Mary Steinhauser, the daughter of Jenny and Jakob Steinhauser, was born on May 21, 1938, in Vienna, Austria. Mary’s father was an accountant with a Jewish-owned textile firm. Vienna was a glittering, cosmopolitan city, where Jews were highly assimilated into the general cultural and civic life. It also had a reputation as a city in which antisemitism flourished.
In March 1938, when the Germans annexed Austria, they found many Austrians ready to collaborate in the persecution of the Jews. The firm for which Mary’s father worked was confiscated, and Jakob lost his job.
Seeing no hope under the Nazis, the Steinhausers began searching for a way to leave Austria, but few countries granted entry permits for Jews. Through word of mouth, Mary’s parents heard that the port city of Shanghai, China was allowing Jews to enter. Mary’s father offered his accounting services free of charge to the director of the shipping company, who eventually helped him to get passage for his family.
Mary, almost 1 year old, and her parents set sail for China in April 1939. Upon arrival, the family settled in a refugee camp near Shanghai, China. Shanghai, a metropolis of over four million inhabitants, was the largest international free port controlled by Japan, a German ally. Five refugee camps were set up to house and feed the thousands of Jews who had fled Europe. Some of the refugees were able to support themselves by finding work in the city.
In February 1943, responding to German pressure, the Japanese in Shanghai forced 4-year-old Mary and her parents, together with the other Jews, into a crowded, sealed-off ghetto. Economic restrictions caused extreme hardship and ghetto residents often sold their clothes to buy food. Mary and her family lived in a small three-room hut with other families. Electricity was restricted and food was scarce. Even so, Jewish educational, social, religious and cultural activities were maintained. Mary attended school and had many friends, including Chinese children.
Ghetto residents were worried that the Japanese would carry out Germany’s murderous policies toward the Jews, but with Japan’s defeat, these fears soon evaporated.
Shortly after Japan’s defeat in August 1945, World War II in the Pacific ended. The Shanghai Ghetto was opened and all residents were liberated, including 7-year-old Mary and her parents.
The Nazis and their collaborators murdered 1.5 million Jewish children during the Holocaust. Mary was one of the few to survive. A personal history from the Archives of the SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER 1991-813 [002]
