December 7th, 1941.

Pearl Harbour and the outbreak of war with Japan and the concomitant loss of business.

And then came the night of the 7th December. Suddenly we woke up by great detonations. We looked out to the sky and saw gunfire and tracer bullets in the sky in the direction of the waterfront. We turned on the radio and learned the terrible news that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbour. The Japanese heavy cruiser in Shanghai harbour had moved upriver, and had fired point blank at the only British and American gunboat there. All the foreigners were terrified. For all it meant the end of their freedom, and for many it meant internment too. But above all, it meant the end of the International Settlement of Shanghai. The Japanese took over the whole city. We all were in panic. ^{(SS 210-63)}

But as far as I was concerned it meant the total and final end of my business. I had worked hard and had tried to give perfect service, and indeed had won a good reputation and recommendation, but almost all of my clients were Amer1cans and British. They now faced internment. Suddenly I had nothing to do, and nothing to earn, I tried for a while to work as a consulting engineer, because suddenly all utility works began to fail. The Japanese requisitioned all the gasoline. So all bus services came to a stop. Coal from North China would be difficult to move, so there were electricity restrictions. I earned some money, but the future looked grim. And then came something which made me happy that I had built up such a good reputation. The American and British citizens in Shanghai realized that sooner or later their cameras will be confiscated. So, they wanted to sell them as quickly as possible. But for this permission had to be granted from the Japanese authorities. They were afraid and reluctant to go there and some of them came to me. I then made applications for the I'e1ease of cameras and got them. The Japanese did not want to disrupt suddenly the economic life of Shanghai, and this economic life was mostly in the hands of the British and American businessmen. So they granted them comparative freedom, And therefore they gave me permission to buy and sell their cameras. But I had not the money to buy one single camera, I worked for a time as a commission agent, trying to peddle some of the cameras, which was a hard enough job - until I teamed up with a Mr. Baum. This Mr, Baum, and two other men, a Mr. Diamant, and another whose name I have forgotten, had made a living during the previous years by buying off cameras from the refugees. A Leica or a Contax camera represented quite a bit of money and it was the only valuable thing the Nazis would allow them to take out of Germany. So, almost everyone came along to Shanghai with one or more valuable cameras. Sooner or later they had to sell them. They could not speak English, so Baum, and Diamant and the other man bought the cameras off them. They in turn sold them to Chinese and Japanese camera fans. These two nations are very camera-minded and indeed almost crazy about cameras. Of course, a Japanese or Chinese intermediary had to be found, and these refugee traders found them, ^{(SS 210-64)}

Now Baum proposed that we go into partnership and that we would together buy off cameras from the British and American people. They knew me, and they soon found out that I offered them a better price than the Chinese and Japanese camera stores. From then on we advertised every day in the leading papers of Shanghai, and would get telephone calls for cameras to sell. It was most lucrative. We did them a great favour, as I got permission for every camera to dispose of from the Japanese. And suddenly Claire and I had no money worries any more. Indeed, we could even put some money away, which came very handy later on. ^{(SS 210-64)}

While coping with the reality of occupation, another disaster: Claire contracts typhoid fever.

And so, half of the year 1942 came and went. Meanwhile I was able to establish communication via the Red Cross with my people in Czernowitz, and was happy to see from their answers that all of them were alive. And now a new and terrible summer came along, and Claire again was the victim. One day she complained about feeling not well at all. I measured her temperature and found that she had fever. And the doctor diagnosed to our horror typhoid fever. This was an infectious disease and the doctor recommended immediate transfer into the infection hospital. However, I protested. I knew what many a doctor knows, that the severest infections take place in hospitals, and I had no faith in Chinese and even Jewish hospita1s. There was no compulsion to report such cases, so I told my doctor, that Claire will stay at home, and I shall be her nurse. And it happened like this. Only then did I realize what a terrific job it is to tend to a very sick person. You have to be up and work almost all 24 hours. The doctor came regularly, and was quite satisfied with the course of the disease. Meanwhile, nobody was let into our rooms, and Mr. Baum handled all the business, which was a relief. Then after more than 6 weeks the doctor pronounced Claire out of danger. Of course, she was terribly weak, and there was no spot where I could bring her for convalescence, So, it had to be in our two Small rooms on the first floor of 465 Bubbling Well Road. Fortunately, this road has nice trees planted alongside, so whenever Claire looked out of the window, she saw at least a bit of greenery. How good my resolution not to take Claire into the hospital was we saw later on when the wife of one refugee, also a Christian girl from Vienna, got the disease too. Her husband brought her into the infection hospital, and there she died to all our sorrow. She was a wonderful woman and we loved her very much. And others died too. ^{(SS 210-64)}