(Jewish Group) San Francisco was 'Port of Hope' for Jewish refugees from Shanghai

[Behind the Aegis]

75 years ago this week: San Francisco was ‘Port of Hope’ for Jewish refugees from Shanghai

In the Aug. 15, 1947 edition of what was then called the Jewish Community Bulletin, we wrote that San Francisco “within the last year … has become the port of hope to more than 2,000 refugees who have come through San Francisco from Shanghai on their way to new homes and new lives.”

The article detailed a visit by an official from the United Service for New Americans, one of the many organizations at the time set up to aid the influx of Jewish refugees into the United States.

“It is through those organizations — USNA nationally and the San Francisco Committee locally — that emigres who have spent years in the Shanghai ghetto under Japanese rule are received here and helped on their way to new homes throughout the country,” we wrote.

In the same issue, we wrote about a new series of USNA-provided visas for Jews in Shanghai.

“The men, women and children who will immigrate with visas based on the agency’s affidavit are a part of a group of some 14,000 refugees who fled Central and Eastern European countries before the war, to escape the nazis [sic]. They were stranded later in Japan and China, and interned by the Japanese in Shanghai after Pearl Harbor Day.

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