SHANGHAI |
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SHANGHAI |
Walter Jacobsberg the only child of Siegfried and Betti (nephew of the artist’s father-in-law), was born in Stettin, Germany, where his father ran a fur business. After completing his schooling in the mid 30s the only job option was a position in a Jewish owned bank. During the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938, Walter and his father were interrogated, arrested and sent to Sachsenhausen, a labor camp. Betti won their release by securing false steamship tickets to Shanghai. Once back in Stettin, the family frantically booked legitimate passage to Shanghai, but in the spring of 1939, Betti died suddenly, leaving father and son in their grief to continue on to their destination. Once in Shanghai, father and son lived in the Hongkou District known as the Shanghai ghetto. Siegfried did tailoring while Walter secured employment as a German-English interpreter, serving both the refugee community and the Chinese court. In 1947, they obtained immigration papers with the help of U.S. relatives and arrived in New York where Walter reunited with his childhood sweetheart Hanne who had left Stettin in 1938, on a Kindertransport. Their long distance courtship between England and Shanghai was carried on with the help of the Red Cross. Walter and Hanne married in 1947; their two sons continue to share stories of their parents’ journey with the artist. |  |