SHANGHAI POLISH CONSULAR RECORDS 

 

by Peter Nash

 

Background

 

One of the viable options of acceptance for Jews fleeing Nazi oppression was Shanghai, China. Some Polish Jews had already arrived there (most likely for business reasons) long before the occupation of Poland by Germany in September 1939. However from then on an increased urgency for a haven was foremost and Polish Jews who were in transit in Kovno (later Kaunus, Lithuania) and recipients of a transit visa issued (illegally) by the Japanese Consul in Kovno, eventually got to Shanghai by the second half of 1941 via the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok and Kobe, Japan.

 

In 1992 Dr. Jonathan Goldstein, a research associate of Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, and three other scholars, visited the Polish Consulate in Shanghai and were shown a 200-page register listing Polish citizens who passed through Shanghai or Nanjing between January 9, 1934 and October 29, 19411.

 

This was a standard log used by Polish diplomatic missions around the world. The reasons or benefits for the consular registration are not known. The following was recorded in Polish:

 

Registration number

Registration date

Full name of registrant

His or her profession

Religion (Mojzeszowa for Jewish)

Birth date and place

Marital status

Last known address in Poland (non-existent for most Jews)

Address in the consular region

Documents submitted (usually a passport)

Name and birth date and place of wife and children

Passport expiry date

Remarks

 

During his visit to the Shanghai Polish Consulate, Dr. Goldstein was accompanied by Dr. Marcia Ristaino, Asian Acquisitions Librarian at the U.S. Library of Congress. Following the visit copies were made available to the Library of Congress and also the Sino-Judaic Archives of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, California. In addition, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum also has a copy.

 

Accessing the Data

 

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland is an organization dedicated to indexing Polish records to help Jewish family historians in their research. The JRI-Poland website and database are hosted by JewishGen, the premier website for Jewish genealogy at www.jewishgen.org  To find a name enter the website then proceed as follows:

 

 

à Research

à Hosted Organizations

àWelcome to Jewish Records Indexing - Poland

à Jewish Records Indexing - Poland home page

à Photo: Shanghai Polish Consular Records - for historical background

ß (go back to) Jewish Records Indexing Poland home page

à Search Database

à Enter Surname

à Select “sounds like”, “exactly”, etc.

à Click “Search” (near the bottom of page)

 

If there are “Hits” classified as ‘No Specified Region’ then these may include entries under ‘Polish Consulate Shanghai China’ with details of the name searched.

 

Copies of the full registration details as described above can be obtained directly by emailing a request to Mark Halpern through the hyperlink on his name. http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/china/shanghai_polish_consular_records.htm

 

A Name Index also exists on the Library of Congress website with the URL www.loc.gov/rr/european/polref/polrefindex.html  It is an "Index to Ledger listing in handwriting persons registered at the Polish consulate in Shanghai, 1934-1941, on the basis of documents issued by Polish authorities." 

Of the 1528 entries about 60% of the registrants are identified as Jewish, 34% as Roman Catholic, 3% as Orthodox, and 2% as Protestant.

 

 

References:

 

1. Jonathan Goldstein; AVOTAYNU 10 no.2 (Summer 1994): 23-24