The Dusty Archives, No. 227: The Jews of Tianjin in World War II

The Encyclopedia of Abnormal Humanity: The Old Story

I don't know why I was so sad; an ancient fairy tale that I could never forget.

It was late, the air was cold, the Rhine flowed quietly, and the glow of the setting sun shone on the mountains.

The most beautiful maiden sat on it, radiant; the golden jewelry shimmered, and she combed her golden hair.

She combed it with a golden comb and sang a song; the tone of the song had a charming magic.

The boatman in the boat felt the pain of wild thoughts; he did not look at the reef in the water, but only at the heights.

I know that at last the waves engulfed the boatman and the boat; Lorelei created the catastrophe with her singing.

Quoted from Heine's "Roirele", a poem entitled "Roellet", is the most beautiful and famous work of the Jewish poet Heine, it was composed and widely sung for more than one hundred and seventy years, even during Hitler's rule, Heine's works were burned, the Nazis still had to replace Heine's name with the word "unknown poet" to allow the song to circulate. During World War II, a large number of Jewish refugees took refuge in China and entered Tianjin, and this song was also sung in Tianjin.

Now, in Germany, the song has become a symbol of peaceful life, and "Lorelei" has become a symbol of the Rhine.

First, the historical materials that flew in

On February 19, 2002, I received 39 copies of historical materials from the Diplomatic History Museum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. On that day, it was the first day of work after the seven-day holiday of the Spring Festival, manuscripts, letters, newspapers were all the same, and the whole day was bombarded by words, and when it came time to open the door, I was already deeply disgusted with everything that had ink. I inadvertently looked up, but I saw it—a 16-open brown paper envelope, lying quietly on the window sill at the corner of the stairs, with the large drawing "Song Anna Collection" written on the cover. I immediately shouted. "It really is! It's really coming! "I rushed into the room with it in my arms, unable to take off my shoes and change my clothes, picked up the scissors and decisively cut the seal, one inspection after another, no worse, exactly the 39 copies I registered. If you do the math, it's only been twenty-five days since I filled out the "copy application" in the Historical Museum and received it. And for twenty-five days, I have been skeptical of its coming. There is no train from Tokyo to Tianjin, it must fly over the Pacific Ocean, and "flying things" has always implied a vague and untrustworthy pejorative meaning in Chinese.

When I began to collect information about the Jews in Tianjin, a friend told me that the Diplomatic History Museum of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has 13 volumes of Jewish archives in China. This year, I was invited by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to participate in the "Delegation of Well-known Chinese Cultural Figures to Visit Japan", and I will have a six-day stay in Tokyo, so I took advantage of this opportunity to ask Mr. Jin Fei, a professor at the University of Tokyo, who organized this event, and relevant comrades of the Tianjin Municipal Foreign Affairs Office to help me knock on the door of the Historical Museum.

The Museum of Japanese Diplomatic History located in Azabudai, Minato-ku, Tokyo, opened in 1972. The current curator, Mr. Yuo Ohara, was a Japanese consul in Guangzhou, and when he heard that Chinese guests were coming, he warmly received them. He held an introduction outline in his hand, talked without translation, and spoke Chinese very authentically. When I inquired, it turned out that he was born in Harbin, born in the north and practiced in the south, and the relationship with China can be said to run across the north and south. Mr. Obara said that the Historical Museum holds almost all the diplomatic records from the Meiji Restoration to the end of World War II in 1945, with a total of 48,000 copies for public consultation; in addition, 11,000 copies of post-war diplomatic records, the originals of which are still in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In April 2000, Japan promulgated the Open Information Law, which requires all government departments to disclose to citizens, and Japanese citizens demand that diplomatic knowledge be shared by the people, and they are also speeding up the publication of Japanese diplomatic documents. In 2002, the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Japan-China Treaty of Friendship, the Museum of History has provided a newspaper with a record of the negotiations on the treaty, which is ready to be made public shortly. Mr. Ohara also said that Prime Minister Narita made a speech in the fifty years after the war, expressing deep reflection on Japan's aggression against China and Korea, and proposing that the government should promote the collation of historical materials in Asia. The Cabinet decided to establish the Asian Historical Information Center, which was officially established in November 2001, and the Museum of Historical Materials is stepping up efforts to make relevant materials into data films and provide them to the center.

Mr. Obara smiled at me and said, "The Museum is open to all people, including Chinese citizens. ”

After walking into the reading room and taking out my passport for a routine, I had a computer. The 13 volumes of archives about Chinese Jews have been made into miniature film, and the staff helped me insert the floppy disk, and I began to look it up. Lines of Japanese and Russian were displayed on computer screens, mostly documents exchanged by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the issue of Jews in China more than seventy years ago, as well as relevant reports in Russian newspapers. The staff handed over a "copy application" requesting the registration of name, address, and purpose of reproduction, and the project was very detailed. In the copy paper column, even list B5, A4, B4, A3 optionally. I drew circles on the A4. Then I learned that all I needed was to fill in the application form by numbering the page numbers I needed, and that everything would be fine.

Is it really "all right"? Miss Tanaka, an interpreter sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, relayed the staff's explanation: The reproduction and delivery of the historical museum was entrusted to a professional company. They will make copies of the historical documents according to the page numberS I have requested, and then mail them by post to the address where I registered, and the mail will be charged when it arrives.

My address is in China!

No problem. The staff said.

He carefully checked my address, and a few words were rewritten next to it because they were written consecutively. Looking at his meticulous look, I could only hold the attitude of trying it out.

I didn't expect to succeed in trying it. Later, I asked Japanese scholars, and they often went to the Diplomatic Historical Museum to check the historical materials, and the reproduction of materials was also this procedure, but the materials could be delivered to China, and for them, it was also the first time they heard about it. Nowadays, the information society, international mail has become commonplace, rare, is the promise between people, the so-called "a promise of a thousand gold", the purity of this "gold" should be more difficult to find than the agricultural era. The historical materials that flew in made me feel like a thousand gold. Of course, this weight also includes the quality of service provided by the staff of the Museum.

The 39 copies of historical materials I have selected are all confidential telegrams and related reports on Jewish activities in China that were preserved by the Japanese government during World War II. Most of the documents and reports are in Russian and Japanese, and through the efforts of professional translators, I have seen the following text:

Confidential No. 254

December 5, 1948

Stationed in Hailar

The consul is acting as Tetsuo Mimura

Stationed in Manchukuo

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary His Highness Kenkichi Ueda regarding the evacuation of Jews to Indochina The 30 Jews expelled from Germany entered Manchuria on the 24th of last month by the Mantetsu International Train, stopping in Manchuria for one night and heading to various parts of Indochina. I believe you have learned about the situation of the above-mentioned personnel in Manchuria, but since the local gendarmerie has the latest information, it is reported to you for your reference.

A copy of this document is sent to the Minister for Foreign Affairs

P.S

1. The 30 asylum-seekers who had been expelled from Germany claimed to be seeking employment in the Central and North China region, so they took the Mantetsu train that arrived at 17:50 on November 24 to fully fill the full, stayed overnight in Manchuria and took the same train to Indochina via Shanhaiguan on the 25th.

The Jews revealed that they had no fixed occupations and had made aimless decisions to go to Indochina. Another group of people expressed their intention to live in Harbin Xinjing, but based on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' will to transfer Jewish refugees into the country, they were asked to go to Indochina.

2. Although the attitude of the travelers during their stay in Manchuria could not be identified as special movements, the personnel of the Foreign Affairs Office and relevant personnel of the region revealed their following words and deeds:

German repression of the Jews began long before the unification with Italy and gradually spread throughout the country. What had been discriminated against by the Germans had deteriorated so rapidly since the shootings of the German ambassador and secretary in Paris, culminating in a massive deportation that we had to leave the country.

Under the original agreement on travel to the United States, it was possible to apply for a visa from Vienna to Berlin through the United States Consulate, but many people who wanted to travel to the United States ultimately failed to achieve their goals. According to this, they wanted to apply for the U.S. consulate again in Harbin or Dalian after they were full, and if they could not be issued in Manchuria, they planned to go to Shanghai to ask the local U.S. consulate to issue a visa.

There are about 600 Jewish households living in Tianjin, totaling more than 1,800 people, which can be regarded as a large number, and most of these people have occupations for their own survival. Therefore, I thought that even if there were no acquaintances in China, I could rely on these compatriots to seek careers and open up new horizons. However, contrary to the expected results, they encountered setbacks in many things, so they had the intention to go to the United States.

When they left, the German authorities, regardless of men, women and children, were allowed to carry only tickets to their destinations and luggage equivalent to 10 marks (about 15 yuan) in cash and 1,000 marks (about 1,500 yuan) in their possessions. Therefore, it is difficult for them to do business directly in the Central Andochina region.

The following questions and answers were made on other related matters such as accommodation:

Clerk: As a national railway, a spare bus can be provided to serve as a resting place for passengers. However, the vehicle has a capacity of 20 people, and the excess personnel will stay at the hotel.

Jew: I'm penniless and have no money to stay. The "Eighty-Six" policeman once told us that when we arrived in Manchuria, we could provide accommodation for all the staff on the train and other conveniences. The opposite, however, is a pity. I hope to be able to provide another vehicle for me and others now.

Clerk: For foreigners who cannot enter the country, as long as it is determined that they are not carrying money and need public or private assistance, they can quickly evacuate the country according to the violation of the "Foreigner Entry Control Rules".

Jew: Then we will stay in the "hotel" according to the agreement.

Clerk: The ticket is from Dalian to Shanghai via Tianjin, but it also passes through Shanhaiguan.

Jew: If that's the case, where is the issue of refunds solved? We were going to take the Dalian-Shanghai route...

When the translator translated this conversation, he specifically told me that judging by the tone of the clerks, their attitude was very arbitrary.

II. "Night of Terror"

This brutality traveled through more than seventy years of history and fell to my computer keyboard.

What do I see?

I saw 1938. The Nazi government arrested 17,000 Polish Jews living in Germany and dragged them to the German-Polish border in stuffy tank trucks. From the night of October 28 to the early morning of October 29, the first Jews were expelled from the border by the German armed forces. Faced with the machine guns of the Polish border guards, they had no way to the sky and no way to the ground, and the Jewish tailor Agrispan was unfortunately killed. On 7 November, Greenspan's 17-year-old son Herschel broke into the German Embassy in France with the intention of assassinating the German ambassador and avenging his father. The third secretary, Ernst von Rattle, came out to receive him, and the youth fired five shots in a row, and Rattle was killed immediately. On the evening of November 9, Veterans of the Nazi Party gathered in Munich's Old Town Hall to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the Beer Hall Riots. When news of Rattle's death at the hands of jewish youth came, Hitler immediately left the table to whisper to Goebbels, and then hurried away. Goebbels returned to the restaurant and announced the Fuehrer's decision that Rattle's death had caused anti-Semitic unrest in parts of the region, which were neither planned nor organized by the Party, but need not be stopped. The Nazi party leaders present understood and ran to make a phone call, and the urgent order was transmitted throughout Germany through the airwaves. That night, the Nazis destroyed Jewish property throughout Germany, ghetto was on fire, Jewish homes and shops were looted, countless synagogues were burned to the ground, many fleeing Jews were killed by thugs, tens of thousands of Jews were sent to death camps, and a large number of Jews were forced to leave their homes and become refugees. This is the infamous "Night of Terror.".

"Night of Terror" was forever nailed to the column of shame in history as a sign of the Nazi persecution of Jews during World War II. But the Nazis' massive persecution of the Jews did not begin on this day, but began as soon as it came to power.

The Nazis first set off anti-Semitic waves in the field of literature and art. In May 1933, they began to burn the books of Jewish authors, and the works of Marx, Engels, Liebknecht, Bernstein, Lenin, and others were on the list of banned books. Jews were forbidden to enter the literary and art venues, and on the doors of concert halls and opera houses, signs reading "Jews are not allowed" were prominently hung. The wave soon spread to education, and Jews were banned from teaching positions, from kindergartens to universities.

Since then, a series of anti-Semitic decrees have been issued. On 15 September 1935, the Nazi Party Congress approved the German Imperial Citizenship Act and the Germanic Act on the Protection of Race and Honor. The Citizenship Act stipulated that only citizens of Germanic descent were citizens of the Empire, depriving the Jews of their citizenship. The Racial Protection Act prohibits Jews from marrying or having non-marital sexual relations with German citizens or citizens of German descent; prohibits Jews from employing German citizens under the age of 45 or maids of Germanic descent; prohibits Jews from using the colors of the German flag and other prescribed colors, and if violated, is sent to a cell, most of whom are sentenced to death.

With the implementation of these two decrees, the Jews in Germany were sent to eighteen levels of hell.

Jews were forcibly moved into ghettos and Jews were forbidden to have contact with non-Jews.

Jewish dwellings must be hung with large satellite badges, and Jews must wear large satellite badges when they go out. Jews are not allowed to step out of the designated area. Jews are not allowed to ride trams and buses. Jews are forbidden to go out after 8 p.m.

Jews were required to obtain food using a supply card with the word "Kosher" printed on it. Supplies of fish, flour products, eggs, milk and other necessities of life were cut off.

After the Night of Terror, the Nazi persecution of Jews reached its pinnacle.

Jewish property was heavily damaged on the Night of Terror, and most Jews were insured. Faced with huge sums of money, the Nazis convened an emergency meeting and decided that the compensation paid by the insurance company would be confiscated by the state in its entirety and partially returned to the insurance company; and then a "fine" of 1 billion marks would be levied on all Jewish communities to "pay for the losses caused by this commotion"; in addition, it was considered illegal to prohibit Jews from engaging in any independent transaction, even the sale of labor services. The meeting reached a high degree of consensus: the complete exclusion of Jews from the economic life of Germany.

German Jews were deprived of the right to live, and the only way to survive was to leave Germany; at the same time, the Nazis were building one Jewish concentration camp after another, and they were opening their blood basins and devouring the lives of Jews, which made the Jewish desire to flee even more urgent.

After the war, according to incomplete statistics, a total of 6 million Jews were killed in Europe, of which 4 million died in Nazi concentration camps.

China said to Jewish refugees: "Welcome! ”

I saw the fleeing, the fleeing, and as the Nazis trampled on the wider hinterland of Europe, the number of Jews fleeing became larger and larger.

But......

The British government had severely restricted the entry of Jews into Palestine since the autumn of 1937; the United States had closed its doors to Jewish refugees; Andagi Sugihara of the Japanese Consulate in Kovno, Lithuania, had issued 6,000 visas in nineteen days, but the Japanese government's policy of tolerance for Jewish refugees was premised, and refugees could only stay in Japan for twenty-one days and must leave after twenty-one days; only China opened the door. China said to Jewish refugees: "Welcome! ”

There are two ways for Jewish refugees to take refuge in China: one is to land in Shanghai by sea by boat through the wind and waves; the other is to take the land route, cross Siberia, enter the customs through "Manchukuo", and enter Tianjin.

Thus, "The Incident Concerning the Evacuation of Jews to Indochina" occurred, and I also saw the historical archives of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs that recorded this event.

It was this page of archives that opened up the tip of the iceberg of the huge group of Jewish refugees in Tianjin.

There are no accurate figures to show how many Jews fled to China for refuge in World War II; there are still no accurate figures to show how many people entered Tianjin in the rush of refugees; I can only find answers from the historical materials that can be found, from the clues that can be found.

I knew very well that it wasn't the answer, just some feelings, feeling the horror of the lifeline, feeling the panic of the horror.

When people are being chased by death and have nowhere to hide, is there anything more important than a safe foothold?

Flipping through the membership register of the Tianjin Jewish Association in the 1940s, I found this record:

Jews who lived in the Tai Lai Hotel: Belamen, male, 67, businessman, came to China in 1940; Glysteen, male, 43 years old, businessman, came to China in 1935; Kebo Poland, male, 63 years old, businessman, came to China in 1937; Gao Gan, male, 68 years old, contractor, came to China in 1944; Dingbu Lici, male, 40 years old, businessman, came to China in 1936; No. 48 Central Building lived Jewish businessmen to give a family, the man was 34 years old, the hostess was 28 years old, they had two daughters, A 4-year-old, a 2-year-old, the whole family came to China in 1931; No. 43 lived with the coffee shop manager Mao Gen and his wife, who came to China in 1936; no. 49 lived a 60-year-old housewife, who entered China alone in 1941 and had not yet found her relatives.

No. 3, No. 13, and No. 16 of the Victoria Apartment Building have all lived in Jews, including housewives who came to China in 1941, employees of companies who came to China with their mothers and wives in 1941, and businessmen who came to China with their mothers and 4-year-old sons in 1941.

These people, without exception, were all Jewish refugees who came to Tianjin during World War II. They escaped from the clutches of the Nazis and came to Tianjin through all kinds of difficulties. In those rooms and apartments, they were terrified, thankful to have survived, and then opened their bags and arranged for the rest of their lives. These rooms and apartments are often transit points, and when they gradually become familiar with the environment of Tianjin, find a job, or find some kind of way to do business, they will let their eyes go, and the European-style streets and alleys in the Tianjin Fifth Avenue and Xiaobailou area will enter the field of vision. So, they walked out of the guest room, walked out of the transfer station, and really made their home in Tianjin. During World War II, Xiaobailou Co-Changli, Xiannongli, Baoshanli, Yangheli, and Jiangxiali all had Jewish families living there.

These records also show that the Jewish refugees of "World War II" in Tianjin were divided into two groups: one fled to China from all over Europe due to Nazi persecution; the other was because the Japanese invading army occupied northeast China, a large number of Japanese ronin poured into "Manchukuo", seized Jewish property, shot and kidnapped tickets, and the Jewish people living in the northeast became increasingly difficult to live and do business, so they went south and settled in Tianjin.

The time period between the two Jewish refugee groups entering Tianjin was slightly before and after. In the early 1930s, Jewish refugees who originally lived in the northeast fled to Tianjin, marked by the Japanese occupation of the northeast in 1931; Jewish refugees who originally lived in Europe fled to Tianjin from about 1938 until the early 1940s, marked by the "Night of Terror" created by the Nazis on November 9, 1938.

The refugees can also be found in the sporadic memories of Tianjin Jews currently living overseas, and Isabelle Maynard recounts two plots about Jewish refugees in her autobiography, The Chinese Dream: A Jew Growing Up in Tianjin.

Breywoman, a Jew, was a pharmacist who lived in Germany with his mother, wife and daughter. In 1939, he came to Tianjin alone and lived in a Jewish family on No. 37 Road (now Chongqing Road) in the old British Concession. Soon, his quirks caught the attention of the surrounding Jews. He was ragged, his elbows and cuffs were worn, his light-topped tweed hat was stained, and he wore a pair of patched shoes on his feet. He was afraid to associate with people and avoided all people. He was afraid of the sun and used to living in the dark, and only darkness could give him a sense of security, and only in the middle of the night could he eat and walk freely. Speculations and legends about him have spread far and wide in the Jewish community in Tianjin. He experienced the most painful blow of fate. On that "night of horror", he went out to run an errand all night and did not return, and when he returned home the next morning, the whole family was gone and taken away. Who had taken it away, he did not know; and where it had been taken, he did not know. All he knew was that his mother, wife and daughter never returned. Overnight, life and death, great pain whipped him, and he rushed into the street like crazy. After this, two versions of the legend about him appeared. Some say he killed a man after storming the streets; others say he killed many people at once, that he dispensed poison and had many medicines, that he poisoned the Nazi rice cooker. The Nazis frantically hunted him down. With the help of his friends, he hid in a dark cellar for a year. For more than three hundred days and nights, he lived in the company of rats and relied on friends to tie food from a small hole in the ground. Isolated from the world, he almost forgot who he was, and survived like the rats everywhere around him, and hunger drove him to look for everything he could chew in the dark. Gradually, his eyes could only see in the dark.

The pharmacist Breywoman later got help from the Jewish community in Tianjin and got a job as a waiter in the cloakroom of a Jewish club. There was a hut in the cloakroom where he settled down and spent a long time in Tianjin healing his wounds.

There is a quartet in the Victorian Café in the Little White House, and the violinist, Jewish Bertman, is also from Germany. Before the war, he was a performer of the Berliner Philharmonic Orchestra, who came to Tianjin to escape Nazi persecution, formed a small band with his friends, and earned part of his living expenses by performing music for diners in restaurants. The income in the Victorian coffee shop was not enough to cover the family, and Bolman had to work two more jobs. He and his friends traveled the streets of Tianjin, playing at weddings and banquets for wealthy families; he also taught violin classes for tuition fees. He kept his time tight, and people could always see him playing in sweat, and seeing him quickly wipe the sweat from his face without losing a single note. His strings are always entwined with the sound of the Waves of the Danube and the Scent of the Vienna Woods. The longing for his hometown made his heart often faintly ache.

Pharmacists and violinists are the few cases I can currently collect. Stories like this should have been many in the 1930s and 1940s, but they were too long ago, and most of them have been buried in the unknown corners of history, and once they have the opportunity to be discovered, the meaning of life they contain will move the world.

The influx of refugees led to a rapid increase in the number of Jews in Tianjin. In 1932, when the number of Jews living in Jinmen from the northeast was increasing, the Tianjin Jewish Charity Association held a charity dance conference at the West Lake Hotel on November 16 to fund Jewish refugees with the amount raised. At that time, the "Yishi Bao" also reported this social news. According to the "Jewish Annals" published in the United States in the late 1930s, the number of Jews in Tianjin reached 3500 in 1935, which can basically be seen as the number of Jews in Tianjin after the first wave of Jewish refugees, and around 1940, the second wave of Jewish refugees came, but unfortunately, the number of Jews who entered Tianjin with this refugee wave has not yet been accurately counted.

III. The "Tianjin Jewish Phenomenon" During World War II

During World War II, Jewish refugees entering China settled in cities such as the northeast, north China, and the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, with Shanghai, Harbin, and Tianjin being the most numerous.

There is Harbin in the north, Shanghai in the south, and Tianjin is located between the two cities. With Harbin in the north and Shanghai in the south, Tianjin is almost equal to the distance between the two cities.

It is this "equality" that is intriguing.

The period of World War II was a period of mass persecution of the world's Jews, with Jews in Shanghai and Harbin being persecuted to a considerable extent. Northeast China fell earlier than Tianjin, the Japanese army and Japanese ronin acted in Harbin, Jews became increasingly difficult to do business and life, and a large number of Jews went south, forming a wave of Jewish refugees flowing from north to south. In Shanghai, the Japanese invading forces set up the Hongkou Jewish concentration camp to force Jewish refugees to live in the concentration camp, strictly restricting their free access, and making The Shanghai Jews live in the depths of the waters. The fate of the Jews in Tianjin, on the other hand, produced an intriguing phenomenon:

During world war II, Nazi ideology was rampant, and discrimination against Jews among foreign expatriates occurred from time to time, but there was no social anti-Semitic tendency in Tianjin, nor did large-scale anti-Semitism occur.

During World War II, the Jewish community in Tianjin was not only not destroyed in the harsh environment, but also developed by leaps and bounds. The completion of major community public welfare construction projects, such as jewish clubs and synagogues, ended the long history of Tianjin Jews renting Gordon Hall to hold festivals and religious activities, and gave Tianjin Jews their own fixed social activity venues for the first time. The completion and use of the two public welfare buildings has played a major role in enhancing the national consciousness of Tianjin Jews and condensing the social strength of Tianjin Jews.

This can be called the "Tianjin Jewish phenomenon" during World War II.

Why is this happening?

First, during the "Second World War", Tianjin basically retained the pattern of concessions, especially the British and French concessions, the Japanese occupation forces had no control over those areas before the outbreak of the Pacific War, while most of the Jews in Tianjin lived in the British and French concessions, mixed with many overseas Chinese, and basically maintained the original order of community life;

Second, due to the increase in Jewish refugees during World War II, the Jewish community in Tianjin was expanded and expanded, and the Jewish Association took advantage of the vacillation of the Japanese political and military circles towards the Jewish policy in Tianjin and made positive efforts to maintain community stability.

Joseph Baronsky served as rabbi of the Tianjin Synagogue during World War II. According to his grandson, Sol. Birulin, after the fall of Tianjin, his grandfather's status as a priest was recognized by the Japanese invading authorities. Whenever there was a matter or problem about the Jews of Tianjin, he would be called over as a liaison officer or Jewish representative to solve the problem.

Thor was just a child and didn't quite understand adults, but he clearly remembered his grandfather's sad face every time he came back from the Japanese. He complained and complained, but had to do what the Japanese ordered. Saul remembers that the Japanese occupiers ordered Jews and other non-Jewish Tianjin people to go to grocery stores owned by the Japanese. Each family sent out a pamphlet to record how much the family had bought at a Japanese grocery store. The Jewish people have their own eating habits, and they are accustomed to going to the food stores opened by Jews to buy food. Rabbi Baronsky was furious about this, but he had to carry out the orders of the Japanese army, and of course, the income would go directly into the pockets of the Japanese authorities. Thor remembers his grandfather regularly taking japanese-organized tours. After each trip, he complained to his family that he did not want to have too much contact with the Japanese and did not like to get involved in Japanese affairs. Of course, he could only say these words at home, not outside. It was through the active efforts of Baronsky and other leaders of the community that the Jewish community in Tianjin decided to build a synagogue, from fundraising to construction, without being hindered by the Japanese occupation forces.

It can be seen that the head of the Jewish community in Tianjin at that time adopted a "maintenance" strategy against the Japanese occupation authorities.

I have a file of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs at hand, revealing the obscurity and subtlety of Japan's policy toward Judah.

5363 is secret from Harbin Taisho in April of the tenth year

Minister of Foreign Affairs Uchida, Consul General Matsushima

No. 76

The more moderate "Zionist" group of local Jews advocated the future construction of a Jewish state in Palestine. The head of the mission felt that, given that the terroir of the Palestinian areas resembled that of Japan, it was felt necessary to adopt continental agricultural methods in the region. To that end, they deliberately sent about 20 young Jewish students to Study in Japan for two years to study agricultural methods on the mainland before returning them to Palestine. Although they have not applied to this officer in any form, they are said to have expressed their intentions to our Army. But the Jews have a national character that does not like to work, and it is possible that the above is only a superficial reason, and they may also carry out excessive propaganda on the mainland, and it is indisputable that we should naturally prevent their actions from happening. On the other hand, however, if their purpose is really propaganda, they will try their best to enter the country in order to achieve the purpose of propaganda. If they enter the country together in the name of studying agricultural methods, they can be closely monitored, and if there is any misconduct, they can be expelled, banned, and other methods, I believe it has become easier.

In addition, with regard to the visa method for the travel passport of the Jewish community, when applying to your embassy, I hope to fully take into account the attitude of this official.

IV. "Blowfish Project"

Mr. Jin Fei, a professor at the University of Tokyo, sent me some information he had collected about the Japanese government's ambiguous attitude toward Jews during World War II. These materials involve a number of lost archives of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, especially "The Blowfish Project - The Jewish State in the Japanese Dream" in Li Jia's "Penglai on Ancient and Modern Talks" (Jilin Wenshi Publishing House, December 1986), which enabled me to further understand the background of the era of the "5363 Secret" archive.

More than two decades after the war, someone bought back a batch of old foreign ministry files from a used bookstore in Kanda, Tokyo. It is a secret archive that flowed from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the people in the chaos of the era of Japan's defeat and surrender and the OCCUPATION of the Us army. This batch of archives later fell to jewish rabbis in the U.S. military stationed in Japan. In the hands of Tokaye. A few years later, Tokaye compiled it into a book, published simultaneously in the United States and Europe, under the title Project Blowfish.

The "Blowfish Project" was a highly classified political strategy of the Japanese government during World War II.

After occupying the northeast of the mainland, Japan cobbled together the puppet regime of "Manchukuo", launched the "Lugou Bridge Incident", and while further invading China on a large scale, it once formulated a secret plan code-named "Blowfish". The plan envisaged a large area of Japanese-occupied land in the northeast of the continent, housing 1 million Jews who had fled from Europe, and establishing a new state, the "Israel of Asia."

The reason why the Japanese authorities have code-named this secret plan "pufferfish" is because it is like a pufferfish, which is both a delicacy and contains high poison, and if it is done well, it will be self-defeating. The Japanese authorities had pinned their hopes on the "Blowfish Project" to kill three birds with one stone: to win over Jewish groups and prominent figures in the United States and eliminate and alleviate the hostility of the United States toward Japan; in order to amass the wealth of Jews around the world, especially the huge dollar assistance of the American Jewish consortium, to purchase the military materials needed by Japan; and to strengthen Japan's power in the northeast of the mainland and contain the Soviet Union.

The Japanese Navy's Ōsa Inuzuka, who named the secret plan "Blowfish," said: "This plan is very similar to the pufferfish. If we really have the skill to cook this dish, if we can unabunder the cunning nature of the Jews, if we can continue to concentrate on this kind of thing, we must be careful not to let the Jews use their ancestral clever tricks to overthrow the table and use us backwards to achieve their ends—if this is successful, we will be able to make a dish for our country and our beloved Emperor That is not more delicious and nutritious than this. But if we are not careful, it will destroy us in the most terrible way. ”

The cunning and sinister nature of the "Blowfish Project" is clear.

The "Blowfish Project" gathered a group of so-called "Zhiyu factions" in Japan's military, political and even industrial circles, and in the late 1920s and early 1930s, they were eager to move, and have been unscrupulously carried out since the Japanese occupation of Northeast China.

Japanese business magnate and nissan founder Yoshisuke Kakegawa first proposed to borrow the wealth of the Jews to develop the northeast of the mainland. In 1932, at the invitation of Hirotoshi Matsuoka, the president of The Manchurian Railway, to "inspect" Tohoku, he came up with this idea, which was immediately approved by the Kwantung Army. In 1934, he published a paper in the official journal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs entitled "A Plan to Invite 50,000 Jews to Manchuria for Development", which was reprinted by the Japanese media and became a hot spot in public opinion.

After that, the Kwantung Army began to improve relations with the Jews of the Northeast and appease the Jews who remained in the Northeast. In 1937, the military "Zhiyu faction" AnJiang Daisa, assisted the Harbin Jews in organizing the "Far Eastern Jewish Congress"; in 1938 and 1939, it continued to be held three times, and the Jewish groups in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Kobe all sent representatives to the conference. The meeting issued a statement willing to cooperate with Japan to establish a "new Asian order."

On December 5, 1938, the "Five Phases Secret Conference" held in Tokyo made the "Blowfish Plan" a national policy. Present at the meeting were Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita, Admiral Seishiro Sakagaki, Admiral Mitsusho Minouchi, and Minister of Industry and Commerce Ikeda Narita, who attended the meeting, and these five people, together with the Emperor, formed the highest group for Japan's national fortunes decision-making during World War II. The meeting decided: "The mainland should not reject the Jews in consideration of its own urgent need for foreign investment and the improvement of relations with the United States." ”

The "secret meeting of the five phases" brought the "blowfish project" into an intensive operation stage. In June 1939, Inuzuka, Yasue, and Ishiguro, consul general of Japan in Shanghai, jointly drafted a 90-page report entitled "Investigation and Analysis of the Introduction of Jewish Capital", which was centered on accepting Jewish immigrants to open up residences in China, targeting the capital of wealthy Middle Eastern Jewish merchants living in Shanghai, such as Hartung and Sassoon, and then attracting investment from Jewish financial groups in Europe and the United States.

After the "Secret Meeting of the Five Phases," Japan's policy towards Judah underwent subtle changes.

On the one hand, the Japanese government acquiesced in its consulates in Europe and embassies in Russia to issue visas to a small number of Jewish refugees, enabling them to reach Kobe from Siberia via Vladivostok. Of the 785,000 Jewish refugees who escaped from Europe, 4,600 followed this long and cold road, relying on the remnants of the "Puffer Fish Project" to enter Japan and later to Shanghai and into China.

On the other hand, the Japanese used various avenues to try to reach out to American Jews and wanted to sell their "puffer fish program." The first buyer chosen by Japan was Steven Wise, spokesman for the National Jewish Society and president of the World Jewish Association. Wise had a close friendship with President Roosevelt, and the Japanese considered him to have a great influence on the decisions of the U.S. government. In January 1940, Japanese businessman Kozo Tamura was ordered to visit Wise's office. Whether the "blowfish plan" can be implemented depends entirely on the success of this talk. Wise was a man with a strong sense of justice who was very indignant at Japan's invasion of China. He told Tamura that the Japanese army occupied Nanjing and slaughtered 300,000 Chinese civilians, and any foreigner would never want to live in the land occupied by the Japanese army, so he categorically refused Tamura's lobbying.

The "blowfish plan" formulated by Japanese conspirators with more than a decade of time and energy was so vulnerable that it suddenly collapsed.

Affected by the "Blowfish Plan", the Japanese army in Tianjin pursued a "huairou" policy towards the Jews, and the head of the Jewish community in Tianjin also adopted a "maintenance" strategy for the Japanese army.

From 1937 to 1939, with the support of the Japanese occupation forces, three "Far Eastern Jewish Conferences" were held in Harbin, and the Jewish community in Tianjin also sent people to attend the meetings, and at the meeting, the "Report on the Business of the Tianjin Militia Group" and the "Report on the Problem of Avoiding Refugees in Tianjin" were made.

Thirteen members of the Congress of The Jews of the Far East were elected, and three of the delegates from Tianjin were elected: DavelEYfremovich Habinsky, 48, stateless, fur trader; Yoda Moisevich Benel, 55, stateless, businessman; and Joy Morris, 48, American, in business.

According to the "Report on the Problem of Refugee Avoidance in Tianjin" provided to the meeting by the representatives of the Jews of Tianjin, on December 8, 1939, 169 European refugee asylum seekers had been allowed to live in Tianjin, and 128 people were still undecided. 56 people have arrived with permits. The Refugee Asylum Committee affiliated with the Tianjin Jewish Association will do its best to solve all problems related to refugee asylum, such as petitions for market entry permits, employment, financial assistance, etc. (See The Manchurian Survey Department," Overview of the Third Congress of the Far East Jewish Militia Group.)

Using the Japanese government's "blowfish plan", the Jews of Tianjin cautiously and tactfully advanced community building under the clouds of war, carefully maintaining their own safety.

Although the "Blowfish Project" went bankrupt, the Japanese military and political circles have never completely abandoned the idea of using Jews.

In the spring of 1944, several Japanese officers suddenly arrived at the Jewish Club in Tianjin.

"Are you all doing well?" Their tone was very kind, "Have you been treated favorably by the Japanese government here?" What are the basic requirements for one's religious life? ”

The Jews were puzzled and could only reply, "Everything is fine." ”

The Japanese officers then left.

A few months later, something unexpected happened. The club received a telegram saying a senior Japanese mission from Peiping would arrive in Tianjin next Saturday for an official of the Jewish community to greet.

Zelig Belokaman, who was in charge of the Tianjin Jewish Convention at the time, was a tall, sturdy Siberian. The telegram terrified him so much that he was uneasy when he received the head of the mission, Hidaka Akira Daisa, and his entourage at the train station. After welcoming the Japanese delegation to the club, they feasted in the restaurant, where the long table was filled with Russian dishes: smoked salmon, cold potato salad, foie gras, plus a bottle of 120 standard strength chilled Russian vodka. Food is used to help the wine, and Belokaman and others need to use wine to find out the intentions of the comers. The Japanese officers drank freely and toasted to all of you good health. But without any indication, Hidaka Fuming suddenly got up and delivered a speech.

"This war has been going on for too long. Americans were killed, Jews were killed, and Japanese people were killed. Japan and the United States have no grudges in the past and no enmity in recent days, and it seems unnecessary to continue this stupid war. We know that Jews have a huge influence in the United States, president Roosevelt is Jewish, and his senior advisers are also Jews. We believe that you can influence Roosevelt to bring this war to a swift and timely end. We ask you to address your fellow Americans on the radio and tell them the truth – that Jews were not mistreated under Japanese rule and that Japan was gracious to Jews. That might lead to an end to the war. ”

After Hidaka took his seat, all the Jews present were stunned. Could this be a trap to test their loyalty to the Japanese? What kind of answers do Japanese people expect? They were silent, pouring wine one by one.

A few minutes later, Hidaka stood up shakily again, his face glowing red with alcoholic seizures. He had waited impatiently, knocking on the table with his hand and shouting, "Enough! That's enough! Now it's time to answer! ”

Belokaman stood up slowly, as if his next remark had been considered for ten days instead of ten minutes.

"We Jews know our fellow Americans better than you do, Mr. Hidaka. If we were to broadcast to them, they would be very surprised. It must also be asked: why not two years ago or two months ago? They would argue that the reason for the radio speech was that Japan was now in decline. Assuming that they extrapolate in this way, they will not react as you would expect, but on the contrary, they will attack you more violently and forcefully. Perhaps, this is not the best thing for you. ”

Hidaka listened carefully and then exchanged views with the attachés. Finally he said: "Your answer is very good, I will report to Tokyo." But what would you do if we asked you to make a radio address? ”

Belokaman replied, "Absolutely immediately, but not as you say." ”

The banquet ended after such a clear answer. The Japanese mission returned to Peiping. The Jews of Tianjin never heard of Hidaka again.

V. "Bethune from Austria"

Tianjin fell at the end of July 1937. The Japanese invading forces occupied all the urban areas outside the British and French concessions, blockaded the concessions on many occasions, set up barbed wire fences and inspection posts at the exits of the Anglo-French concessions, strictly controlled access, interrogated pedestrians, searched and arrested, and turned the exit of the concession into a ghost gate.

The concession is like an island, with soaring prices and a shortage of necessities. The Jews, along with the people of Tianjin, endured the devastation of the war.

Flour is hard to buy, and even when it is bought, it is often mothed or moldy. Coal burning has almost run out of supply. For warmth, several Jews huddled into an apartment and built a stove. A housewife invented the method of burning animal feces for warmth, and the Jewish family passed on ten or ten hundred, and the horse and dog dung on the street doubled in one morning. Suddenly, a batch of honey arrived at the food store, and the Jewish housewives called on friends and flocked to it, and they suddenly sold it out.

In July 1939, after several days of rain, the water of the upper reaches of the Hai River soared. The Japanese only cared about going to the countryside to "clear and suppress" and increase their troops to fight the Eighth Route Army; the traitors who handled affairs for the Japanese only cared about playing for the tiger, scavenging the people's fat and people's ointment, and where they had to repair the river and straighten the embankment, in August, all the embankments were vulnerable under the storm. Heavy water rushed into the city, and Tianjin was flooded. Betar, a youth organization in the Jewish community of Tianjin, called for disaster relief, and Jewish youth responded positively. The order to assemble was passed on verbally, as the telephone network cable had been washed away by the flood. Jewish youth went out of their homes and gathered in Jewish schools by boat, some baking bread, some making candles, some looking for punts, and others floating around in the streets, distributing urgently needed items to everyone. People put baskets down from the windows of their homes, and Jewish youth put bread and candles in them, providing them on demand, treating Jews and non-Jews equally, and many Tianjin citizens were assisted by them.

Some Tianjin Jews, regardless of their personal safety, bravely helped the anti-Japanese salvation movement of the Chinese people, and some even stepped onto the front line of the Chinese people's anti-fascist war without hesitation. Dr. Wolf Zilz, a German Jew, and Leo Levine, a Russian Jew, jointly rented a warehouse in the British Concession to provide refuge for Chinese students who had escaped from the occupied areas, and helped them defect from Tianjin to the unoccupied areas, to cover patriotic students leaving Tianjin to join the anti-Japanese army.

Richard Frei, an Austrian Jewish doctor, was hailed by Chinese soldiers and civilians as "Bethune from Austria" on the battlefield against Japan. He escaped from Tianjin with all his might, arrived in the Jin-Cha-Ji Liberated Area, joined the Eighth Route Army led by the Communist Party of China, and accompanied the army to practice medicine and rescue the wounded of the Eighth Route Army.

Fuley was born in 1920 in Vienna, Austria, to a family of ordinary clerks. Sympathetic to the people at the bottom, he joined the Vienna workers' movement and joined the Austrian Communist Party in 1937. In 1938, fascist Germany annexed Austria, and Fuley's name was blacklisted by the Gestapo, in danger of being killed at any time. In December of that year, with the help of the Austrian Communist Underground, he was urgently transferred to Italy and then to China.

Fu Lai's purpose in coming to China was only one: to find the Eighth Route Army and put him on the front line of the anti-fascist war.

Fu Lai's path to military service has been through hardships. When he docked in Hong Kong by ocean-going ship from Europe, he heard that Song Qingling was in Hong Kong, so he disembarked and went to look for it in half a day. Hong Kong is so big, he is strange to others, and the result is fruitless. On January 15, 1939, the ship arrived in Shanghai. Shanghai was a free port that did not require a visa to enter China at that time. Carrying the only five marks in his pocket, Fu Lai went to a Jewish refugee reception station in Hongkou and used his medical knowledge to serve the refugees while looking for ways to defect to the Eighth Route Army. In the spring of that year, in order to inquire about the news of the Eighth Route Army nearby, he resolutely went north and successively engaged in medical work in Beiping, Xingtai, and Tianjin. During the holidays, he also ran to Beidaihe specially, wanted to go into the mountains to find the Eighth Route Army in eastern Hebei, did not want to encounter the blockade line of the Japanese army, and had to quietly retreat. In 1940, Fu Lai, who was working in the laboratory of Tianjin Demei Hospital, became acquainted with The American Habend, a progressive man who served in the Baoding YMCA. Hubend had secret ties with the CCP's Beiping underground party and conveyed Fu Lai's anti-fascist spirit of persistence to the CCP organization. In the autumn of 1941, after the arrangements of the Beiping underground party, Fu Lai finally came to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army's Pingxi Anti-Japanese Base Area under the cover of underground traffic officers.

Fu Lai's name, "Fu Lai", was given to him by Commander Nie Rongzhen according to the transliteration.

Fu Lai came to bethune Health School to work in medical teaching and field ambulance. He was enthusiastic about his work and quickly integrated into the revolutionary ranks. In just half a year, he was able to communicate with the soldiers and peasants in Chinese. Due to the enemy's blockade, there was a shortage of medicines in the anti-Japanese base areas, and malaria was prevalent. Fu Lai is also "swinging", still supporting the body with tenacious perseverance, and asking for advice from Chinese medicine. He found a way to treat malaria with acupuncture, and found many sewing needles, which were tested and promoted by the combat troops, and many soldiers recovered their health through his indigenous treatment. In 1944, Fu Lai came to Yan'an and taught infectious diseases at Yan'an Medical University. Mao Zedong cordially received him and praised him in person as a "foreign Chinese medicine doctor" in person. It can be seen that Fu Lai's deeds have been widely spread in our anti-Japanese base areas.

During the Liberation War, Fu Lai took a stethoscope and X-ray equipment and followed the field army to North China. The battle to liberate Tianjin began, and the internationalist fighter who came out of Tianjin returned to the starting point of his anti-Japanese journey. He braved the rain of bullets and bullets to rescue the wounded and contributed his share to the liberation of Tianjin.

6. Black market trading nationality

I can't see the scene below, even Isabelle herself. She just listened, with the sensitivity and slenderness of a maiden, and listened. I suppose the girl must have been next door, across a thin wall, and on the other side of the wall was a group of Jewish men.

"Gentlemen, let us go get the official documents provided by the Portuguese. Our current file is no longer valid. ”

The girl's father's voice said, "But we will make the Japanese angry." The Japanese would think we were on the side of the Portuguese. ”

"This is the whole trouble for us Jews! We'll get real passports and we'll be better off, and the Japanese will respect us. ”

The girl's father: "But that costs money." I heard that a Portuguese passport costs at least $80,000. ”

"Wouldn't everything be free then?" Of course it costs money. But we will have official documents to prove identity, not some small cards that cannot be explained. 'Stateless man', go him! ”

"I heard that so-and-so has bought a Portuguese passport and he calls himself a Portuguese."

laughter.

"I say ' A rose is a rose, a Jew is a Jew', and no matter what he buys for himself, no one thinks he's Portuguese."

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, we do need official official passports! The Portuguese Embassy is offering us a price too! Are we going to give up this opportunity? ”

"We need to think about it. Let's decide for the next meeting. ”

The scene took place in a secluded corner of Louis Street in the French Concession that year.

It was an unnoticed, simple apartment, shared by two Jewish families, crowded and disheveled, as if the owner were ready to roll up and leave at any moment. This scene was all too familiar to the Jews, and they hesitated and panicked before fleeing, and their whole life was stained with the color of haste.

A significant proportion of tianjin Jews came from Russia. They fled to China after the October Revolution in Russia, where they lost their citizenship and were called "stateless people." If they want to leave China, they must obtain the nationality of a certain country before they can apply for a visa. Black market trade in nationalities soon became quietly prevalent in the Jewish community.

war! The waiting for the Jews was still imprisoned and fled, all of which began on December 8, 1941.

The day before, the Japanese had sneaked up on Pearl Harbor in the United States, and that night, President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and the Pacific War broke out.

On December 8, 1941, heavy snow swept through Jingu. Heavy snow fell from the early morning, and the snow flakes were the size of a palm, as powerful as the palm of a hand, sizzling against the window glass of people on the street. There was a Jew who was awakened by heavy snow very early, and he looked out through the window glass, which was covered with snow, leaving only a round hole in the middle. As soon as he took a breath on the glass, he saw the following scene:

The British flag that flies in the wind every morning on the British consulate building across the street is gone.

The Muscular Indian Guards of the past who stood guard in beanie hats were gone.

The heavy gate, which was usually closed on weekdays, is now wide open, but there are no cars in and out.

The majestic building was now like a weary widow, waiting to read the will of her newly dead husband.

This Jew could hardly believe his eyes.

Prior to this, although Tianjin fell, the Japanese had never been able to gain control of the Anglo-French Concession. On this very day, the Japanese army entered the concession and achieved a full occupation of Tianjin in the practical sense.

7:30 a.m. Jewish teenager Seymour Miller walked to school as usual. The snow was deep, and with each step, there was a creak under my feet. The noise made the teenager gradually excited. From his home in Fukangli on Boros Road (now Yantai Road) to the grammar school, he had to walk for thirty minutes a day, climbing the small bridge over the wall river, and you could see the carved ornaments above the school's gray-lacquered iron doors. It is strange that this road he walks every day, but today is unusual. Where is the unusual? The teenager didn't have time to think about it, the creaking sound urged him, and unconsciously, he walked faster and faster, and then almost trotted up. He didn't want to run, but there was a mysterious force urging him and pushing him. The sound of the sole rubbing against the snow is getting louder and louder. Ah, it was too quiet around, and there was almost no one on the street. Occasionally, there was a pedestrian, but they all bowed their heads and hurried, as if they were afraid to see around, afraid to look at the people who passed by.

Something went wrong. Saimur said to himself. As he walked past the British barracks and saw that there were many Japanese soldiers crowded there, his heart fluttered as if he were about to jump out of his chest. Something went wrong!

The gates of grammar schools were already crowded with students, ranging from 7 to 18 years old, students who had never been quiet for a moment, and now they were silent. They crowded outside the school gate, keeping a distance of more than a meter from the school gate, refusing to take a step forward: there were more than a dozen Japanese soldiers with live ammunition walking inside and outside the school gate.

Semmel squeezed into the crowd, and a classmate lowered his voice to tell him: The Japanese have occupied the school, we can no longer read. A girl next to me said with a crying voice that our principal had been driven out by the Japanese soldiers!

J.E. Woodsill, the headmaster of the grammar school, was Jewish and a respected headmaster. At the moment, he was being kicked out of school by Japanese soldiers along with his wife Daphre and his 6-year-old son. Schools were forced to close. A few weeks later, the grammar school was changed to a Japanese girls' school.

The war is finally approaching.

Those who awaited the Jews were still on the run. Especially those Jews who had obtained British and American citizenship.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese army hunted down British and Americans in Tianjin and threw them into Weifang Prison in Shandong Province in the name of "enemy overseas Chinese", and some of them were simply detained in the prison of the gendarmerie. On March 2, 1945, the New York Times reported the death of Emil Sigmund Fischer, a Tianjin Jew, in a Japanese prison in Tianjin.

Born in Vienna in 1865, Fiss worked as a banker in Vienna, Paris, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro before settling in New York in 1892. In 1894, he came to China to work in the banking industry in Shanghai, and returned to the United States in 1898, still living in New York. In 1906, Fei Shi came to Tianjin and engaged in import and export trade. His economic activity is relatively extensive. He has worked as an economics lecturer, a public accountant, an oath-taking auditor, a property manager, and a chief accountant at Deutsch-Asiatische Bank. In 1909, the United States refunded part of Gengzi's indemnity, and the Qing government set up a tourism aesthetic affairs office to build a museum in Tsinghua Garden, and he contracted the construction project. He was also involved in political activities in Tianjin. In 1911, as a secretary, he accompanied the Qing government on a mission to England to attend the coronation of King George V. From 1919 to 1922, he participated in the Beiyang government's management of German and Austrian properties in Tianjin. At the same time as the economic and political activities were unfolding, Fiss also wrote many books. In 1909, he published the English edition of the book "Guide to Beijing and Its Suburbs" in Tianjin, which won the 1915 San Francisco P.P.I.E Gold Medal. The book was revised and republished in 1924. In 1925, his English-language illustrated edition of Sacred Mount Wutai: A Modern Journey from Taiyuan Province through Mount Wutai to the Mongolian border was published in Shanghai. In 1928, Tianjin published his English edition of Travels in Fresh China, a 42-page book with pictures and maps. In 1935, his English edition of "From Shanghai to Changsha by Car" was published in Shanghai. In 1941, he published a new book in Tianjin, "A Collection of Travels in China from 1894 to 1940", which was 340 pages long, with pictures and maps. Soon after the publication of this book, he was arrested by the Japanese army occupying Tianjin, because during the First World War, he was specially approved by the United States to become a citizen of the United States through debate, so he was regarded as an "enemy overseas Chinese" by the Japanese army and was held in the prison of the Japanese army until his death in prison on February 21, 1945, at the age of 80.

The war brought the same gift to the People of Tianjin and the Jews: disaster. In the catastrophe of war, the Tianjin people and the Jews linked their hearts and destinies together.