Holocaust survivor Ernest Heppner told his unique and ironic story last night of finding a safe haven from the horrors of German concentration camps by fleeing to Japanese-occupied China.
Heppner, who published a book about his experience, gave the Michael Bernstein Memorial Lecture at Hillel as part of the 18th Annual Conference on the Holocaust.
"Although these events happened more than 50 years ago, I consider them to be of utmost relevance to contemporary society," Heppner said. "Let us continue to commemorate the Holocaust not with words but action."
Heppner left Germany for Shanghai in 1939 with his mother, who bribed German officials with expressionist paintings to obtain a higher position on the waiting list for the departing ship.
For Eastern European Jews, sailing across the ocean to China was like entering a whole new world, he said.
"Shanghai provided us with a haven from the Holocaust," Heppner said. "As a teen-age boy looking for adventure, the arrival in Shanghai was very exciting."
While many of the several thousand Jews who fled to Shanghai suffered from the city's poverty and sweltering climate, Heppner said refugees were treated with more tolerance by the Japanese military than by many Western governments that enforced discriminatory immigration policies during World War II.
"Japan permitted penniless Jews to land while the democracies of the world bolted their doors against us," Heppner said. "Has there ever been another period of history where our principal enemy had become our savior?"
LSA junior Marisa Rothstein said it is especially important to remember the Holocaust today as the number of living survivors gradually diminishes. Rothstein said she didn't previously know about Jewish migration to China as a way of escaping the Holocaust.
"I wasn't familiar with the fact that Jews found refuge in Shanghai to escape the Holocaust, so that was very interesting to me," Rothstein said.
Heppner told how the Jewish people lived with the Chinese in crowded Shanghai ghettos and missed the household accouterments of Europe. Crime was rampant, and many casualties resulted from American bombings against the Japanese military officials who stored munitions in the ghettos. Most of the Jewish refugees survived the ghettos to witness liberation by American soldiers, Heppner said.
"It was no doubt the greatest moment in my life when we saluted the American flag as it was raised over our compound," Heppner said.
Heppner, who was deprived of an education after being expelled from a German school in 1935, told the crowd at Hillel last night that he enjoys speaking with young people.
"I'm fascinated to be here because I enjoy discussing issues with students and I envy every student for the opportunities that you have - the opportunity to study, which was taken away from me," he said.
Business graduate student Fei Hsieh, who once worked in Shanghai, said the lecture will help her relate to Chinese history when she returns to the country.
"The speech was very enlightening," Hsieh said. "I think it will be beneficial for me to relate to Jewish people in Shanghai."
JEANNIE SERVAAS/Daily
Ernest Heppner, a Holocaust survivor, spoke at Hillel last night as part of the 18th Annual Conference on the Holocaust.