Escape to Manila: From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese TerrorA harrowing account of Jewish refugees in the Philippines With the rise of Nazism in the 1930s more than a thousand European Jews sought refuge in the Philippines, joining the small Jewish population of Manila. When the Japanese invaded the islands in 1941, the peaceful existence of the barely settled Jews filled with the kinds of uncertainties and oppression they thought they had left behind. In this book Frank Ephraim, who fled to Manila with his parents, gathers the testimonies of thirty-six refugees, who describe the difficult journey to Manila, the lives they built there upon their arrival, and the events surrounding the Japanese invasion. Combining these accounts with historical and archival records, Manila newspapers, and U.S. government documents, Ephraim constructs a detailed account of this little-known chapter of world history. |
Contents
Prologue | 3 |
The Philippines | 9 |
Unexpected Arrivals | 20 |
The First Wave of Refugees | 26 |
Manila Hears about Kristallnacht | 34 |
A Plan for Jewish Settlement | 43 |
Establishing a Life | 51 |
What Does the Future Hold for Us? | 62 |
War | 83 |
Occupation | 97 |
Can We Hold Out? | 112 |
The Final Months of Occupation | 126 |
The Battle | 140 |
Reestablishing the Community | 166 |
Leaving the Philippines | 179 |
Carving Out a Niche | 73 |