After witnessing the burning of synagogues during Kristallnacht, Jerry Lindenstraus and his family escaped Germany in July 1939, barely a month before the start of World War II. They made their way to Shanghai, where Jerry lived and grew up for the next seven years. He attended a British-style school for Jewish refugees in Shanghai founded by Horace Kadoorie, became a bar mitzvah at a Shanghai synagogue, and joined the 13th Shanghai (United) Group of the Boy Scouts.
After the war, Jerry traveled across the globe alone to join his mother in Colombia. He ultimately settled in New York in 1957 and worked in the import-export business.
Join Jerry for this Stories Survive program exploring his long journey from Germany to New York through wartime Shanghai.
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Stories Survive is made possible by the Goldie & David Blanksteen Foundation.
Public programming at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; a Humanities New York CARES Grant with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal CARES Act; and other generous donors.
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