Editor's Note: During the World War II, more than 30,000 Jews, under attack by the Nazis in Europe, fled to Shanghai, China and 16,000 of them took refugee in this city. Meanwhile, the local Shanghai people were also in an abyss of pain inflicted by the Japanese invasion.  Though the time was difficult, gratitude and mutual friendship lived on in the heart of the Jewish and Chinese people. The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum and Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) launched a initiative early this year to present those touching stories in Chinese, English, German and Hebrew. This is one of the selected stories in the project to commemorate the history of Jews in Shanghai.

hanks to the unremitting efforts of the curator, staff and volunteers, Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum was open in 2007. For eight years before it was officially open, numerous people were involved in connecting with Jewish organizations and Jewish museums worldwide, interviewing former Shanghai Jews across the world, and collecting exhibits, including photos and original physical objects. On that basis, exhibitions have travelled to various parts of the world, which have also created opportunities to collect new stories.

On May 1, 2011, the exhibition entitled Jewish Refugees and Shanghai, co-sponsored by Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Media of Hamburg, was open at Museum of Hamburg History. Over 400 people from the government, the press and cultural and education communities attended a very special ceremony: they saw a toy bamboo rickshaw tempered by the passage of time placed in the hall as an exhibit.

The rickshaw is a treasure. Curator Chen Jian would get excited whenever he remembers how it came to Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. It had belonged to Josef Rossbach who was born in Hongkou in 1944. Josef had a similar experience with many other Jews in Hamburg, His parents and grandparents had been refugees in Shanghai. They fled to Shanghai in 1939. Josef Rossbach is now living in Hamburg-mitte, a sister district of Hongkou District of Shanghai. When he was interviewed by Hamburger Abendblatt in October 2007, a newspaper covering the establishment of the sister-district relationship, Josef showed his bamboo rickshaw toy which he said he played when he was in Hongkou. He said that this rickshaw represented a sweet memory of the childhood days he spent with his Shanghai neighbor. Josef said that it had been one of his recurring dreams to go back to Shanghai to see whether there were still rickshaws in the city. “Rickshaw toy and Hongkou – all this is part of my life. During those years, the Chinese gave us a lot of help. But for the Chinese people, we might have been killed.”

In 2010, Josef donated his toy rickshaw to Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum to tell the stories behind it. It was the first physical object the museum has obtained and has become a star exhibit and attracted much attention during the exhibition. Curator Chen treasured the toy so much that he made a special box for the toy. And the donator, Josef, came to the exhibition and told the story of his childhood in Shanghai.

It was the right exhibit that Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum and the exhibition needed. But the Museum has taken great pains to collect more exhibits that reflect the actual living conditions of the Jewish refugees in Shanghai. As Curator Chen put it, “A museum must have a good store of original physical exhibits, or otherwise visitors won’t be convinced that the stories are real. It is a very urgent as the former refugees in Shanghai are old and gradually passing away from us.” So Curator Chen urged the staff and volunteers to reach out to more witnesses, collect evidences and listen to real personal stories. The touring exhibition is a great opportunity to do so.

Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum was open in November 2007. Then, Mr. Wang Faliang, an 80-year-old witness of the history, volunteered to be a guide. Curator Chen wanted to record his narrations, so he must hire a cameraman and buy a good camcorder. The problem was money, but when the problem was finally solved in May 2008 they were told that Mr. Wang Faliang had died just a few days ago.

This was a stink for Curator Chen. He then came to realize that the Museum must try to get ahead of time. That’s why he urged every staff member and volunteer to recognize very possible witness from the visitors, especially foreign visitors, and follow up closely then.

One day in 2009, an old woman visited the Museum, holding a sandalwood fan. Curator Chen was sure at first sight that it was a great legacy of that history. So he came up to her and asked her, “Could you kindly give us your fan? We have only photos here.” The old woman’s answer was negative and yet emotional: “I’ve donated almost everything I have to Jewish museums all over the world. This fan is part of my life. I must keep it to myself.” Curator Chen could understand the meaning of being part of her life.

Gradually, Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum built up connections with Jewish organizations, Jewish museums and former Jewish refugees (Shanghai Jews), and secured a great number of photos, original objects and personal accounts. They would be excited to discover new exhibits. They believed every piece of new exhibit was part of the owner’s life.

Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum has brought the Jewish Refugees and Shanghai Exhibition to regions related to that particular history: Israel in 2012, the USA (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington D. C.) and Hungary in 2013 and 2014, and Australia in 2015. It is lucky for the Museum that the local people had come to the staff of Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum and offered their exhibits and told their stories. Of course, the staff also reach out to as many former Shanghai Jews as possible. For instance, in Chicago, the museum’s staff managed to attend the gathering of a local Jewish family and called for contributions there. In Sydney, an old man who was then 92 years old would only lend the museum a pass badge issued by the Japanese administrator, but refuse to lend us his diary. Curator Chen believed he could not afford to miss the opportunity, so he asked the local volunteers to visit the old man from time to time.

It is a historical mission to collect any possible evidence of history, after all.