The Shanghai ghetto (筳常 Sh?ngh?i g?d?u), formally known as the Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees (礚?膟螟チ﹚? W? gu?j? n?nm?n xi?nd?ng d?q?), was an area of approximately one square mile in the Hongkou District of Japanese-occupied Shanghai, to which about 20,000 Jewish refugees were relocated by the Japanese-issued Proclamation Concerning Restriction of Residence and Business of Stateless Refugees after having fled from German-occupied Europe before and during World War II. The refugees were settled in the poorest and most crowded area of the city. Local Jewish families and American Jewish charities aided them with shelter, food and clothing. The Japanese authorities increasingly stepped up restrictions, but the ghetto was not walled, and the local Chinese residents, whose living conditions were often as bad or worse, did not leave.