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In the late 1930s thousands of German Jews, fearing for their lives under Nazi rule and unable to secure entrance visas to other countries, found refuge in the Japanese-occupied city of Shanghai. Destitute, hungry, and thrust into a strange environment, they made the best of their situation as they waited to return to Europe, little realizing the horrific toll that the ravages of war, and Nazi-orchestrated genocide, were taking on their people. This engrossing documentary from Amir Mann and Dana Janklowicz-Mann tells the tale through use of concurrently running narrative interviews with several of the men and women who grew up in the Shanghai ghetto, including Dana's father, Harold, whose dinner table reminiscences sparked the genesis of the film. From persecution and escape from Europe, through the length of the war and eventual migration to the U.S, the riveting, moving saga of these survivors comes alive through family photos, archival footage, and, most touchingly, their return visits to Shanghai and the one-room tenements they shared with their families. Narrated by Martin Landau, SHANGHAI GHETTO won the audience choice award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where it premiered in 2002.
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