Document Type
Oral History
Publication Date
5-28-1995
Abstract
Copyright Steve Hochstadt. This transcript is provided for individual Research Purposes Only; for all other uses, including publication, reproduction and quotation beyond fair use, permission must be obtained in writing from: Steve Hochstadt, c/o The Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, Bates College, 70 Campus Avenue, Lewiston, Maine 04240-6018.
Recommended Citation
Hochstadt, Steve; Kahn, Michele; and Lixl, Christine, "Zunterstein, Alfred and Eva oral history interview" (1995). Shanghai Jewish Oral History Collection. 17.
https://scarab.bates.edu/shanghai_oh/17
COinS
Scope and Content Note
Alfred Zunterstein was born July 25, 1922, in Vienna. There he joined the Hakoah Sport Club and the Betar. He left Austria in October 1938 with his uncle and cousin. His father Josef was arrested on Kristallnacht, and soon he and Zunterstein’s mother Stella and sister Hildegard followed to Shanghai. The family started a uniform factory in Shanghai, and lived at 802 Tongshan Lu. Zunterstein served in the Jewish regiment of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps and was a youth member of the Pao Chia. He was a champion boxer.
Zunterstein met Eva Mannheim at the Jewish Community Center in Hongkou, where they were married in November 1947. She was born in 1929, and had come to Shanghai with her German parents, Werner and Hilde, from Italy, and attended the Kadoorie School, and then the Gregg School of Business. After the war she worked for the Joint Distribution Committee and he worked for the U.S. Air Force as an aircraft mechanic. They left Shanghai in 1949, and lived in Wyoming for 7 years, before moving to the Seattle area, where he worked for Boeing. Later he began a career as a creator of metal sculptures. He died on June 11, 2005.