Teachers College Scientist Featured in New Documentary

In the 1930s Sigmund Tobias fled Germany with his parents after they realized that Germany was no longer safe for Jews. Along with 20,000 other Jewish refugees; they went to Shanghai, the only place one could go without a visa. The stories of five survivors of the Jewish ghetto in Shanghai, including Tobias, are the subject of a new documentary, "Shanghai Ghetto." The film was produced by Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann. Ms. Janklowicz-Mann's father lived in Shanghai during the war. Dr. Tobias and his family lived in Shanghai through the war and in 1948 Tobias emigrated alone to the United States. His parents got permission to come a year later and they were reunited in New York. Mr. Tobias, a research scientist at Teachers College, wrote a book in 1999 entitled "Strange Haven: A Jewish Childhood in Wartime Shanghai."

Tobias said that during the war Jews in Shanghai were relatively sheltered and knew little about the genocide of Jews in Europe. After the war ended, he said, "we suddenly realized how fortunate we were."

The article, entitled "Movie Recalls China Haven from Nazis" appeared in the October 25th edition of the Bergen Record.

Published Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2002