewish drive recently started by Nazi-inspired elements in Japan, it is feared that the outbreak of war in the Pacific will worsen the situation both for the Jews in Manchukuo, especially in Harbin, the majority of whom are Russian-born, as well as for the Jewish refugees from Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland now concentrated in Shanghai.
No Polish Jews are now left in Japan, according to information released today by Dr. Ignacy Schwartzbart, Jewish member of the Polish National Council. There are, however, over a thousand Polish Jews now stranded in Shanghai. Last minute appeals were made today to the Polish Government-in-exile here, asking that immediate action be taken to facilitate the departure of these Jews. Hope was expressed here today that they may still be able to leave Shanghai.
The situation of the Jewish refugees from Germany, several thousands of whom now live in refugee camps in the Hongkew section of Shanghai which is under Japanese control, is for the time being not clear. As holder of German passports they may not be molested, it is hoped, since they cannot be considered “enemy aliens.” The opinion prevails here that Japan may keep all the Jewish refugees isolated in Shanghai without permitting them to maintain any contact with the outside world.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
