FROM HAMBURG TO SHANGHAI : Years of Adventure, Business and Peril 1902 – 1949 by Hans Otto MelchiorMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I never knew my maternal grandfather, who died when I was 4. So it was a huge pleasure to get to know him and his incredible life by (co-) translating and editing his memoir. He was born in Germany in 1902, participated as a high school volunteer in WW1, aborted at the last minute his participation in an armed overthrow of the Weimar republic, and went on to live in China starting in 1926. The book ends with his emigration from China to the USA in 1949. He had dinner with rapacious warlords, fled the Japanese rape of Nanjing, was interred in a prison camp in HongKong by the British at the outbreak of WW2, and fled the communist 'liberation' of China in 1949. All while keeping his family and financial resources mostly intact. It's a great read if anyone is interested, available on amazon...
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