During the weekend, International Holocaust Remembrance Day was celebrated and many refugees recalled how China, specifically Shanghai, embraced them during the Nazi invasion.
According to Xinhua News, a Jewish community center in San Rafael, Northern California, opened doors for the Remembrance Day. Among the attendees was Ingrid Rubens, who admitted that China helped her and other Jewish people have a better life after they fled Europe. "Our lives were saved because of them," Rubens said of the Chinese people.
Historical data state that Shanghai was the first city in the entire world to welcome Jews who were fleeing Nazi-Germany. The Shanghai Jewish Center recorded that around 20,000 Jewish refugees entered the city during World War II.
Because Shanghai was Japan-occupied at that time, some Jewish refugees were adopted by Chinese citizens. After Japanese invaders left China, refugees were then given a chance to move to other countries in the West.
Dvir Bar-Gal, who now makes a living by touring visitors in Shanghai, told The Daily Beast that the U.S. rejected asylum seekers after the country met the designated number. "There was no other city in the world during the Holocaust that ended up saving so many Jewish lives as Shanghai did, approximately 20,000," Bar-Gal said.
In other countries during World War II, there were a lot of requirements before docking at the port. Shanghai was open to everyone who wanted asylum. Unlike other cities around the world, the Chinese city did not require IDs or passports.
Bar-Gal also told the story of Feng-Shan Ho, a member of China's Vienna consulate, who issued thousands of visas to Jewish refugees who wanted to leave China because of the treatment they received from Japanese invaders.
According to Bar-Gal, Feng-Shan issued the visas against his superior's orders. A directory of Shanghai's Jewish residents in 1939 revealed that around 10 to 20 people had Vienna addresses. Thanks to the Chinese diplomat, some thousands of Jews were given a chance to return to their home city.
Most Jews who remember their escape to Shanghai noted that they were doing great and thriving in the Chinese city until the Japanese placed them in what is now infamously called the Shanghai Ghetto.
Today, the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum provides guests with artifacts and exhibits of what transpired between Chinese and Jews. Some of the photos featured in the exhibit display genuine friendship between refugees and Chinese who were locked up in the Shanghai Ghetto.
