Shangai Jews: The Berglas Plan

Shanghai Jews: The Berglas Plan

Tiberiu Weisz

Authors Note: Shanghai was an open city during WWII, under Japanese occupation. Refugees from all over could enter Shanghai without papers and stayed under the control of the Japanese military rule. While many works and articles have been published on the refugee conditions under the Japanese occupation, the Japanese treated the Jews as any other refugees, and the term of " kokusai nanmin " meant "international refugees" and not "Jewish refugees" as some articles and books had used the term. Upon reviewing the Japanese texts, I did not find any  reference to the word Jews in Japanese. This gross mistranslation lead many scholars to believe that "kukusai nanmin " referred to Jews, while in reality in Japanese it meant " of all the non-Chinese refugees".

Recently the Israeli government announced its decision to expel the African illegal immigrants from the country, with a $3500 cash allowance. This policy did not sit well with older Israelis and academics who signed a letter to the Prime Minister to stop such as act. They reminded the government that 75 years ago the Jews were at the receiving end of such a policy and it was not called “humanitarian gesture”. It was called “Final Solution” or the mass extermination of the Jews during the Holocaust. Some of the Jews who escaped the ordeal, and still live in Israel or the Diaspora, recall very vividly what was to be a “stateless refugee” with no place to go, to be in transit for weeks and months, or imprisoned, just because they were Jews. Some of these Jews swarmed like bees to the only place on earth that accepted them: Shanghai, China in 1939.

Their ordeal started with the Nazi decision to get rid of the “unwanted and poisonous” element within the Arayan people. Jews were the source of cancer in Germany and they had to be eradicated. But the incentive to leave Germany skyrocketed after the pogroms of November 9-10, 1938. First they were encouraged to sign papers requiring them to renounce their German citizenship in exchange for being allowed to leave the country before a certain date. Many Jews were forced to agree to hand over their property to the government, thus leaving themselves practically without means of survival. They had to leave the country by a certain date (usually less than a month) in exchange they were promised exit visas, and allowed to take with them 10 Reichmarks, and some personal belongings, However, exit visas were not enough to embark on a departing boat because they also needed entry visas from a hosting country. Western democracies refused to issue such entry visas, turning the fleeing Jews to “stateless citizens”. The US issued visa to German refugees only one in a hundred applicant, Australia granted a few visas while England granted none. The most generous was the Philippines allowing 400 refugees to Manila including women and children. Singapore and Hong Kong took in only 100 refugees each and Siam took in 20.

German Jews quickly found out that they had nowhere to go, they had no legal status and the only way out of Germany was though smuggling. Most smuggled were eventually arrested and taken into “no man land” between the two border police stations, without food, drink and shelter. In time they made their way back to the country which had just cast them out. The police found again and again, arrested them, and sent them back to the border again.

Others who were fortunate enough to obtain an entry visa to a country, embarked on a steamer to the country of destination, only to find out that by the time they arrived the government had revoked their visas or entry permit. Upon return, these “boat Jews” found themselves to be “stateless citizens”. The only place in the entire world that accepted them without passports, visas, or any questions was Shanghai, China.

Shanghai in 1939 was under Japanese occupation, ruled by the military.  The influx of the refugees in Shanghai was confined to Hongkew district in Shanghai where they were under the limited protection of the International Settlement authority. The city was already flooded with Chinese refugees fleeing the Japanese. With the addition of Russian, Germany and Europe refugees the city was overwhelmed in search of shelter, food and to make a living. Basic survival became a matter of reality and only the financial assistance of the American Jewry, the “stateless citizen” were spared of “digging their graves” in Shanghai.

Although the Japanese did not interfere in the daily life in the city itself, they had cut off all communication with the rest of China. Two Japanese military officers Colonel Yasue and Captain Inuzuka were appointed to formulate the kokusai nanmin, (international refugees) policy, erroneously translated as Jewish policy for Japan in 1938 and 1939. Refugees, including Jewish refugees were restricted to their already overcrowded quarters, and lack of basic necessities. Refugees could not leave Shanghai in search of employment in other parts of China. While the refugees escaped Europe with their lives, their new life in Shanghai started where the old ended, from concentration camps to refugee camps. Without money and jobs, Jewish refugees were dependent on the funds provided by the Shanghai Refugee Committee, which in turn got funding from various Jewish agencies around the world. The committee’s problem was how to shelter an feed the refugees with even the most basic necessities.

While most of the Jewish refugees struggled to be independent, they were limited by the lack of resources. Those with specific skills improved on their condition as they got a job, among them were bakers, butchers, waitresses, shopkeepers, seamstresses …the less fortunate were the professionals such as doctors, clerks, lawyers who had to the accept minimum standards provided by the refugee Committee. Thirty, forty and even fifty people had to sleep in the same room.  There was no privacy to write letters, reading or relaxing. Members of family were often separated from each other, husband sleeping in a room with other men while women with other women. There was no room for family discussions on important issues of their new life, nor on how to educate the children, or on how and where to look for work.

Towards the end of the summer of 1939, there were 15,500 Jewish refugees crowded in the densely populated shanghai. It was expected that this number would swell to 20,000 by the end of the year. The available charity funds were quite limited, and members of the committee dealing with the refugees were convinced that something must be done to move the increasingly great numbers of German refugees away from Shanghai. With more countries closing their doors to refugees, attention was focused upon the possibility of resettling them in the interior China. The plan worked out for this purpose called upon extensive financial assistance from the world Jewry, and an organized transfer of the Jews to Yunnan Province in Sothern China.

This plan was named after its author Jakob Berglas and called The Berglas Plan, who was hardly mentioned in any Jewish history books. I intend to elaborate in some details of this ambitious proposal.

In early 1939, Sun Ke, president of the Legislative Yuan (Chinese Legislature) formulated a plan to settle European Jewish refugees in southwest China. At the same time, the German Jewish businessman Jakob Berglas and the politically active American Jewish dentist Maurice William presented plans to both the Chinese Nationalist and U.S. governments to transplant European Jews to China. The Nationalists who have been harshly criticized for not confronting the invading Japanese, tried to impress the US with its Jewish policy to demonstrates that the Chinese Nationalists were determined not only to fight the war but also to use every possible tool, domestic and international, to win. It also illuminates how the “Jewish issue” complicated the relationships between China, Japan, Germany, and the United States before and during World War II.

According to this plan all the refugees moving to Yunnan would enjoy the protection of the Chinese Nationalist Government with the same rights and obligations as Chinese citizens. A special allowance of £ 50 would be given to each immigrant participating in this plan, a sum enough to live on for a year. During this transition period, refugees would be able to accommodate in their vocation, find jobs, open businesses and use their needed skill to develop the region.

Since Yunnan has a tropical climate refugees would have to undergo special adjustment of physical and intellectual education to adapt to the environment. Then the refugees would be transported in an organized manner to the new province. A new transportation department would be set up with a capital investment of £ 50,000 and they would be responsible for the relocation from Shanghai to Yunnan and also of the shipping of equipment acquired abroad.  This department would be also responsible to the necessary communication and business transactions between the various settlements. However, the transportation of war related material would be excluded.

The plan called for a planned economy, where part of the available funds would be used as investment and the part by the immigrants. The new enterprises would employ Jewish immigrants whose expertise would contribute to the development of the area, and provide employment to them. It was expected that the emigres would find employment within a year.

Despite the well -defined guidelines its implementation ran into difficulties. Though the government proposed the Province of Yunnan as the site for resettlement, it was not under the control of the Nationalist Government. They had no authority over Yunnan. General Lun Young was the Governor and he was independent war lord with veto power over the central government. Yunnan was the most backward province in China and the infusion of high skilled immigrants would be fiercely opposed by the Chinese natives. The plan was far too advanced for such a poor province. They would just see the settlements as further foreign dominance. Certain professionals such as doctors, engineers, technicians and educators would be welcome by the locals, but clerks, lawyers, intellectuals and merchants would be seen as further expansion of foreign interest. They would not be welcome. The plan has not provided for the employment of local aborigines, and would further escalate the tensions.

Finally, there was a passive opposition from the Jewish refugees, who regarded their stay in Shanghai as a temporary transit camp rather than permanent settlement. Most of the refugees waited for entry permits to Western countries so they were not willing to relocate. They preferred to live in almost sub human conditions rather than accept permanent settlement in a strange culture.

Jewish Asian Times (Taiwan)

TIBERIU WEISZ LINKING JUDAISM INTO CHINA’S CULTURE Jessica Zwaimam, Editor Jewish Asian Times (Taiwan) September 2010

As China’s Kaifeng J e w s r e c e n t l y became yeshiva students in Israel early this year, a series of overlooked stone  inscriptions are bringing the story of Jews in China to life – Tiberiu Weisz investigates. Mr Weisz, or Tibi as he likes to be called, was born in Eastern Europe and made aliyah when he was 14. He served in the Israeli army for three years and then moved to the US. He took East Asian Studies and Chinese and followed by a same field Masters degree. “My interest in China is a very long one, “ he says, “I was a student at Tunghai University in the mid 1970s and recorded Hebrew biblical texts at Tainan University.” In the US, Weisz taught Chinese as well as Chinese philosophy and religion at various Minneapolis Community Colleges and he also consulted with numerous international fi rms that were doing business in China. Weisz read Professor Vera Schwarcz’s book Bridge Across Broken Time: Chinese and Jewish Cultural Memory, but felt “the topic needed much more work.” He believed he was qualifi ed to explore the subject in depth because he says, “I have an above average knowledge of Chinese and Hebrew and I also have a good background in Chinese history and biblical history. Above all, I can read classical Chinese and Hebrew fluently, including biblical Hebrew. So it was natural for me to take on this project and go with it.” While teaching Chinese philosophy Weisz always felt the Chinese tenets were very similar to biblical literature and Judaism and he often wondered if the two might have come from the same source. The combination of his curiosity, interest and abilities led him to start writing his first book The Covenant and the Mandate of Heaven: An In-Depth Comparative Cultural Study of Judaism and China. In his book, which is question-based, he gives answers relating to the connections between Judaism and China. The author uses Chinese and Hebrew texts, both translated to English “and placed side by side so the reader can easily see the similarities and the contradictions between the two cultures. It’s like yin and yang. Readers will see these two cultures in a new light; not as fossils, but rather as two vibrant cultures tied by invisible bonds that have allowed them to survive and fl ourish until today.” This is where the story becomes increasingly interesting. As part of his research for the book, Weisz came across the Kaifeng stone inscriptions, which had been reproduced and translated. There are four stones carved with approximately 6000 Chinese characters in total. The fi rst stone is from 1489, the second was carved in 1512 and the third and fourth in 1663. According to Weisz, about 100 years ago there was a translation made by a Chinese missionary, which he says, “was pretty good, except nobody understood the text because it didn’t make sense. We have these four documents that had been put aside by researchers because the translation didn’t make sense. For 500 years they went misunderstood.” Even researcher Donald Leslie who had done  extensive research on the stones couldn’t understand why they were written. Conversely Chinese researchers only addressed issues that they could understand. For example: where the stones speak about  intermarriage, the arrival of the Jews in China and their assimilation. “This was because there was a sentence that said the Jews had come to China during the Sung Dynasty. Everybody was trying to fi gure out what that meant and did research on it and wrote about it, but that was the sum of the inscriptions.” “When I was reading the inscriptions I suddenly realised that what I was reading about was the pre-Talmudic time Judaism from about 300 BCE. That was interesting and it certainly got my attention.” Weisz put his book The Covenant... on hold while he researched and translated the content of the stones in a deeper way. Weisz realised that previous research “never explained or referred to the fact that the 1498 inscription was written in three different styles, because it was written by three different people. They never pointed out that the second inscription was written in very beautiful Chinese, in neo-Confucius style, that was very prevalent at the time of the Sung Dynasty. And for the third inscription, in the text it was written that the writer was a non-Jew, but what wasn’t mentioned was that he was a neighbour of the Jews and he describes what he saw there, their Jewish customs and behaviour. That was fascinating and it was missing from the other translations.” He realised after hours of translation and comparison that the reason the inscriptions were not understood was “because they basically included the translation of prayers from Hebrew and that is what threw many people off. Unless you really know the biblical reference, you wouldn’t know what they were talking about.” And that is the reason why Weisz believes so many researchers thought the Chinese text on the stones was written a little bit funny. “I realised I was reading a Jewish manuscript.” On the stones Weisz found the word for word translation from Hebrew into Chinese of “the entire Shemonei Esrei/ the Amidah. When I finally realised it and looked at the prayer book, it was just exciting. I didn’t want to believe it at fi rst, but then I realised there was no other way as all the components of the Amidah were there,” he said. The Birchat Kohanim – the priestly blessing is also part of the inscriptions. “The Birchat-ohanim I fi gured out differently. I went to the  Hebrew text and compared it. It is almost verbatim. It is written in Hebrew grammar but in Chinese words. All the biblical references where there.” And fi nally, Weisz claims he found a third prayer, “which was the original biblical Aleinu.” In addition, the inscriptions also included multiple quotes from Chinese literature; among them were quotes from Confucius and Lao Tzu. According to Weisz, the third part of the 1498 inscription clarifi ed the timeline of “when the Jews came to China.” The third segment reproduces a conversation that the Jews had with the Chinese emperor around 998 CE, about 500 years before the inscription was written; a conversation that was likely passed on through oral history. Weisz theorises that the Chinese Jews are the original Jews who came to China over 1000 years ago. “They likely reached China at about 108 BC. They assimilated and kept their religion and beliefs. There was no anti-Semitism at that time and they were more like a curiosity. I think this is very important because I think it’s the fi rst time ever that the Jews flourished in a society without being prejudiced. The only other place they can do that now is Israel.” “So all this information was missing in the previous translations. As far as I’m concerned, I have a document here, which has been buried and is as important as the Dead Sea scrolls. But because they couldn’t decipher it and they couldn’t understand it, they put it aside and nobody really paid attention to it. I think it’s time we looked at it very closely again. So I hope this new translation of the inscriptions will open up a new venue to do more research on the history of the Chinese Jews.” This research became Weisz’s second book The Kaifeng tone Inscriptions: The legacy of the Jewish Community in Ancient China. The book contains the entire text of the new translation of the four stone inscriptions. The first part of the book is the new annotated translation that traces the origin of the Chinese text to biblical sources. Part two gives you a summary of the meaning of the inscriptions, and examines the origin of the community, their first encounter with the Chinese, their dedication to the temple and their life as Jews in the sea of Chinese culture. The book incorporates many original Chinese and Hebrew sources and it highlights the cross-cultural currents that challenged the Israelites in China. It takes the reader into uncharted territory of the Jews in ancient China. Weisz is the fi rst to note, “The inscriptions are definitely tied to Judaism and proof that they are a Jewish text.” The University of Southern California interviewed Weisz during the production of a documentary about the Jews of Kaifeng. At the time of the interview the project was in the final stages of editing. It took Weisz ten years to research and write The Covenant and the Mandate of Heaven. In between, he stopped for four years to work on The Kaifeng Stones Inscriptions. Weisz took an early retirement and currently sits on the board of the Sino Judaica Institute. He will be speaking in Taiwan in October and is exploring potential joint projects with Tunghai University. (Issue September 2010)