History of East Asia and the Holocaust

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

I have been teaching about the Holocaust since 1997, and I have learned a lot about that dark period in mankind's history, but the only connectiion that I knew about was when the Jews went to Shanghai because they did not need a Visa to go there.
However, in my readings for our Oct. 18th meeting, in the text known as EWP, I read various statements that reminded me fo the Holocaust.
On page 46, "The penalties imposed by Qin law were hard labor, physicial mutilation, banishment, slavery, or death. Labor could last from one to six years. Mutilation included shaving of the head, shaving of the beard, cutting off the nose or left foot, or castration. Death also came in several forms, the most severe of which was being torn apart by horse-drawn chariots."
Wow!!!! I think that the Qin outdid even Hitler and his SS group. That is certainly not much of an honor. To my knowledge, the Nazis did not cut off body parts or drag people around by horses until they died.
My question is, "Was this written down and passed on to new generations and did Nazi Germany read about these methods of torture and employ some of them from the Qin?[Edit by="dgoldstein on Oct 16, 2:39:31 PM"][/Edit]

[clay dube]

No Dorothy - I don't think the Nazis were inspired by Qin cruelty. Qin laws and practices were written down and Qin harshness is the chief reason the dynasty was short-lived.

You do raise a separate issue that is worth looking at and that is China's openness to displaced Jews from Europe. Many began arriving well before the 1930s, including a large community in Harbin that began following the Russian pogroms early in the 20th century.

Some of those Jews became important in China, including Israel Epstein, the longtime editor of China Reconstructs. There are quite a few who eventually came to the US, including two of my USC colleagues, Otto Schnepp (retired professor of chemistry and a science consul at the US embassy in Beijing 1980-82) and Peter Berton (retired professor of international relations and a former member of the Harbin orchestra). There was an exhibition of photos of the Shanghai Jewish community recently at the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance.

One valuable book on the subject is: Pan Guang, The Jews of China, Beijing: China Intercontinental Press, 2005.

As it happens, one fellow who documented Japanese wartime atrocities in China was a German businessman. John Rabe was member of the Nazi party, but helped save hundreds of Chinese during the Japanese invasion. He lived in China from 1908 to 1938. His diary is a vital source of information about the atrocities committed at Nanjing in December 1937. Here's a link to a NY Times article about Rabe:

NY Times, 12/12/1996

[Anonymous]

Hi Clayton,

Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know about that. I had no idea about this Rabe fellow.
I do teach about the Holocaust and my students are going to MOT on Dec. 4 an I am looking forward to taking them.
My parents escaped from Vienna in 1938 and came to NY on the Queen Mary. This is how I came to be interreted in this dark era.
I went to Poland and visited Auschwitz on a scholarship given jointly by the Jewish Federation and The Jewish Labor Committee. I actually forgot who else contribute to this trip. At anyrate, "I have been there". The leader of the group, and the lady who started the trips some 30 years ago, is Vladka Meed. She was in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. She has written a book called, "On Both Sides of the Wall". I hope that I have given you a tad of new information!

I would like to forward both your reply and the article about Rabe to my son (lives in Lake Tahoe and is also interested in the Holocaust), bot I don't know how to do that because there is not a "forward" button. What can I do?

Again, thank you for posting a reply.

[Anonymous]

Actually, Jews first entered China during the Babylonian Exile in 586 BCE. They were merchants for the most part and followed the silk road from Persia in later migrations. At one time there was a thriving Jewish community in Kaifeng during the Song dynasty. Chinese Jews intermarried with the Chinese community and eventually were almost completely assimilated. Information can be found at http://iwchinatour.com/newsDetail.asp?id=126&classid=17 and in the excellent book you recommended, Clay.

As president of the International Association of Jewish Libraries, I am very interested in this topic. We currently have one member in Hong Kong.

Susan Dubin[Edit by="sdubin on Dec 22, 11:20:15 AM"][/Edit]

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