Document Type
Oral History
Publication Date
2-22-1990
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, "Borenstein, Fanny and George oral history interview" (1990). Shanghai Jewish Oral History Collection. 18.
https://scarab.bates.edu/shanghai_oh/18
COinS
Scope and Content Note
George Borenstein was born in Warsaw and was a Polish soldier when the Germans invaded in 1939. He fled to Vilna in Lithuania and was able to get a transit visa through the Soviet Union from Sugihara, the Japanese Consul in Kovno, along with more than one thousand other Jewish refugees. After a brief stay in Japan, Borenstein and the others were sent to Shanghai.
Fanny Burstyn fled Vienna at age 17 with her boyfriend to Switzerland, where they were married. In late 1939 they took a French ship to Shanghai. Her husband was killed in the American bombing of Shanghai on July 17, 1945. Later she married George Borenstein and they went to France, Israel, and eventually the United States. They now live in Florida.