Siegfried Lobel (M / Germany, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Siegfried Lobel (M / Germany, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Manfred Lobel (M / Germany, 1936), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <China> -- <United States>

Biography

Siegfried Lobel (June 7, 1932) and Manfred Lobel (April 2, 1936) were born in Berlin, Germany, to Gustav and Dora Horowitz Lobel (Löbl), both originally from Romania. In September 1940 they left Germany and went to Shanghai, China, where they spent the entire war. 1n 1949 the family settled in the United States.

USHMM

Manfred Lobel (Löbl) was born on April 2, 1936, in Berlin, Germany, to Gustav and Dora Horowitz Lobel, both originally from Romania. He had an older brother, Siegfried, born on June 7, 1932. His parents spoke Yiddish at home, but not to the children. His father had a shirt making factory and the family lived in an upper middle class neighborhood. The family was affected gradually by the changes brought by the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship. His brother had to attend a Jewish school beginning in 1937 because Jews were no longer allowed in the public schools. He was told by his father to run away when bullied, not to fight back. His father sent the family to stay with some non-Jewish customers of his during Kristallnacht in early November 1938, but they were able to return to their home. There were a few close calls when the Gestapo came to their home looking for his father, including one occasion when Gustav hid on the window ledge, but he was never arrested. In 1940, they received permission to leave Germany for Shanghai. It was not until they were prepared to leave that the government confiscated Gustav’s business.

The family left by train for Shanghai in September 1940 with only two suitcases. After stops in Poland, Moscow, and Manchuria, they arrived in Shanghai. They found a two room apartment. Manfred’s father bought a sewing machine and established a custom shirt making and tailoring business. He made clothes for members of the Japanese occupation force. He had a store on Broadway with a showroom window in the front and one room for living quarters in the back. Manfred’s older brother, Siegfried, went to school; most of the teachers were British and the instruction was in English. The family became increasingly religious. They attended an orthodox synagogue and the boys attended Hebrew school.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese began bombing British and other western ships in the Shanghai harbor. In 1942, the Japanese ordered all stateless refugees to move to the Hongkew ghetto. This included all German Jews since Germany had stripped Jews of their citizenship in 1941. The family lost everything, but soon after relocating to the ghetto, Gustav reestablished his business and was making shirts. There was more bombing of Shanghai by American planes, but the ghetto was not a target. The children were given passes so that they could continue to attend school outside the ghetto. Siegfried quit attending public school in 1943 to attend a yeshiva fulltime. Rabbi Meir Ashkenazi attended his bar mitzvah.

At the end of August 1945, Japanese troops were slowly replaced by Chinese forces. On September 3, 1945, the ghetto was officially liberated when US forces arrived. Because Manfred and Siegfried were from Germany, it was easier for them to get permits to enter the United States. Dora and Gustav finally agreed to let Siegfried leave on his own and, in February 1949, he sailed on the General Walter H. Gordon, chaperoned on ship by Mrs. Sunshine. After landing in San Francisco, he went to Chicago to live with relatives. Representative Buckley of Illinois helped Siegfried and his relatives get his parents and Manfred from Shanghai to the US in 1949. The family settled in New York.