The Best Worst Place

Between 1937 and 1947, twenty thousand European Jews were refused entry to the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, South Africa, Central America and Australia. Only Shanghai, the colorful and corrupt international city teeming with displaced persons from around the world, accepted them without visas. Although originally allowed anywhere in the city, they were eventually forced into a square mile ghetto, which they shared with 100,000 of the poorest Chinese. The Best Worst Place, follows Eva Broder, an adolescent girl who grows to maturity in one of the most crowded, crime-ridden ghettos.