An Untold Story of Escape By Elizabeth Sedalnick

1. An Untold Story of Escape By Elizabeth Sedalnick

2. Family History • My grandparents Vera and Walter Loebl were born in Germany to Jewish parents. • They loved their country. • My grandmother was a couturier in a high fashion clothing store. My grandfather was a grain broker-the middle man between the farmers and the mills. • They lived an average life, they were happy.

3. The War • My great-uncle, Oscar Loebl warned my grandparents to leave. They didn’t believe what they heard. My great-uncle decided to stay. • My grandparents began looking for an escape when the Jewish people were forced to wear cloth stars showing their status as Jews (1937.)

4. How Did They Get There? • My Grandmother went to buy tickets to leave the country. The only country allowing people to enter at that time was China. They did not need any papers to go to China. This route was called the “Port of Last Resort.” • My Grandfather wrote his uncles and asked for money. The money was transferred to British currency. The tickets were purchased. • My Grandparents packed boxes of personal items and sent them to a Jewish agency in the country of Manila.

5. Tickets to Shanghai

6. The Journey to China • My grandparents obtained tickets on a cattle steamer. • They were the only passengers (grandmother, grandfather, and aunt.) • They escaped through the Netherlands. The ship sailed south, all the way around South Africa and back north to the orient. • The captain advised my grandparents not to get off at Manila, Hong Kong, or Singapore because of how dangerous it was. • The journey took a minimum of 5 weeks, but it is possible that it took longer. • At Shanghai, they were met by a Jewish agency that helped them get settled (1939.)

7. The Route

8. The First Year in China • There were two types of Jewish people in Shanghai; those who were settled before the war, and those who were refugees after the war began. • My grandparents were set up in an apartment where there was a Laundromat downstairs that they ran. • It was a disaster. • There was a maid to help take care of my aunt. • After a year, my great-grandparents came by train through the Ural Mountains to live with my grandparents (1940.)

9. Prisoner of War Camp • In 1941, Japan invaded China. All Jewish people along with some Chinese, and others were put into a ghetto. It was surrounded by barbed wire. • The Chinese burned the inside of their own houses because they knew they would lose them. In the prisoner of war camp, the buildings were in ruins. Then they escaped to the fields. • My grandfather and another man found tools and pieces of material and made a two room “home” for the family (9ft x12 ft) • One room was for our family, the other was for the other man’s family. • They were lucky. Most families had 3-4 families in one room.

10. The Japanese’s Fascination • The Japanese always wanted to touch my aunt’s and grandmother’s red hair.This was something they had never seen before. • It scared my grand-mother to death, but she couldn’t say no.

11. Living Conditions in the POW Camp • There was no running water. • There was no plumbing. A “honey pot” was used for a toilet. • Lights were permitted for one hour a day. • Everyone was left to figure out how to get food. • All cooking was done on a small hibachi grill.

12. Working • My grandmother obtained a job at a wool factory. She was paid 10 pounds of rice per week. • My grandfather took odd jobs. He delivered bread to the Europeans. • All people in the camp had to have a work permit. It was given by a man who called himself “King of the Jews”, also known as Ghoya.

13. Food • All food had to be boiled because of diseases. • There were rations of food given to people standing in line once a week. The food consisted of maize mush, sweet potatoes (very stringy), and sometimes bread. • The rice from my grandmother’s job kept them alive. It ended up being 1/3 of a cup of rice per meal per day for everyone.

14. Health • Many people died of malnourishment and starvation. • Many committed suicide because of the terrible conditions. • Everyone got monthly inoculations for typhoid fever, small pox and cholera. These were not normal shots.

15. School • 2 British men built a school. The school was there before the war. • The school continued inside the POW camp. • As the war went on, there were no supplies. The prisoners in the camp donated books they had. • The children walked by Japanese soldiers on their way to school. They were not allowed to sing songs that were patriotic.

16. Air Raids • Air raids were common. Often children and adults didn’t know what they would find after the raids were over. • July 17, 1945 the US troops came and started bombing Japanese ammunition dumps located between people’s houses. • My aunt had severe abdominal pains, she had an appendicitis attack.

17. The War Was Over • All the Jews were allowed out of the POW camp. • Care packages were sent from the US including clothes, chocolate, and soda. • Ghoya was mobbed and killed. • All of the Jewish people were given a ticket to board a ship for the United States. • It took several more years before my family’s numbers were called. • It was found that the Japanese had made a pact with the Germans and were building concentration camps in China. • There was a list of names of those who would go in. • After the camps were built, the Japanese backed out of the agreement.

18. Going to the United States • My grandparents, aunt, great grandmother and mom, boarded one of the last ships to leave Shanghai. • They traveled to California from China on the General Gordon troop transport, but were caught in a typhoon. • They had to stop in Hawaii for the ship to be fixed. • They came through California on October 31, 1947.