November 11, 2005
Five former Jewish refugees who lived in Shanghai about 60 years ago have returned to the city to commemorate a unique period in World War II, the "Shanghai Daily" reports. They attended the opening ceremony of an exhibition entitled "Noah's Ark in Fire and Sword" at the Ohel Rachel Synagogue on Shaanxi Road N. The event was followed by the launch of three new books about Jews in China. "We are very grateful to the Chinese people and the people of Shanghai ... this day is very good proof of our relationship," said Michael Blumenthal, curator of the Jewish Museum in Berlin and a Jewish refugee in the city in 1939, said at the ceremony on Thursday. Blumenthal, who was the US Treasury Secretary in 1977, is among more than 30,000 Jewish refugees who fled Europe seeking a safe haven in Shanghai during World War II. Karl Bettelheim, a biological scientist in Australia; Sonja Mühlberger, a German writer; Ruth Shany, a renowned Israeli artist; and Rene Willdorff, chairman of the Jewish Refugees Reunion Committee, were also invited to attend. Ho Manli, daughter of Ho Fengshan – the Chinese consul general in Vienna who issued thousands of Chinese visas to help Jews flee between 1938 and 1940 – also attended the ceremony.
