I want to read the message in Chinatown

In fact, today's Hamburg red light district once had the only Chinatown in Germany. It was only the Nazi's cleansing of the people of China, which eventually became history.

According to the website of Deutsche Welle Radio recently, what is the only Chinatown in Germany? Why did it disappear? Why didn't Germany reproduce Chinatown? Lars Amenda, the author of China in Hamburg and a German historian who studies Chinatown, gave the answer.

Amenda said that compared with new york and San Francisco, the Chinatown in Hamburg in the 1920s was very small. Similarly, in the 1920s, Berlin also had similar places where China people often met. But they are not as big and concentrated as Hamburg, so it can be said that the Chinese community in Hamburg is unique in Germany. In addition to permanent residents, sailors from China at that time also kept stopping in Hamburg. On average, there are thirty or forty people on a ship, and they stay for a week or two.

According to the report, in Smoak Street and Crossroads Street, there used to be more than a dozen China facades, including restaurants, hair salons and cigarette shops. I think this is the prototype of Chinatown. There are about 200 people from China.

194 1 year, when the Republic of China declared war on Germany. At the same time, some Gestapo who participated in the organization and implementation of the Jewish Holocaust in Eastern Europe also returned to Hamburg. These extreme Gestapos regard China as an enemy and want to get rid of them. 1On May 3rd, 944, the Gestapo launched the "China Operation" to arrest Chinese in Hamburg. In Germany, only Chinese in Hamburg have encountered this kind of action.

The Gestapo arrested all the China men they could catch in St. Pauli District, with a total of 129. Many people have fled Hamburg before. The arrested China people were treated inhumanely in reform-through-labour camps. The history of Hamburg Chinatown also ended because of the "China Action". At least 17 people died in labor camps. Most of the survivors left Hamburg, and only 30 people finally returned to Hamburg.

Chinese Cemetery in the Osdorf Cemetery in Hamburg (Wikipedia)

The website of Deutsche Welle Radio 65438+February 17 also reported that Zhang Tianlin was one of the victims of Nazi purges, and Zhang Xuefang (German name: Marietta Solty, husband's surname), the daughter who took over her father's inn, is now struggling to forget.

Although she has been interviewed by many German media, Zhang Xuefang is willing to take the trouble to tell the story of her father and Hamburg Chinatown from the beginning.

Zhang Xuefang's father Zhang Tianlin came to Hamburg from Guangzhou at the invitation of his uncle in the 1920s. 1938 19-year-old Zhang Tianlin took over his uncle's inn. Zhang Xuefang's mother was a waiter from Poland, but after her daughter was born, she went to the United States with a captain. Zhang Tianlin, who took her daughter alone, met a German girlfriend.

Zhang Xuefang (Deutsche Welle)

According to this report, China people who lived with Germans like Zhang Tianlin at that time were in danger of being deported. When Zhang Xuefang was two years old, her father sent her to Heidelberg's girlfriend's sister's house, thus avoiding a catastrophe.

Most of the survivors of "Operation China" left Hamburg after the war, but a few China people, including Zhang Tianlin, chose to stay.

According to the report, the specific details of his father's experience were later learned by Zhang Xuefang from historians. Her father is reticent and unwilling to mention what happened in the labor camp.

Nowadays, when you stroll along Smoak Street and Tal Street in St. Pauli District of Hamburg, you can hardly find the shadow of Chinatown except for a memorial board at the intersection of the two streets. It's hard to imagine the restaurants and shops in China nearly a hundred years ago.

Profile picture: 20 13, the original site of Hamburg Chinatown in St. Pauli Jewelry Street, Hamburg, with only one commemorative card recording the past history. (Wikipedia)

Zhang Xuefang said with regret: "The Hamburg municipal government has already demolished those old houses. I think they have done too little to preserve and commemorate this history. Even the nearby residents are mostly young people now, and few people know this history. "

Zhang Xuefang said with a wry smile: "Fortunately, one of my granddaughters is also very interested in this history, which has become the topic of her speech at school. I am very satisfied with this. I really don't want this history to be forgotten. Especially now that the German right wing is rising, this history should not be forgotten. "

According to the report, Germans' reflection on Nazi history has always been passed down as a much-told story, but why didn't they get due commemoration and reflection on this history? Amenda believes that this may be because the persecuted China people are still a small group compared with the victimized Jews. And it was hard to find witnesses.

Amenda found some documents in the archives like looking for a needle in a haystack, but they were scattered. 1948, a British officer learned about this history. He and his research team interviewed some witnesses and left valuable information.

Amenda also said that until the early 1960s, some persecuted China people had been trying to get compensation, even some symbolic compensation, but all failed. Officials say that history was not racial persecution, but an ordinary police action. This statement is tantamount to rubbing salt in the wound for the victim.