The Shanghai Connection By Libby Fischer Hellmann

Libby Fischer Hellman: Hi, Reds. Wonderful to be back with you! Thanks for including me.

MAX’s WAR: The Story of a Ritchie Boy is my just-released historical thriller about a true but little known story from World War Two: the Ritchie Boys. They were a group of 2300 German Jews who escaped Hitler’s Germany, emigrated to the US, and joined the Army to fight the Nazis. 

As you can probably surmise, I did intense research on the time period. While doing so, I discovered even more stories that haven’t been widely told. One of those stories, which I included in the novel, follows. 

You know that during the Holocaust the Nazis tightened restrictions on Jews. Many Jewish families were desperate to flee Germany and the Occupied countries. But as restrictions for them at home mounted, so did restrictions in the countries willing to accept them. Quotas limited the number of immigrants Europe and America would accept. America was especially stingy. In 1938-1939, over 400,000 Jews applied to emigrate to America. Only 27,000 received visas. 

In MAX'S WAR Max’s German girlfriend, Renée, and her family were lucky. They capitalized on one of the only paths open to Jews—if they were prepared for a dramatic change. They emigrated to Shanghai, China.

Shanghai 1920's

Why escape to the other side of the world? The exodus was in large part made possible by a heroic Chinese diplomat in Austria, Feng-Shan Ho. Often called the “Chinese Schindler,” he risked his job by issuing thousands of visas to German and Austrian Jews.

The other stroke of luck for Jews was Shanghai’s reputation as an "open city." Much of it was controlled not by the Chinese but by foreign powers – including France, Britain, and the United States. Customs officials were “tolerant” of Europeans who flocked to the city, and often “neglected” to check passengers’ papers carefully. Altogether about 20,000 Jews fled to Shanghai, and most of them survived the war. 

Shanghai in the 1930s was the most sophisticated city in China, but life in the Far East was still a shock, as Renée “reports” in a letter to Max.

There are tall skyscrapers everywhere, and the harbor lies directly in front of them. But once you get ashore, there are hordes of people packed into small spaces. Rickshaws operated by young men pull people all over town. You can see the veins on their legs popping out. There is also a glut of bicycles but only a few autos. 

From a distance it looks very Western, with electric signs and buildings and trolley cars. But up close, I noticed that the streets are not well maintained, and the odor is insufferable. I gather there is little indoor plumbing unless one lives in an affluent neighborhood. There are a proliferation of stalls selling food and drink, but we wouldn’t think of eating anything off the street. 

Even so, they tell me Shanghai is truly an international city, the largest in China. It is responsible for over half the country’s imports and exports, and everyone here is in the business of making money. They call Shanghai the “Paris of the East, the New York of the West” because aside from legitimate trading, Shanghai is notorious as the center of criminal activity in China. Opium is a huge export, and some of the wealthiest Europeans here run those businesses.

While most Jews recognize the difference between Ashkenazi (Western European Jews) and Sephardic Jews (from the Middle East, Spain & Portugal), Renée discovers a branch of Sephardic Jews in Shanghai who were new to her.

A few weeks ago we were invited to Shabbos dinner by the Sassoons, who are probably the most prominent Jewish family here. They are Bagdadi Jews, a branch of Judaism I confess is new to me. They come mostly from Iraq, Basra, and Aleppo, and other Arabic-speaking parts of the Middle East. They’ve been in Shanghai for decades, and are extremely wealthy. The family does most of their trading with Britain, and they all speak English. They are so central to Shanghai’s wealth that no one would dare to impose any antisemitic decrees. So different than Germany. 

Renée’s father was a successful jeweler, and her parents found a home in the upscale neighborhood of Jefferson Park. They assimilated into Jewish life—Shanghai had its own synagogue, Ohel Mosheh. Later there was a school and an active life for young Jews. Renée found the Chinese people generally friendly and supportive.

Jewish Refugee Museum

However, there was an existential threat to immigrant Jews: the Japanese. Again Renée “writes” to Max:

Did you know the Japanese bombed Shanghai in 1932? They occupied Manchuria but Chinese students protested (as they should), so the Japanese broke up the protests with bombs. They are so aggressive they almost make the Nazis look pacifist.

In 1937 the Japanese captured Shanghai. For the most part, they left the Jews alone. But after the Americans entered the war in 1941, things changed. They were, after all, allies with Nazi Germany.

They forced us to move into the ghetto in Hongkou, which is a horrid slum. They also treated the Chinese—well—as badly as the Nazis treated Jews. They had big plans. They thought they would conquer the world. 

Girls of the Shanghai Ghetto

Over 10,000 Jews were crammed into space for half that number. There was no indoor plumbing, heat, stoves, or garbage collection. The conditions were barely tolerable. Illness swept through the ghetto, and many died. Still, there was no incarceration or torture of Jews by the Japanese. The Japanese treatment of the Chinese was a different matter. 

After the war, not many Jews returned to Europe. Many went to Israel and the US. What about Renée and her family? Did they move back? Did she and Max ever see each other again? 

The answers are in MAX'S WAR.

Reds and Readers, did you know about the exodus of Austrian and German Jews to Shanghai? 

Jenn: I didn't. Thank you for sharing this story with us, Libby. I am looking forward to reading Max's War!

 

Drum roll: Rhys Bowen's THE VENICE SKETCHBOOK, one for the ages...

HALLIE EPHRON: Mystery, romance, World War II, and humor… that alchemical mix makes a Rhys Bowen novel and she’s done it again with The Venice Sketchbook, hot off the presses today.

BREAKING NEWS! The Venice Sketchbook just got a STARRED review in Library Journal!

We’re all thrilled, and the description has me chomping at the bit to read it:

Caroline Grant is struggling to accept the end of her marriage when she receives an unexpected bequest. Her beloved great-aunt Lettie leaves her a sketchbook, three keys, and a final whisper…Venice. Caroline’s quest: to scatter Juliet “Lettie” Browning’s ashes in the city she loved and to unlock the mysteries stored away for more than sixty years.

Irresistible… All I need to see is Venice and I’m hooked. I can’t wait to hear all about the book and how it came about. Rhys, for your loyal readers, what will feel familiar and what will feel new?

RHYS BOWEN: What I hope readers will enjoy in this book is the sense of place, being in Venice, experiencing so many aspects of the city. What might be different? It’s not a classic mystery, a crime and whodunnit.It takes place in three time periods, which is always a challenge to write. The mystery is a dying woman entrusting her great niece with three keys and a sketchbook of Venice and the layers of a hidden past being peeled away one by one.

HALLIE: You’re an artist yourself. Do you take along a sketchbook with you when you travel? Did that factor into writing this book?

RHYS: I always take my sketch books when I travel and the publisher has actually used one of my sketches on the hardcover of the book. So I suppose I was drawn to a woman who was an artist and who captured her experiences in sketches. And when you are sketching you notice details. I take pictures of door knockers, for example, to paint later.

HALLIE: Venice! My favorite city in the world, by the way. Me and a gazillion other seasoned tourists. It’s a city that cherishes its history. You can research what it looked like in the 1940s by walking around there today… or can you? (We all know you’re a stickler for accuracy.)

RHYS: My favorite city too. I have been there many times and every time it takes my breath away. I have a book of photographs comparing the same sites in 1900 and the present and really very little has changed, so I really could walk where my heroine walked and experience exactly what she saw.

Some businesses are still there—the bookshop in the street of the Assassins, Florian’s Tea Room, the Daniele of course, and the little shops that serves tramezzini—the small open sandwiches. I created a fictitious hotel for Juliet to stay in 1928 but it’s in a real place, and the hotel where Caroline stays in 2001 is where I love to stay—the Pensione Accademia with its lovely garden.But I actually did a lot of real research, including at the Correr Library, attached to the Correr museum in St. Mark’s Square.

Two librarians kept finding more and more books for me on Venice in the Thirties and Forties. They were all in Italian, of course, so my reading went rather slowly, but I got around this by finding the sections and pages I needed and having John photograph them for later study. The librarians were so enthusiastic that I had to say “Please, I think we have enough here!"

HALLIE: Still you had to go there for this book… didn’t you? How did that affect the story you had in mind to write?

RHYS: Any excuse to go back to Venice! And I always have to revisit the place I’m writing about, just to notice what my heroine sees and smells and experiences. I was there for one of the big religious festivals and realized how important they still are to Venice so these festivals become important points in the story. Also I was over on the Lido (The island with lovely houses and hotels and the Venice beach and casino) and I spotted a villa I wanted to use. So then I decided it belonged to a Contessa, and she became an important character.

As far as plotting ahead was concerned, I knew my heroine had to survive but I had no idea what she would have to go through. It was really harrowing to write about!

HALLIE: I love the idea of a character unearthing secrets from the past. Did you know what Great-Aunt Lettie’s secrets were before you started writing, or did you unearth them as you went along?

RHYS: Not all. And I can’t tell you here or I’d spoil the story. I knew the main thrust but people along the way asked her to undertake certain dangerous things I hadn’t expected.

HALLIE: What is it about World War II that has proven such fertile ground for your fiction?

RHYS: To me it is the last time when we had a sense of good versus evil. We knew we had to stop the evil before it swallowed the world. Everyone was involved, most wanting to do their part, others trying to profit and so many people not entirely evil or good. It was a time of heightened emotions, of great and small dangers and there are still so many stories waiting to be told.

I suppose I am so fascinated because I was born in the middle of it and my life was affected by it for years to come. I didn’t meet my father until I was three. He was out in Egypt and the Palestine. After the war it was common to see bombed buildings everywhere. Rationing went on until 1953. Of course the dangers were even greater in occupied Europe, which is why I’ve set two books there now. Ordinary people had to take extraordinary risks, putting their lives on the line, and often nobody knew about their bravery… as is the case with Juliet.

HALLIE: I love the way you write characters who are just on the outside, looking in. Fish trying to swim in waters that are just out of their league. Does that description fit Caroline as well?

RHYS: You’re right. I think my characters succeed because they are to a certain extent outsiders. Sometimes they are outside their own environment, like Juliet and Molly Murphy. Other times they don’t entirely fit in, like Lady Georgie who has a royal father and a lower class mother and thus feels herself slightly an outsider in both.

But such characters make great observers because everything is new to them and they have to be alert to survive. And Caroline—at the beginning of the story we might think she is living a normal, typical life: husband, child, job. But then this security is taken from her and it is only in Venice that she finds what she really wants.

HALLIE: Were you still writing this book when Covid hit? Did it make lockdown any easier, having such a fabulous fictional place to go via your manuscript?

RHYS: I must admit I gazed at my photographs so many times, usually with a sigh. Especially the videos and live shots. There is one taken from a motor boat when the bells are ringing. That always brought tears to my eyes. Bells are so typical of Venice. It should have been a gift to be able to focus and write without interruptions but in fact I found it hard to be creative. Having this worry always lurking in the background was like carrying a load on my shoulders, and thinking through muslin. I expect you felt the same way.

Luckily I had written half the book before lock down so I knew where I was going. And of course having a deadline is a great motivator!

HALLIE: Where can your fans find you to hear firsthand about this fabulous new book?

RHYS: I have already done most of my Zooms and interviews by the time the book is published but fans can visit the Poisoned Pen archives to see my interview with Barbara from last Saturday. Hank and I are chatting tomorrow, April 14, at Authors on the Air. I don’t have the link yet but will put it on my Facebook page. And next Sunday, April 18, I am doing a Facebook Live Zoom chat with Cara Black at Book Passage (bookpassage.com) at 4 p.m. I hope to see some of you there.

And thank you for hosting me, Hallie, and for all the wonderful support I feel from the Jungle Reds and our community.

HALLIE: I confess, if I I were traveling to Venice for "research" my sketchbook would be "scratch and sniff." Because the food! But also the light. The reflections. But capturing the excitement of meandering down a little side alley and emerging into one of Venice's gorgeous squares? For all that and more, read The Venice Sketchbook. 

Do you keep a travel journey or sketchbook?

RHYS on Stiff Upper Lip

RHYS BOWEN: My husband John reminded me the other day that he had lived through the war as a child. Everyone had faced nightly bombing raids, rushing to a shelter, grabbing the most precious items, just in case. "And we just got on with it," he said. "Nobody panicked. We got on with our lives." 

Of course he was a boy. He probably never noticed the anxiety on his mother's face as she strove to remain calm for her children. He thought it was a great lark to play on forbidden bomb sites. But I have to say that everything I've heard indicates that the Brits were remarkably calm and stoic throughout the whole ordeal.  They didn't know when it would end or if it would end well. During the early years they fully expected Hitler to invade and had stockpiled pitchforks and garden tools to defend agains a mighty German army.

I have written several times about World War 2 but this experience has made it so personal for me. Now I can identify a little with what the people went through. We don't know how long this will go on or if it will end badly for some of us. It's an invisible enemy and there really isn't much we can do to protect ourselves other than staying home. There are those, as there were in WW2, who are openly defiant: this can't happen to me. Remember the scene in my book IN FARLEIGH FIELD  when party goers dance on the rooftop as bombs fall nearby. Maybe defiance was good then, but it isn't now. Those young people who think they are safe are not. What's more it's as if they were carrying bombs into the houses of loved ones.

And so we soldier on, with good days and bad days, with days when we tell ourselves it's not so bad and days when we ask ourselves how long we can keep going.

So I'm going to remember that I'm British. Eccentric maybe, but

Stiff upper lip, you know. I'll be brave and resilient. And I've made several resolutions:
I will make my bed every morning.
I will dress properly, not stay in pjs all day. I read a book written by a young Brit who was stationed in Kenya a hundred years ago. He was the British officer for a vast territory, the only white man for miles around. And every evening he would put on his dinner jacket and bow tie and have a white tablecloth, silverware all correct and sit alone to eat in his mud hut, even if the food was yams and bush cow, because he knew if he let standards slip it would be the end of him.
I try to remember that. I saw a post by Laura Lippman today that she is putting on a lovely outfit for a few minutes every day. And make-up.  I think I'll try that and take a picture every day. Time to experiment with the strange cosmetics at the back of my drawer. We have time, remember?

And a final word of encouragement:

James Benn discusses The Wild Purge

INGRID THOFT

One of the wonderful things about Jungle Reds is the knowledge our guests impart to us about experiences, people, and places we might otherwise miss.  James R. Benn joins us today to discuss his latest novel, "Solemn Graves," the 13th novel in his Billy Boyle WWII mystery series, which will be published on September 4th.  I am woefully ignorant when it comes to WWII and D-Day, so thank you, James, for educating me about the days immediately following D-Day and the historical context in which "Solemn Graves" is set.

The Wild Purge
During the period between D-Day (June 6, 1944) and the Liberation of Paris (August 25, 1944) those areas in France no longer under German control were—ironically—quite lawless. General de Gaulle refused to permit the installation of the usual Allied Military Government, on the basis that France was an ally, not a nation to be occupied. But he didn’t have the clout to establish his own government, not until after Paris was freed.

But that’s a story for another day.
This is the story of The Wild Purge, the épuration sauvage, carried out immediately following the collapse of the German occupation and before de Gaulle’s provisional government was in place. The French Resistance had been armed from London and by weapons taken from the Germans. The ranks of the Resistance fighters, known as the Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur, or FFI (called fifis by Americans who invariably came up with their own ways to pronounce French names) grew tremendously in each town and region as the allies drew closer. Many French men and women had been part of the movement for years. Some joined in June or July 1944 at the very last minute.

Scores of young men had fled to the hills to escape the forced roundup for slave labor in Germany. They became known famously as the Maquis, after the scrub brush common in the countryside. But others joined only when it was certain they would emerge on the winning side. Some had their own collaborationist past and hoped that a furious patriotism would erase any memory of previous misdeeds.

A frenzy of killing took place in those weeks. Historians estimate these extrajudicial executions totaled over 10,500 deaths. Many of these were French fascists and collaborators who had hunted and tortured their own. No one can be sure that in the enthusiasm of Liberation, those scores had anything to do with the war, or that the death penalty was warranted. No one with any legal authority was present to stop the killings, and in some cases, old scores certainly were settled.

The wild purge included not only killings, but a wave of violence against women. It is estimated that over 20,000 women had their heads shaved as punishment for having relations with the Germans. Other abuse, including tar and feathers, was sometimes applied, along with beating, stoning, and public humiliation. Some of these women were prostitutes, and others had willing affairs with Germans. These were the women accused of collaboration "horizontale." Prostitutes were doing nothing that thousands of Frenchmen had not done in shops and cafes everywhere; take money for services rendered from German soldiers.

Of course, there were women who willingly obliged the Germans with their company. Coco Chanel, the famous French designer, lived through the war at the Ritz hotel in the company of her German lovers, while scheming to take over a perfume company owned by Jews. Her hair was never touched.

Some women were the targets of personal revenge, and it took only a whiff of suspicion for the application of the coiffure ’44 to be applied. This happened to a funeral wreath maker in the city of Toulouse. As she was working next to an open window, a German soldier strolled up and began talking to her. Their entire conversation took place at the window, and the soldier moved on. After Liberation, she was denounced for this simple exchange. A mob came for her, stripping off her clothing and shearing her hair as her daughter watched.

Looking at these pictures, I see a savagery in the air that makes me wonder if the humiliation felt by men defeated in 1940, long repressed during the Occupation, found an outlet in the treatment of these women. The sneering smiles and superior faces of the men especially are terrifying. I do wonder how many of them had taken action against the Germans.

Women who were shaved became known as "the tondues" – the shorn

Women played a huge role in the French Resistance from the beginning. One reason was that young French men were often rounded up on sight for slave labor work and sent to Germany. It was easier for women to move about and not attract attention. I wonder how much of the rage released onto Frenchwomen was a result of the emasculation of French men, forced into a powerless state by the German occupiers for four long years.Yes, French women were also traitors and informers, as were French men. Perhaps the woman in the image below is one. Was her crime one of passion, survival, avarice, or simple business? We don’t know. But we know those faces. The faces of a mob.

Although I had seen these pictures before, it was only after reading "Les Parisiennes" by Anne Sebba that I began to understand the ugly motivations behind the treatment of women during the épuration sauvage. This is a terrific book, well-written, and gives us a new way to look at this historical period. Highly recommended.

Once de Gaulle’s government was installed following the Liberation of Paris, a “legal purge,” or épuration légale, replaced the wild purge. A series of trials were held from 1944 to 1949, meting out justice to collaborators and officials of the Vichy regime. Nearly seven thousand people were sentenced to death, but in the end, less than eight hundred sentences were carried out.

The myth of wide-spread participation in the Resistance quickly took hold, and the collaboration with the Germans and the Vichy regime became buried in the collective unconscious. The men of the Resistance were glorified and the women, for the most part, forgotten. After the war, Charles de Gaulle awarded 1,038 Resistance members with the coveted medal “Compagnons de la Libération”.

Only six went to women.

Do you have questions for James?  He'll be joining us today so fire away!

Solemn Graves
US Army detective Billy Boyle is called to investigate a mysterious murder in a Normandy farmhouse that threatens Allied operations.

July, 1944, a full month after D-Day. Billy, Kaz, and Big Mike are assigned to investigate a murder close to the front lines in Normandy. An American officer has been found dead in a manor house serving as an advance headquarters outside the town of Trévières. Major Jerome was far from his own unit, arrived unexpectedly, and was murdered in the dark of night.

The investigation is shrouded in secrecy, due to the highly confidential nature of the American unit headquartered nearby in the Norman hedgerow country: the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, aka, the Ghost Army. This vague name covers
a thousand-man unit with a unique mission within the US Army: to impersonate other US Army units by creating deceptions using radio traffic, dummy inflatable vehicles, and sound effects, causing the enemy to think they are facing large formations. Not even the units adjacent to their positions know what they are doing. But there are German spies and informants everywhere, and Billy must tread carefully, unmasking the murder while safeguarding the secret of the Ghost Army—a secret which, if discovered, could turn the tide of war decisively against the Allies.

James R. Benn
I divide my time between the Gulf Coast of Florida and Connecticut, with my wife Deborah Mandel, a psychotherapist who offers many insights into the motivations of my characters, a good critical read, and much else. We have two sons, Jeff and Ben, and seven grandchildren (Camille, Claudia, Emma, Luke, Nathaniel, Noah, Oliver).

I'm a graduate of the University of Connecticut and received my MLS degree from Southern Connecticut State University. I am a member of the Mystery Writers of America, and the Author's Guild. I've worked in the library and information technology fields for over thirty-five years and quit the day job routine in 2011 to write full-time.

I've learned two valuable lessons since I started writing which have helped me greatly. The first is a quote from Oscar Wilde, who said "The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of one's pants to a chair." The second is from novelist Rachel Basch, who told me "the story has to move down, as well as forward." Both sound simple. Neither is.

Preserving personal histories, telling Stories with a Heart

HALLIE EPHRON: We Jungle Reds tell made-up stories of fictional characters. Filmmaker Leslie Wittman tells what she calls "Stories with a Heart" -- the stories of real people, preserving personal history. Today I'm pleased to host her on Jungle Red.

I met Leslie when we were both working at Digital where she developed corporate videos, more years ago than either of us care to count. How serendipitous, after Sunday's discussion of our favorite WWII novels, that her first project as a personal history videographer was capturing memories of WWII survivors.

LESLIE WITTMAN: About five years ago I got a call from someone who asked if I could help with a large WWII Memories project being undertaken at a local retirement community. 

As a child of holocaust survivors, WWII was not something we talked about. I didn’t know if I really wanted to or was able to “go there” by being involved in this project. 

However, having the opportunity to hear the stories of bravery and selflessness that people had in order to save people like members my family filled me with gratitude. 

This project ended up being a turning point in my life both professionally and personally. I began to focus my work on capturing and preserving memories and stories of elders as a legacy for their families or communities. I’m privileged to see and hear so many examples of ways that people are vibrantly and creatively engaged in life in their later years and it inspires me to discard any assumptions I may have had about aging and to live my own life boldly and with purpose.

HALLIE: A case in point! I love your video, Moving from Foot to Foot, about two women who dance again. It's so delightful to watch.  

Moving from Foot to Foot from Stories with a Heart Videos on Vimeo.

Can you tell us the back story of how you ended up creating that video?

LESLIE:  I was working on a video about two people in their 90s who’ve become poets and recently published their work. I went to videotape a class taught by their poetry instructor and a woman in that class told me I needed to come meet her mother who does ballroom dancing at her assisted living facility. 

What I found there was a truly inspirational dance instructor and a wonderful story.

HALLIE: How do people connect with you?

LESLIE: By word of mouth. Often it’s the grown children who contact me because they want to preserve their parent’s stories. I conduct a pre-interview so I can get to know the storyteller and then at another time we do an on-camera interview using questions I develop. Oddly it’s often not until later when I review the recordings and begin editing that the story begins to emerge. 

HALLIE: Leslie, all of the writers reading this will relate to this. It's how so many novels and essays come together. By feel. How do you know when you're done?

LESLIE: A video program can be cut and pieced together in countless ways. I can edit and re-edit until the end of time. At some point I have to decide that this is the story I’m going to tell.

HALLIE: It's spooky how much this is like writing a novel. And what YOU end up with every time are stories that do, indeed touch the heart. Do you ever contemplate putting your videos together into a documentary? 

LESLIE: I’ve produced two short documentaries—one about how food helps people stay connected to their to cultural heritage, and the other a living history of a small New England town, featuring elders who grew up there. I am contemplating crafting another one with material I’ve been collecting in my “Age is Only a Number” series.

HALLIE: THANK YOU! I love writing older women--they have starring roles in THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN and in YOU'LL EVER KNOW, DEAR, so I am particular taken with Leslie's work. 

Have there been older women in your life that have touched your heart and led by example?

Reach Leslie at storieswithaheartvideos@gmail.com

Visit Stories with a Heart Videos website and watch video clips.