So Jack had reached USA with his family via Ellis Island.

My mother told me that her uncle, who was Jack's brother, had made it to the US via the Far East.

My cousin, Jack's son, still lives in California and is in contact with us in the UK, particularly my mother. Recently he made a chance remark to her. He had read a book that had mentioned a person in Shanghai who could have been this uncle's first wife .

With the power of the internet, I followed up on this mention and discovered that they were both involved with the International Committee for European Immigrants in Shanghai.

The International Committee for European Immigrants in China was a refugee assistance organization in Shanghai that was founded on August 7, 1938 to deal with the wave of Jewish refugees arriving in Shanghai from Nazi Germany. Established under the aegis of Sir Victor Sassoon, a wealthy Iraqi Jew with British citizenship, the committee was organized by Hungarian businessman Paul Komor, together with Eduard Kann, Aladair Kelen and Michael Speelman. The International Committee was referred to as the I.C. or Komor Committee, after its first secretary. I.C. headquarters were first located at Komor's firm, but was soon moved to the Hotel Cathay owned by Sir Victor Sassoon. Initially, the I.C. provided housing, meals, jobs and financial assistance for the Jewish refugees in Shanghai. Later, after the establishment of the Committee for the Assistance of European Refugees in Shanghai under the direction of Michael Speelman (the Speelman Committee), the I.C. focused its efforts on providing international identification cards to the Jewish refugees whose passports had been confiscated or invalidated. These documents, which bore the I.C. stamp and Komor's signature, gave the refugees "legal" status in Shanghai, and were used in lieu of regular passports for those applying to emigrate.

Photographs of the Committee staff were given to Paul Komor in 1941 and have since been made available to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Valerie S. Komor.

Max, full name Maximillian, left Shanghai on 17 June 1947 aboard SS General MC Meigs arriving at the port of San Francisco on 3 July. I know that my great uncle had a second wife, but I have not yet managed to establish what happened to his first wife. She did not accompany him on the ship from Shanghai to San Francisco.