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Survival in Shanghai:

The Journals of Fred Marcus 1939—49

By Audrey Friedman Marcus and Rena Krasno

$22.95

In 1939, Fred Marcus, a German-Jewish teenager, fled Nazi Germany for the relative safety of Shanghai. Along with 20,000 other stateless Jewish refugees, he endured hunger, disease, the Japanese occupation and American bombardments. And he kept a journal, recording the day-to-day details of life, of finding ways to support himself, getting enough to eat, joining a volunteer fire brigade, going to religious services, sharing good times with friends. His journal, the coming-of-age story of a young man trying to make a life in a difficult place during wartime, is enhanced by informative commentary by authors Audrey Friedman Marcus and Rena Krasno. .

2008, ISBN: 978-1-881896-29-6, Paperback: $22.95

6" x 9", 288 pages, 22 pages photos

Audrey Friedman Marcus is a well-known Jewish educator and author. As co-founder and Executive Vice-President of A.R.E. Publishing, Inc., she wrote and/or edited over 500 titles for teachers and students in Jewish schools. She lives in Denver, CO.

Rena Krasno, author and translator was born in Shanghai to Russian Jewish parents. She worked as a simultaneous translator for UNESCO, ILO, FAO and other international organizations in Asia and Europe. She is the author of Strangers Always, A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai, and eight other books for adults and children. She lives in Mountain View, CA.

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“Few works provide as comprehensive an account of daily life in the Chinese city occupied by Japan and few offer as deep an insight into the maturation of an orphaned exile and his life of tragedy and turmoil, but also his achievement and leadership.”

Dr Michael Berenbaum, former Project Director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Adjunct Professor of Theology, University of Judaism; Director, Sigi Ziering Institute

“The story of Fred Marcus’s deeply ingrained dedication to Judaism and its philosophical principle of ‘to life’... Those who believe in plowing ahead and never giving up will find a soul mate in the words of the late Fred Marcus.”

Eugene DuBow, Founding Director Berlin Office, American Jewish Committee

“A touching story…”

Michael Medavoy, CEO Phoenix Pictures

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“This is probably the first time that day-to-day life in Shanghai’s wartime ghetto has been so accurately chronicled…”

Evelyn Pike Rubin, author Ghetto Shanghai; lecturer

“History is written from both the ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ perspective. We must know the ‘big’ picture, but it is the small details which give that picture depth and texture. Fred Marcus’s diary, together with the commentary and elaboration provided by his wife Audrey and Rena Krasno, open a window into the life of a Jewish refugee in Shanghai during the dreadful years of the Shoah.”

Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies,
Emory University; author, My Day in Court
with David Irving

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