On this date, August 21, 1941, the Japanese government finally closed Shanghai to further Jewish immigration. Previous to this, the city had proved the exception to Zionist leader, and future first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann’s 1936 observation that, “The world seemed to be divided into two parts — those places where the Jews could not live, and those where they could not enter.” Shanghai was the only port in the world that would accept Jews fleeing persecution without an entry visa. Jewish Refugees in a Shanghai Government Office The first German Jewish refugees had arrived in Shanghai as early...