The exhibit, An Odd and Improbable Tale: Jewish Refugees in Shanghai, will open at the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center (HMLC) on December 10, 2015, and will run through Sunday, March 6, 2016. A special opening program and reception will be held on Thursday, December 10, at 7 pm at the HMLC, Jewish Federation of St. Louis Kopolow Building, 12 Millstone Campus Drive, St. Louis, 63146.
Drawn from the HMLC archives and local collections, the exhibit tells several stories drawn from the approximately 18,000 German and Austrian Jews who fled to Shanghai as a safe haven from the impending threat of the Holocaust. The exhibit focuses on refugees who ultimately made their home in St. Louis.
The opening lecture on Thursday, December 10, entitled The Holocaust Comes to China: Jewish Refugees in Shanghai, will be presented by Dr. Steven Hochstadt, Professor in the History Department, Illinois College, Jacksonville, and author of Exodus to Shanghai: Stories of Escape From the Third Reich. According to Dr. Hochstadt, the refugees’ “… remarkable journey and survival is a wonderful story, but also offers insight into how different groups of people acted when confronted with the Holocaust.” A reception will follow the program; dietary laws observed.
To RSVP of for further information, please call 314-442-3714 or email DReich@JFedSTL.org.
This exhibition was generously sponsored by the Gloria and Rubin (Of blessed Memory) Feldman Education Institute of the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center, Regional Arts Commission and UMSL Center for International Studies.