Henry Cohen (born in Hamburg in 1892) addressed this question to the Jewish Congregation in Hamburg in December 1946. His letter is now part of a file entitled “Rückwanderung nach Deutschland” [“Remigration to Germany”]. [2] Together with other documents of the Jewish Congregation, the file is kept in the Hamburg State Archives. In these holdings, they form Collection 522-2, which includes documents from 1945 onward. [3] The collection has been deposited; the finding aid and the documents may only be viewed with written permission by the Jewish Congregation in Hamburg. Currently, this collection has a volume of 82 linear meters, with the last delivery to the State Archives having taken place in 2012.
Henry Cohen had emigrated to Shanghai in 1939. [4] After the end of the Second World War, he sought information in preparation for his return to Hamburg. However, he also considered other countries, such as the USA and Australia. [5] If one looks at the places from which the “remigrants” returned to Hamburg, Shanghai obviously took the first place in the initial years after the end of the war: According to an undated list, in the period from 1945 to October 15, 1952, out of a total of 168 remigrants, 27 came from Shanghai, followed by Palestine / Israel (26), England (19), France (15), and Belgium (13) [6].The list numbers 25 countries plus Shanghai.
These and other statistical documents can be gathered from another file in collection 522-2. Among other things, they provide information on the names and occupations of the remigrants as well as the date of their return. In addition, the file contains a report dated November 17, 1952, on the situation of the Jewish Congregation in Hamburg: “[...] However, in the last two years in particular, a substantial number of remigrants have come to Hamburg, most of them completely destitute, who hope to be able to live here on restitution payments, while they would be dependent on support abroad.” [7]
The file mentioned at the beginning also contains informative compilations about the Shanghai returnees, including their addresses before and after emigration, occupations held before and during emigration, their plans for Hamburg, and assessments of their respective language skills.
Henry Cohen had concrete ideas about his possible professional future in Hamburg: “For my part, it could only materialize if I managed to bring along my small stock of new and worn shoes, some stock of leather for shoe manufacture, as well as the associated material such as nails, etc. Would there be perhaps the possibility of getting store premises as well as sufficient rations?” [8]
Henry Cohen is not recorded in any return emigrant list of the Jewish Congregation in Hamburg: He emigrated to the USA in 1947 [9] and died there on December 30, 1967. [10] Why he had decided against returning to Hamburg is not documented, but this could be related to the reply by the Jewish Congregations to his letter: “[...] Furthermore, considering the extraordinarily poor nutritional situation and the practical impossibility of procuring raw materials, we can only strongly advise you, under the given circumstances, against entertaining the idea of emigrating back to Germany.” [11]
Not all Shanghai emigrants were given the chance to immigrate quickly to the USA or another country of their choice after the end of the war. Dr. Hendrik George van Dam described, for example, the returnees as late as 1951 as a group “first forced to emigrate from Germany and Austria, then deprived of their freedom in Shanghai, and now the majority of them – six years after the end of the war – is living in camps.” [12] Accordingly, the disappointment of the persons involved must have been great. An example is the description of the Shanghai remigrants in the Föhrenwald camp in the same year: “Understandably, there is deep dejection, in individual cases even despair, that after the long journey from Shanghai, not only inadequate living and nutritional conditions were encountered, but also any monetary support has failed to materialize.” [13] A third file in Collection 522-2 contains reports on their situation.
The files presented cover the period from 1946 to 1952 – from the first contact with the Jewish Congregation in the old homeland to the situation after the return. The two files listed first provide information about who is returning, where the returnees were accommodated in Hamburg, and what their wishes were for their professional future. The documents in the third file come from Norbert Wollheim. They point beyond Hamburg by referring to supraregional networks and initiatives to support returnees.
[1] Letter from Henry Cohen to the Jewish Congregation in Hamburg, December 29, 1946, in: Hamburg State Archive, 522-2 Jewish Congregation in Hamburg, No. 1255.
[2] Ibid. This file contains further letters in which the Jewish Congregation is asked for information in preparation for a possible return, e.g., from Gertrud Hartwig from Karachi/British India, December 8, 1946, and from Max Mandl, also from Shanghai, April 8, 1946, and November 1, 1946.
[3] The documents of the former Jewish Congregations form inventory 522-1 in the Hamburg State Archive. This is a divided inventory; further documents of the former Jewish Congregations in Hamburg are located in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem.
[4] For more on the significance and special features of Shanghai as a refuge for Jewish refugees, see the section “Refuge in Shanghai” in: Xin Tong, Around the Alster, Around the World – The Wolf Brothers in Exile in Shanghai, in: Key Documents on German-Jewish History in Hamburg, June 25, 2018. https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:article-245.en.v1 [March 9, 2023]
[5] Letter from Henry Cohen to the Jewish Congregation in Hamburg, December 29, 1946, in: Hamburg State Archive, 522-2 Jewish Congregation in Hamburg, No. 1255.
[6] Statistics of “Returnees from the Year 1945 - April 1952”, undated, in: Hamburg State Archive, 522-2 Jewish Congregation in Hamburg, No. 1384.
[7] Report on the Status of the Jewish Congregation in Hamburg by Dr. S./Kf. to E. Lüth, November 17, 1952, in: Hamburg State Archive, 522-2 Jewish Congregation in Hamburg, No. 1384.
[8] Letter from Henry Cohen to the Jewish Congregation in Hamburg, December 29, 1946, in: Hamburg State Archive, 522-2 Jewish Congregation in Hamburg, No. 1255.
[9] Decision of the Hamburg Social Welfare Authority in the case of Henry Cohen regarding compensation for damage to his professional and economic advancement, September 12, 1955, in: Hamburg State Archive, 351-11 Office for Reparations, No. 14341.
[10] Death notification, January 25, 1968, in: Hamburg State Archive, 351-11 Office for Reparations, No. 14341.
[11] Copy of the letter from the Jewish Congregation in Hamburg to Henry Cohen, February 10, 1947, in: Hamburg State Archive, 522-2 Jewish Congregation in Hamburg, No. 1255.
[12] Letter from Dr. Hendrik George van Dam to the Conference of Supreme Reparations Authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany, May 8, 1951, in: Hamburg State Archive, 522-2 Jewish Congregation in Hamburg, No. 1256.
[13] Report by Norbert Wollheim on the Shanghai returnees in the Föhr[e]nwald camp near Wolfratshausen, February 2, 1951, in: Hamburg State Archive, 522-2 Jewish Congregation in Hamburg, No. 1256.
