Robert Siegel will interview Eric Kisch as he recalls his family’s experience among the 20,000 Jews of Shanghai during World War II. He will recount memories of his boyhood in Shanghai, his father’s release from an Austrian concentration camp, how his family managed to immigrate, to thrive as a business owner, and then to survive Japanese occupation and life in a Shanghai ghetto. The forum will include a brief introductory video and relevant photos and documents PowerPoint slides.  

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ABOUT ERIC KISCH

Eric was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1937, to comfortable middle class parents.  
In May 1938, Eric’s father was apprehended by the Nazis on his way home from work and sent to concentration camps.  Upon his release in February 1939, he sailed for Shanghai.  Eric and his mother followed a year later, remaining there for the duration of World War II.  In 1946, Eric and his parents left China for Australia, joining other relatives who had immigrated there before the War thus surviving it.

In 1960 he came to New York to study at Columbia University from which he received MBA and MPhil degrees.  He then taught for almost five years full time at Baruch College-CUNY, after which he pursued a career in marketing research in New York

His passion is music and he has been a life-long concert goer and collector of recordings.  In NY, he wrote articles about classical music and recordings for FM Guide and other local publications, as well as notes for concert programs and recordings.  In Cleveland, he was on the board of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society for many years.  

In January, 2004, his weekly one hour classical music program, Musical Passions, began airing on WCLV 104.9 FM and continued on the air until the end of September 2020.  His Musical Passions video podcasts for CityMusic Cleveland is continuing through the 2021/22 season. 

Apart from his musical interests, Eric is also passionately interested in the story of the Jewish Refugees in Shanghai during World War II and has researched this subject in great detail on his own and conjunction with Professor Kevin Ostoyich of Valparaiso University, Indiana, who has published many articles on this period of Holocaust studies.  His presentation about his family’s experiences in Shanghai and beyond has been refined over the years as new evidence has come to light about the period and has been given many times to groups in Cleveland, Columbus, Indiana, Connecticut, San Francisco and Melbourne.  A film of this presentation is now used to train docents at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum for any upcoming Shanghai exhibitions.