Astor House: New Immigrants In The War Zone

For this post we are mostly going to stay in the late 1930s, which was a time of rapid social change in Shanghai accompanied by pitched battles in the streets between the Japanese troops on one side and a lose coalition of Chinese military forces from both the Communist and Nationalist side as well as various armed contingents of the colonial powers.

While the war in China was heating up, Shanghai was still a free port where anyone could set foot on land with very few limitations. Thousands of mostly Jewish refugees made their way across half the globe to escape Nazi Germany and their only hope was this city that promised a safe haven, no questions asked. Most of them were settling in the old International Settlement with its southern border being Suzhou Creek and the Garden Bridge.

Broadway near the Astor House as well as other streets in the area were rapidly developing a decidedly Central European atmosphere, with new shops springing up with Russian, Polish and German names. Many of these newly arrived refugees opened shops in storefronts recently vacated by Chinese families as Japanese troops asserted increasing control over parts of the International Settlement.

We see this rapid change here in these store fronts in the back of the block of the Astor House. This first photo shows the row of stores next to the Broadway entrance of the Astor Bar, beginning with the Swan Cafe, Hasall, Broadway Tobacco, an unidentified store that seems to attract a lot of rubbernecking onlookers and a German-speaking pastry shop - a Conditorei.

While writing this post I was wondering about the name Hasall. This photo is attributed to 1939, and with that name I found this article (in German) about Hans and Grete Salomon. They had a shoe and clothing store called Hasall in Celle, Lower Saxony, and like many Jewish businesses it was destroyed in the Reichskristallnacht. Hans ended up in the concentration camp Sachsenhausen, but was temporarily released in December 1938. He and his wife emigrated to Shanghai in early 1939, before moving on to the USA in 1940. I have no doubt that this store here - Hasall - is their store in Shanghai only a few months after arriving in town.

This second photo is only a few stores further along. The first storefront on the left is a stationary store and the name is barely readable - "...TTESFELD", almost certainly another Jewish refuge. This is followed by the pragmatically named "READ AND WRITE" store and "VIENNA LADY HANDBAGS". The READ AND WRITE store is a complete mystery to me. Is it a writing service?

Another shot from the same day in 1939 of the "VIENNA LADY HANDBAGS" store. I would love to read that proclamation on the wall next to the store there.

Later, around 1943, the Japanese occupation forces partially gave in to pressure from their German allies and forced Jewish refugees from all over Shanghai to re-settle in Hongkew in what rapidly became a Ghetto. The Japanese did not send any of the refugees back to die in German concentration camps, but the living conditions would become extremely harsh with only very limited food available to the refugees until the war would end.

It will stay tense for our next post, as we will stroll a few more storefronts to the right, further towards the corner of Broadway and Seward Road.