(ANSA) - BELGRADE, JAN 18 - An odyssey with a happy ending,
now forgotten by most in our country, from Vienna to Shanghai,
via Trieste, which allowed thousands of Austrian Jews to escape
Nazi persecution and take refuge by ship in China, passing
through Italy.
This story will be commemorated at the Italian Cultural
Institute in Vienna on January 19, on the anniversary of the
Holocaust Remembrance Day, by a small exhibition and by the
conference "Vienna-Trieste-Shanghai. A Journey of Memory,"
promoted by the Italian Embassy. The forum will make it possible
to recall the story of the approximately 15,000 Jews, mainly
from Vienna, who escaped from the Nazis and fled to China
through Italy.
The Jews first managed to leave Austria and arrive in Trieste
but also in Genoa, where they embarked on Lloyd Triestino ships
for Shanghai, even though racist laws were already in force in
Italy. The Shanghai International Concessions was the only port
in the world that allowed visa-free entry. The role of the
Chinese consul in Vienna, Ho Feng Shan, a "Schindler" who risked
his life and career to help Jews leave Austria, is critical in
the whole affair. The next stop was Italy, which was already at
the forefront of shipbuilding in the past, for example, with
Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico and Fincantieri today. At that
time, Lloyd Triestino guaranteed the line connection with famous
ocean liners, which in the case of the Viennese Jews, literally
became ships of salvation.
Salvation materialized in the "pearl of the Orient," the city of
Shanghai, which housed a small but influential Sephardic
community that assisted refugees arriving from Europe. The story
of Jewish refugees risked not having a happy ending with the
Japanese occupation of 1941. The Japanese confined the Jews in a
ghetto in 1943. That was the last ghetto in history, but none of
them perished and most managed to emigrate to the United States,
Canada, Australia, and Israel after the war. (ANSA).
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Shoah: Jews fled from Vienna to China on ships from Trieste
On Lloyd's vessels, Adriatic shipyards were at the forefront