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JEWS IN SHANGHAI | The Story of White Horse Inn


15 September 2016 | By Pan Zhen / trans. Huang Xie'an | Copyedited by Gu Yiqing

  • White Horse Inn

Editor's Note: During the World War II, more than 30,000 Jews, under attack by the Nazis in Europe, fled to Shanghai, China and 16,000 of them took refugee in this city. Meanwhile, the local Shanghai people were also in an abyss of pain inflicted by the Japanese invasion.  Though the time was difficult, gratitude and mutual friendship lived on in the heart of the Jewish and Chinese people. The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum and Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) launched a initiative early this year to present those touching stories in Chinese, English, German and Hebrew. This is one of the selected stories in the project to commemorate the history of Jews in Shanghai.

 

I

n 1939, Rudolf Mosberg and his wife who came from Vienna opened a White Horse Inn in Hongkou. The inn lasted for five years and had served the Jewish refugees very well.

Ron Klinger, a grandson of Rudolf Mosberg who was born here and stayed here until he was four years old, told interesting stories of the White Horse Inn.

Rudolf Mosberg came with Herta Mosberg, their daughter and Ron’s mother, to Shanghai, and after they settled down they opened a café. Unfortunately, the café was soon ruined by a typhoon. In late 1939, a good friend of theirs Alfred Racek sent them 6,000 US dollars (as partial payment for Rudolf’s share of a factory). With that money, Rudolf soon opened a new café which was even better and bigger.

It is amazing that Alfred Racek was not a Jew; he was even a Nazi and an SS. But there had been close friendship between two families back in Austria. They often went out together for picnic or something. So knowing of the Nazi plan to exterminate Jews, Alfred immediately told Rudolf to leave, gave him a large sum of money, and helped him flee to Shanghai. Alfred and Rudolf, as well as two other partners, owned a factory producing lighters and other metal products (later recruited by the Third Reich to produce weapons and ammunitions), and Alfred was the general manager.

Then, there was the problem of naming the café. At that time, the Jewish refugees from Vienna, then in Shanghai, were dreaming of returning to Vienna someday. They firmly believed that Shanghai would be only a temporary haven. At the same time, they missed an opera The White Horse Inn which had been very popular in Austria. It is about the head waiter of the White Horse Inn in St. Wolfgang in Upper Austria who was desperately in love with the owner of the inn, a resolute young woman who at first only had eyes for one of her regular guests. Therefore, Rudolf borrowed the name White Horse Inn for his new café and designed the café in the Austrian style. In the end, he reproduced a White Horse Inn in every aspect: coffee, flowers, music, sculpture, oil paintings, and even Jewish bakers, cocktail mixers, waiters and waitresses.

Very soon, it became a paradise of the homesick Jewish refugees in Shanghai. They could feel their dignity, decency, romance and elegance here only.

Then, Rudolf’s son Kurt came to Shanghai. He was very sad at that moment as his girlfriend Lily had just migrated to Australia together with her family, so the reunion with his parents and his sister was a great comfort for him.

The family worked at the café all day. Rudolf’s wife Rosa worked as the chef and his daughter Herta was a waitress. Every day, they started at noon, selling lunch, coffee and whisky, and the inn was open until midnight or the last customer left. There were pianists and singers performing at the inn, and one of the singers called Lausnick became a film star in Switzerland. She loved to sing for Sir Victor Sassoon, businessman and hotelier from the wealthy Baghdadi Jewish Sassoon merchant and banking family, who often came with a big company. One of her songs was dedicated to Sir Victor Sassoon: “Can I borrow one dollar from you? I will pay it back if I survive the today after tomorrow.”

In addition to the Sassoon family, people from the Kadoorie family also visited the White Horse Inn often. After 1941, a lot of Japanese customers came, while Jewish customers in the Ghetto decreased. There were still some better off Jewish visitors, but they would buy a cup of coffee or a glass of alcohol only.

Ron’s paternal grandfather Leon Klinger also fled to Shanghai with his family. They opened a restaurant. Leon’s son Hermann visited the White Horse Inn occasionally and met Herta and they fell in love with each other very soon. In February 1941, they were married and soon they gave birth to Ron. In the same year, Kurt who was running a barber shop married with a Jewish girl Hertha, and the wedding took place at the White Horse Inn in November. Later, they moved out of the White Horse Inn.

Leon’s younger son Otto went to Australia and opened a factory in a non-Jewish name. After WWII was over, Otto arranged for the Klingers to migrate to Australia. Later, Herta also arranged for Kurt to move to Australia and then Kurt arranged for his parents to get there too.

In 1949, the White Horse Inn was sold to a new owner, but it is said that the new owner migrated to the USA before long.

In Sydney, Rudolf received another 6,000 US dollars from Alfred as payment to acquire the rest of Rudolf’s share of the factory in Austria.

Many years later, Kurt revisited Vienna and booked into the famous hotel Sacher Haus, and the signature on the confirmation notice was Mrs. Sacher-Racek. After checking in, Kurt asked Mrs. Sacher-Racek whether she had any relationship with Alfred Racek. The answer was amazing: “He is my father in law.” Then she gave Kurt the address of Alfred Racek, so Kurt found their old friend and their sponsor in some sense.

About Shanghai, Ron said he had little impression, because he was too young when they left. His mother once told him that she had never felt any anti-Semitic hostility from the local Chinese people. But how could they do any business with the Chinese if they did not speak Chinese? His mother said that the Chinese learned to speak German quickly, and it was easy to do business with the Chinese in Hongkou.

The love story of Kurt continued in Australia. His former girlfriend Lily had also been married and had her children. Many years later, after their own spouse passed away, when he was 80 years old, Kurt proposed to Lilly who agreed. So they have continued the love which was interrupted by the war. Now in their house, they still keep the photos of their deceased wife and husband. In 2010, Kurt and Lily came to Shanghai to look for his paradise in his earlier life.

In April 2014 when the Jewish Refugees and Shanghai exhibition was held in Australia, Kurt and Ron appeared and donated a number of photos of the White Horse Inn to Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. Those 70-year old photos, including the curtains and delicately carved chairs, created an elegant impression of the White Horse Inn. One of the photos was two ladies standing under an umbrella in front of the café. They seemed to be selling ice cream, and the lady on the right was Herta. Ron also donated his barber’s license he obtained in Shanghai.

When he heard the White Horse Inn would be restored, Kurt who was 97 years old was excited and chanted a melody of the White Horse Inn opera.

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Press Contact

SISU News Center, Office of Communications and Public Affairs

Tel : +86 (21) 3537 2378

Email : news@shisu.edu.cn

Address :550 Dalian Road (W), Shanghai 200083, China

Further Reading