An entire yeshivah of 300 students and teachers from MIR, Poland, has also relocated in Shanghai. You decide to join their ranks. Their purpose and dedication attract you.
Every day, you leave the Hongkew district, the center of the Shanghai
Jewish community, and go to the Beth Abraham Synagogue, which has
been turned into a Bet Hamidrash,
a study hall. There you and the others
probe the secrets of the Gemara and medieval Jewish legal texts. You find
the intellectual challenge exciting.
As you return from the synagogue one evening, you spot a tall, erect
man wearing a German army uniform. A few well-placed questions
uncover the fact that this is Colonel Joseph Meisinger, the notorious
Butcher of Worms (Germany),
who has come to Shanghai to convince the
Japanese who control the city that they should extend Hitler's Final
Solution
to include the 17,000 refugees there.
When you tell Rabbi Kalisch, he and other community leaders meet
with the Japanese governor. Rabbi Kalisch reminds the governor of
Hitler's racial policy. If Hitler says that only Aryan people have a place
as leaders of the world in the future, what does that mean for you, all
Orientals?
The governor understands Rabbi Kalisch's reasoning, and
Colonel Meisinger's mission is stopped.
After the war, some members of the yeshivah leave for Jerusalem. Others go to America, to Brooklyn, New York.
If you accompany those going to Jerusalem, continue to page 123.
If you go with the others to America, continue to page 124.