whiskeytown
08-18-2005, 03:34 AM
as is well known, I am a mega movie buff, and I saw the trailer for this documentary a yr. ago and decided to get it now that it's out on netflix....
Very interesting story/premise - as the Nazi's come to power, it becomes pretty obvious that any Jews who could get out of Germany are trying to do so- (and some were told to bail on the whole continent of Europe by Nazi friends who said "he's going to conquer all of Europe)
Problem is, we were just a tad bit racist all over the world, and didn't really want Hitler's outcasts, so Visas were pretty hard to get and a lot of Jews who might have left couldn't - but somehow, China, (conquered by Japan) had an international corridor and you could go there without papers/visas provided you could afford the tkt. (there was a whole mess of passport/visa issues but basically, it was slipping thru the cracks)
it tells the story of about 10,000 jews who managed to make it to Shanghai, and what they did while they were there - issues that came up - but it's also really interesting cause they talk about how they were miserable sometimes, being in a Chinese slum, but then they found out a few weeks after the war what happened to their families...
the line "you never knew it was paradise till you were expelled" came to mind-
Martin Landau narrates it - very good - I recommend you go get it as it's a side of Jewish History I didn't even know existed (and I know WWII inside and out) -
RB
Very interesting story/premise - as the Nazi's come to power, it becomes pretty obvious that any Jews who could get out of Germany are trying to do so- (and some were told to bail on the whole continent of Europe by Nazi friends who said "he's going to conquer all of Europe)
Problem is, we were just a tad bit racist all over the world, and didn't really want Hitler's outcasts, so Visas were pretty hard to get and a lot of Jews who might have left couldn't - but somehow, China, (conquered by Japan) had an international corridor and you could go there without papers/visas provided you could afford the tkt. (there was a whole mess of passport/visa issues but basically, it was slipping thru the cracks)
it tells the story of about 10,000 jews who managed to make it to Shanghai, and what they did while they were there - issues that came up - but it's also really interesting cause they talk about how they were miserable sometimes, being in a Chinese slum, but then they found out a few weeks after the war what happened to their families...
the line "you never knew it was paradise till you were expelled" came to mind-
Martin Landau narrates it - very good - I recommend you go get it as it's a side of Jewish History I didn't even know existed (and I know WWII inside and out) -
RB