Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto

After the Nazis took power, Heppner, a member of a privileged middle-class German Jewish family, suffered from constant anti-Semitism. But Kristallnacht, in November 1938, introduced a new level of Nazi horror: Heppner and his mother used the family's resources to escape to Shanghai, the only city in the world that did not require a visa.

Heppner was taken aback by experiences on the ocean liner that took him and other refugees to Shanghai: he was embarrassed and confounded when Egyptian Jew...