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SHANGHAI GHETTO Send This Review to a Friend
A remarkable and moving factual film, "Shanghai Ghetto" documents a most unusual saga that has largely been overlooked in films dealing with what happened to Jews caught in the Nazi persecutions. One place that German Jews could go without entrance visas was Shanghai, and as a result , a colony of refugees found escape there and made a new life that continued even under the Japanese army that became an occupier during the war.
Filmmaker Dana Janklowicz-Mann, who teamed with Amir Mann to make the film, was inspired by family background. The former's father, Harold Janklowicz, was one of those who found refuge in Shanghai, and she remembers how he would reminisce about his experiences, including beatings he took from Japanese and Russian boys when he was growing up in there.
The result is a well-researched film with personal accounts that touch the heart, and fascinating history that opens a window on the odd experiences for Jews that were so very different from those of refugees elsewhere. Enterprisingly the filmmakers managed to get into China to shoot some of their footage, they talked to experts and they got actor Martin Landau to do the narration, which he accomplishes with warmth and authority. "Shanghai Ghetto" tells a unique story that is vital to the total reportage of what happened to Jews in World War II.
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