Kreissler, Francoise, « Retour ou rapatriement de shanghai? specificites des contextes politiques (1945-1949) » [Return or repatriation from Shanghai? The specific factors of the political contexts, 1945-49] (2003)

Title : « Retour ou rapatriement de shanghai? specificites des contextes politiques (1945-1949) » [Return or repatriation from Shanghai? The specific factors of the political contexts, 1945-49]

Author(s) : Kreissler, Francoise

Year : 2003

Type : Journal article

Subject : History

Keywords : social;foreigners;war

Journal : Austriaca

Number : 56

Start page : 89

End page : 100

Language:Name : French

Support : Print

Abstract : Discusses the factors behind the return during the years 1945-49 of Austrian exiles fleeing National Socialism who had taken refuge in Shanghai after 1938, with particular reference to the local and international sociopolitical contexts involved. The relatively large return of Austrian exiles from Shanghai was closely related to the difficult economic and political conditions then prevailing in China, even before the advent of the Communist regime in 1949, which effectively ruled out the option of settlement in the host country. The exiles were socioeconomically excluded and marginalized in Shanghai, where political uncertainty provoked a mostly hostile reaction among the local population and media, and where the Chinese authorities, eager to repatriate foreign residents, subjected all nationals and refugees from the Third Reich, whether they were its supporters or victims (including many Jews), to the same regulations. Some refugees formed the Austrian Residents Association (ARA), which worked with the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) to register and help process returnees until Austrian officials arrived in 1948. Increasingly difficult local conditions and the limited options for migration to a third country prompted many exiles to return, if reluctantly, to Austria.