Shanghai: Jewish records index

If your Jewish ancestors spent time in Shanghai, this resource may provide information for you.

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland acquired the Shanghai Polish Consular register from the Sino-Judaic Institute (Palo Alto, California) and indexed the records in this collection.

There are 1,474 entries from January 19, 1934 through December 13, 1941. Of these records, some 57% (846 records) were Jewish.

Why did Jews visit the Polish Consulate in Shanghai?

Two major incidents were likely responsible: The August 1937 Battle of Shanghai and December 1941, following the Pearl Harbor attack.

The register shows many entries for people who received Sugihara passports in Kovno, and those individuals from the Mir Yeshiva.

According to Mark Halpern of JRI-Poland, the indexing is complete, will be put into a database and soon added to the JRI-Poland database.

Index fields include:

-- Registration Number
-- Date entered in register
-- Surname
-- Maiden Name (if provided)
-- Given Names
-- Place of Birth as Written
-- Place of Birth - Current Name (if different)
-- Current Country of Place of Birth
-- Date of Birth
-- Marital Status

The actual register includes other information such as occupation, address in Poland, address in the consular region, documents submitted to register name and date of birth, information on wife and children, passport expiration date and other notes.

During the register's interwar scope, Poland included territories that today are are part of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, while many Polish Jews living in Germany had Polish nationality.

According to Mark, the database includes people who previously lived in Austria, Belarus, Bosnia, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

If your family member was in Shanghai from 1934-1941, Mark offers a look-up before the indexes are added to the JRI-Poland database. Contact him.