Paula Klein

1924-2022

Paula (Lacker) Klein was born on December 6, 1924, in Berlin, Germany. She grew up in a religiously observant Jewish family with her parents and two brothers. Both of her parents had immigrated to Germany from Eastern Europe, areas that are now part of Ukraine and Romania, after experiencing antisemitism and violent pogroms.

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Jewish families in Germany faced growing discrimination, persecution, and violence. In 1936, one year after the Nuremberg Laws were passed, Paula’s parents discussed the possibility of leaving Germany. By 1938, they had found passage to Shanghai, one of the few places Jewish refugees could enter without a visa. In November 1938, before the family could leave, Paula experienced the terror of Kristallnacht firsthand. She remembered the destruction and looting of Jewish homes and businesses, the desecration of Torah scrolls and prayer books, and the arrests of Jewish men. The violence made clear that Paula and her family could no longer remain safely in Germany.

With their plans to leave Germany already in place, Paula and her family escaped to Shanghai shortly after Kristallnacht. They traveled by train from Berlin to Italy, where they boarded the Conte Biancamano for the four-week journey to Shanghai. When they arrived in December 1938, the Committee for Assistance of European Jewish Refugees met them at the boat. Like many Jewish refugees, Paula’s family had been forced to leave Germany with very little of money. With few options and limited resources, they settled in Hongkou, a crowded neighborhood where many refugees lived because they could not afford housing elsewhere.

Paula and her family lived in one of five shelters called Heimes (German for “homes”). Their Heim on Ward Road opened in January 1939 and had been hastily converted from a former barracks. It was furnished with hard, narrow bunk beds, and conditions were extremely crowded. By the end of 1939, about 2500 people lived in this Heime.

In February 1943, life became even more restrictive when Japanese authorities forced Jewish refugees into a designated area of Hongkou known as the Shanghai Ghetto. Conditions in the ghetto were harsh, with severe shortages of food and medicine, overcrowding, and disease. Paula worked as an apprentice in a beauty shop, and all the tips she earned went toward putting food on her family’s table. During this time, her father developed a serious infection in his leg. With little medication available, the infection worsened, and the doctors eventually had to amputate his leg without sedatives. Because of the severe food shortages, however, her father never fully recovered. He died shortly before the end of the war.

After the war ended in 1945, Paula and her family began looking for a way to leave Shanghai. Paula’s mother had a cousin in New York who provided affidavits of support for Paula’s family and one of her brothers. In 1948, Paula immigrated to the United States with her husband and their infant daughter. They arrived in San Francisco and chose to settle in Seattle, where they had two more children. Paula’s mother and younger brother eventually settled in Israel.

Paula Klein passed away in 2022 at the age of 97.