Lotte Lustig Marcus, a Jewish refugee in Shanghai in 1939, was a woman of great character. She was smart, resourceful, and brave. Lotte was one of the last Shanghailanders, refugees who fled to Shanghai during World War II to escape Nazi persecution. She passed away at 95 years old in Carmel, California.
Lotte Lustig Marcus was a clinical psychologist and well-known for treating trauma sufferers. She was also active in humanitarian and educational work with migrant workers and multiple sclerosis patients. Her legacy lives on in her tireless efforts to help others.
Lotte Lustig Marcus was only ten years old when Adolf Hitler marched into her native Vienna in March 1938. This union of Austria and Nazi Germany shattered the third-largest Jewish community in Europe and caused a refugee crisis. The lives of 185,000 Austrian Jews changed overnight under the ensuing Nazi reign of terror.
Lotte’s father, Oskar, was fired from his job at the Austrian State Bank because he was Jewish. Lotte could no longer attend school or participate in the ice-skating shows she loved. Her life was forever changed by the Nazi’s persecution of Jews.
Despite the challenges she faced, Lotte Lustig Marcus remained strong. She and her family fled to Shanghai, where they joined 18,000 other European Jewish refugees. There, they found a community that welcomed them and provided a haven from the horrors of war.
Lotte’s strength of character and intelligence were apparent even as a child. She was a quick learner and excelled in school. Her determination to succeed helped her navigate the challenges of being a refugee in a foreign country.
After the war, Lotte Lustig Marcus moved to the United States. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a degree in psychology. She went on to become a clinical psychologist, dedicating her life to helping others.
Lotte Lustig Marcus was a true humanitarian. She worked tirelessly to help migrant workers and multiple sclerosis patients. Her dedication to others was an inspiration to all who knew her.
Lotte Lustig Marcus’s legacy lives on through her work as a clinical psychologist and her humanitarian efforts. She will be remembered for her strength of character, intelligence, resourcefulness, and courage. Her life is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity.
Lotte Lustig Marcus’s story is a reminder of the importance of compassion and understanding in times of crisis. Her life serves as an inspiration to us all, a beacon of hope in a world that can sometimes seem dark and unforgiving.
We owe it to Lotte Lustig Marcus and all the refugees who have come before and after her to remember their stories and honor their legacy. We must strive to create a world where everyone is welcomed and valued, regardless of their background or circumstances.
The Nazi regime told Jewish people they could leave if they could provide “proof of emigration” to a country that would accept them. However, as the Evian Conference of July 1938 demonstrated, most Western nations refused to open their doors to Jewish refugees. Lotte later reflected on the “terrible climate of rejection and humiliation” that existed for her and her community.
Lotte’s father took matters into his own hands by copying the addresses of people with the surname Lustig from American telephone directories. Lotte then wrote to them in her schoolgirl English, asking for help. They received nearly 48 replies, all of which were polite but unable to offer assistance.
On October 18, 1938, Lotte’s father found himself standing in a long line outside a building where the Chinese consul was issuing visas to Shanghai. He had their passports with him and retrieved visas “just in case.”
My late father, Ho Feng Shan, was the Chinese consul general in Vienna at the time. He developed a clever strategy to save Jewish people by issuing visas to Shanghai, the only accessible entry point in war-torn China. While Shanghai did not require entry documents, the visas provided safe passage out of Nazi-occupied territories and marked Shanghai as a refuge of last resort for Jews.
Lotte and her family were among the thousands of European Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai. Shanghai was a sanctuary where they could find safety and rebuild their lives. For many, it was their last hope.
Lotte Lustig Marcus was just one of the many Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai. She was a remarkable woman who dedicated her life to helping others. Her legacy lives on in the work she did as a clinical psychologist and in her humanitarian efforts.
Lotte’s story is a testament to the human spirit’s resilience in the face of unimaginable adversity. Her strength of character, intelligence, resourcefulness, and courage will be remembered by those who knew her.
The Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai faced many challenges, but they found a community that welcomed them with open arms. Despite the horrors of war and persecution, they were able to rebuild their lives and create a new sense of hope and possibility.
Today, we must remember the stories of the Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai and honor their legacy. We must strive to create a world where everyone is welcomed and valued, regardless of their background or circumstances.
The Chinese consulate’s efforts to save Jewish refugees from persecution are a reminder of the importance of compassion and understanding in times of crisis. We must learn from their example and work together to build a better, more inclusive world for all.
Lotte Lustig Marcus’s story is a call to action. We must be vigilant against bigotry and prejudice, and we must stand up for those who are vulnerable and in need. We must never forget the lessons of the past and work together to create a brighter future for all.
Lotte Lustig Marcus was a Jewish refugee who fled to Shanghai during World War II. She passed away at the age of 95 in Carmel, California, one of the last of the “Shanghailanders” who sought refuge in Shanghai to escape Nazi persecution. Lotte was an intelligent and resourceful clinical psychologist who treated trauma sufferers, while also engaging in humanitarian and educational work with migrant workers and multiple sclerosis patients.
Lotte was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1927, and her life changed when Adolf Hitler marched into the city in March 1938 during the Anschluss. The union of Austria and Nazi Germany shattered the third-largest Jewish community in Europe and created a refugee crisis, causing the lives of 185,000 Austrian Jews to change overnight under the ensuing Nazi reign of terror. Lotte’s father, Oskar, was fired from his job at the Austrian State Bank, and she could no longer attend school or participate in the ice-skating shows she loved.
In 1938, Nazi authorities told Jews they could leave if they could produce “proof of emigration” to some place that would accept them. However, most Western nations refused to open their doors to Jewish refugees, as evidenced by the Evian Conference in July of that year. “It is difficult today to re-create the terrible climate of rejection and humiliation that existed for us,” Lotte later wrote. Lotte’s father copied the addresses of all those with their surname of Lustig from American telephone directories, and Lotte wrote to them asking for help in her schoolgirl English. “We got almost 48 replies — all equally polite, equally firm that they couldn’t help,” Lotte recalled.
On Oct 18, 1938, Lotte’s father found himself standing in a long line in front of a building because someone had told him that the Chinese consul was giving out visas to Shanghai. Her father happened to have their passports on him and retrieved the visas — “just in case,” he told them. Lotte’s father, Ho Feng Shan, the Chinese consul general in Vienna, had devised an ingenious strategy to save Jews by issuing visas to the only accessible entry point in war-torn China — the port city of Shanghai. Shanghai required no entry documents, but the visas facilitated safe passage out of Nazi-occupied territories and put Shanghai on the map as a refuge of last resort for Jews.
Lotte’s mother, Grete, was horrified when she learned they were going to Shanghai, as to a Western European of that time, Shanghai was unheard of. “Our expectations had been to migrate to a Western country — America, England, Australia, France, etc.” Lotte’s mother had even considered neighboring Switzerland until she learned that close friends had been murdered by the person they had trusted to guide them across the border.
The Nazis orchestrated Kristallnacht on Nov 9 and 10, an overnight anti-Jewish rampage in Austria and Germany during which Jewish stores were looted, synagogues burned, and 30,000 Jewish males, including Lotte’s uncle Alfred, were arrested and deported to concentration camps. In December, Alfred’s body was sent to them. He allegedly caught pneumonia while working in the freezing cold on road construction wearing the famed striped pajamas. “It was then that Shanghai no longer loomed as a distant possibility but became an immediate necessity.”
In January 1939, Lotte and her parents set sail for Shanghai on the Conte Biancamano, one of the luxury liners of the Italian Lloyd Triestino Company, which engaged in war profiteering by ferrying Jewish refugees to Shanghai and charging them for first-class tickets. Arriving in Shanghai, which was under brutal Japanese occupation and ravaged by war, was a stark contrast to Vienna.
In the late 1930s, Lotte Lustig and her family were desperately searching for a way out of Austria as the Nazis tightened their grip on the country. As Jews, they faced increasing persecution and violence, and their hopes of immigrating to a Western country were dashed when most nations refused to accept Jewish refugees. However, their fortunes changed when Lotte’s father heard that the Chinese consul in Vienna was giving out visas to Shanghai.
Lotte’s father, who was copying addresses from American telephone directories, found himself standing in a long line in front of a building waiting for the visas. He managed to retrieve the visas and told his family that they were just a backup plan. Lotte’s father had devised an ingenious strategy to save Jews by issuing visas to the only accessible entry point in war-torn China, the port city of Shanghai. Shanghai required no entry documents, but the visas facilitated safe passage out of Nazi-occupied territories and put Shanghai on the map as a refuge of last resort for Jews.
Lotte and her parents set sail for Shanghai in January 1939 on one of the luxury liners of the Italian Lloyd Triestino Company. But when they arrived in Shanghai, they found a city ravaged by war and under brutal Japanese occupation. Life was tough, and the family had to rely on Lotte’s father’s stamp collection and her odd jobs, including working at a Chinese department store and running errands for Chinese merchants. To survive, Lotte sold her thick brown hair by the ounce every three months, and she even started a little business with one of her boyfriends, turning Chinese comic books into bundles of toilet paper.
Living conditions became even harsher when the Japanese ordered all the “stateless” Jewish refugees to move into a special designated area in Hongkou, where 10 people were squeezed into one room. Dire poverty, hunger, disease, and death were commonplace, and every summer, Lotte recalled, amoebic dysentery was prevalent. Lotte’s father died of kidney cancer not long after they moved into the designated area, leaving a teenage Lotte to support herself and her mother until they were able to emigrate to the United States in 1947.
After arriving in Los Angeles, Lotte found a job as a legal secretary at the Hollywood movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she met the writer Alan Marcus. They were married in 1952 and settled in Carmel, California. Lotte went on to live a fulfilling life and remained close to her first love, W. Michael Blumenthal, who later became the US secretary of the treasury in the Carter administration.
In 2003, the writer of this article met Lotte while researching and documenting the history of his father’s rescue activities in Vienna. He learned that she still possessed the passports and visas that his father’s consulate had issued. Lotte’s story is one of survival, resilience, and resourcefulness in the face of extreme adversity. She and her family overcame insurmountable obstacles and persevered, ultimately finding a new home and a new life in the United States.
Lotte was a survivor of World War II, a stateless Jewish refugee who found herself in Shanghai during the war. Her father traded his stamp collection, and Lotte worked odd jobs to support her family. She learned English and ran errands for Chinese merchants, even selling her hair and turning comic books into toilet paper to make ends meet. She was also the first love of W. Michael Blumenthal, who would later become the US Secretary of the Treasury.
In 1943, the Japanese ordered all stateless Jewish refugees to move into a designated area in Hongkou, where living conditions became even harsher. Lotte’s father died of kidney cancer, leaving her to support herself and her mother until they were able to emigrate to the United States in 1947. Lotte found a job as a legal secretary at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and eventually settled in Carmel, California, where she met her future husband, Alan Marcus.
By then, Lotte had raised three children, finished college, obtained her master’s degree, and earned a PhD in psychology at the age of 57. She had a successful clinical practice and turned her post-traumatic stress from her wartime experience into a means to help others.
In 2003, Ho Manli met Lotte and learned that she still had the passports and visas that her father’s consulate had issued. This meeting was a revelation for both women. For Lotte, learning that the visas had a face behind them led her to see the past with fresh eyes. For Ho Manli, Lotte’s ability to transcend her childhood traumas and place them in a larger context gave her a fuller understanding of that complex history.
For the next 19 years, Lotte spoke and wrote with unflinching eloquence about the harsh realities faced by Jewish refugees in Shanghai. She gave credit to wealthy local Jews and Jewish relief organizations that provided housing, soup kitchens, and schooling for the refugee children, and facilitated the creation of an exile community. She also spoke of her regret that she and her fellow refugees never learned the culture or language of their host country. The common struggle for survival precluded any real social interaction with their Chinese neighbors, to whom they were just another “sliver of nakojin.”
In her last years, Lotte often spoke of how “lucky” she had been in life, but it was more than luck. It was Lotte’s strength of character, intelligence, resourcefulness, and courage that saw her through. Ho Manli, who has been researching and documenting her father’s heroism for the past two decades, believes that her father would have been proud to have saved someone like Lotte.
In conclusion, Lotte’s story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Despite the hardships she faced as a stateless Jewish refugee, Lotte was able to transcend her trauma and make a life for herself in the United States. Her ability to place her experiences in a larger context and speak truthfully about the harsh realities of life in Shanghai during the war is a testament to her strength and courage. Ho Manli’s research into her father’s heroism and her work with China Daily on major projects, such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the launching of the paper’s US edition, is another example of how individuals can make a difference in the world.