JewishGen Talks: Witness to History: From Vienna to Shangai

A memoir about an 18-year-old Austrian Jew who escaped to Shanghai, China by himself in 1938, Paul Hoffmann relates how he helped his family leave Europe and survive WWII in Shanghai. He describes how the Sephardic Jewish community came to the aid of the Jews fleeing Central Europe, the two years that he and his family were confined to the Hongkew Ghetto, and the decision to stay in China after the Communist takeover that led to a sequence of events that rivaled the perils of the war years. 

Jean Hoffman Lewanda was born in 1954 in New York City, one year after her parents arrived in America. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Albany, a Masters Degree from New York University and a Sixth Year Certificate from the University of Connecticut. She was a special educator across all levels in Connecticut for 40 years. Now retired, Ms. Lewanda lives in Pennsylvania near family members. She is a Holocaust educator and shares her family story in classrooms and to audiences across all age groups.