Id no. 1992.V.13, Testimony, English

January 30 1992, Danzig, Germany, Gdansk, Shanghai, Poland, South America, Gumbinnen, Colombia, China

Created by:  Gerald Lindenstraus

Subject(s):  Escape and rescue, Bar mitzvah, Refugees, Ritual, Emigration, Education, Dentistry, Children

Videotape testimony of Gerald Lindenstraus ne Gerd Lindenstraus, born in Gumbinnen, Germany in 1929. He recalls his parents' divorce; living with his father and stepmother; moving to Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad), then Danzig (Gdansk, Poland); emigrating with his father, stepmother, and other family members to Shanghai in July 1939; his father's death six months later; living with his stepmother among the Jewish refugees in a Chinese working-class district; financial support from his uncle's dental practice; attending a Jewish school (the center of his social life); Japanese occupation; confinement to Hongkew; the self-contained yet diverse Jewish community; viewing Chinese life at a distance in spite of close physical proximity; religious services conducted in German; his bar mitzvah; working in a silk factory; joining his mother in Colombia after the war; living in a German Jewish community; moving to the United States seven years later; and marriage. Mr. Lindenstraus discusses visiting Shanghai with his son and their plans to visit Poland and Germany. He shows photographs and documents. (1 hr., 31 min.)