The Japanese occupy Hong Kong (1941 – 1945)

Only a handful of Jewish refugees were permitted to remain in Hong Kong after June 1940 – mainly doctors and engineers. Eighteen months later, the Japanese invaded the colony in December 1941. Several Jewish refugees died during the Japanese invasion including Herbert Samuel, a German Jew and statistician at CLP who fought to defend the colony with the Hong Kong Volunteers.

Because of their Axis nationalities, German and Austrian Jewish refugees were not interned in the Stanley Civilian Internment Camp. Instead, refugees led a precarious existence and were forced to work for the Japanese in order to survive. Most Jewish refugees fled to neutral Macau in the summer of 1944 when conditions deteriorated in Hong Kong.

Left: Eduard Lippa, a CLP employee, was made to work for the Japanese during the war. He is pictured third left, inspecting electricity cable maintenance works in Kowloon, circa 1942 (courtesy of HKHP); Right: Monia Talan was the Russian secretary of the Jewish Refugee Society. He helped many refugees in Hong Kong. Pictured 1959 (courtesy of HKHP).

Timeline Hongkong

↑ Liberation and Resettlement: The Peninsula Hotel – September 29, 1945
↓ Internment and Eviction (1939 – 1940) – September 3, 1939