I have been wait­ing for this book for decades. The hero­ic escape to Shang­hai dur­ing the Holo­caust is the least known chap­ter of the Holo­caust expe­ri­ence. Steve Hochstadt, the author of Exo­dus to Shang­hai, does not mere­ly cite sta­tis­tic but pro­vides a face to this remark­able expe­ri­ence. It is a col­lec­tive mem­oir of one hun­dred inter­views, a clas­sic and pace­set­ter of oral his­to­ry, told with dra­ma and pathos. The Ger­man Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty is sud­den­ly uproot­ed, los­ing home, job, pos­ses­sions, and cit­i­zen­ship. But where to go is the prob­lem. Sur­pris­ing­ly, the Chi­nese con­sul in Vien­na real­ized that Shang­hai, not Chi­na, had no immi­gra­tion pro­ce­dures, and offered every­one a visa to Shang­hai, which could be used to obtain an exit visa from the Nazis. The wel­come to Shang­hai includ­ed unbear­able heat, dis­ease, filth, lack of hygiene, no toi­lets, lan­guage bar­ri­ers, insects, pol­lut­ed water, noise pol­lu­tion, and dead bod­ies every­where. In addi­tion there was a civ­il war, and an inva­sion by Japan­ese forces.