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Shanghai Diary by Ursula Bacon
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Shanghai, China-once called the "Armpit of the World"-was the port of
last resort for 18,000 European Jews escaping from Adolph Hitler's
extermination pogroms in Europe. As a survivor of the Japanese
occupation of Shanghai in WWII, the author tells her remakable story of
growing to maturity in the teeming clutter and clamor of crowded
streets, screeching vendors, the miasma of running sewage, discarded
newborn girl-babies, dripping humidity and pestilence-breeding rats.
Between tears and laughter, she relates how she and her parents learned
to live by their wits, overcome despair and value life more dearly
because danger and death were always near. The author saw her best
friend die of fever, learned about life and matters of the soul from a
buddhist monk, about love from Chinese concubines, swam plague-infested
waters to aid in the rescue of American airmen and took to heart the
message of wise old Mrs. Goldberg who always reminded her, "Go out and
make a miracle today, God's busy, He can't do it all."
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