When I wrote my piece about the difference between today’s refugees from Arab civil wars and Jews fleeing the Nazis I glibly wrote that no doors were open to Jews in the 1930’s. Like all glib generalisations there are notable exceptions and here’s one I’ll highlight. From JPost:
During World War II, over 20,000 Jews found shelter in Shanghai after fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe. At the end of the war, most left China and emigrated to Israel, the United States and elsewhere.
And the following video has just been made to say thank you to Shanghai.
The Consulate General of Israel in Shanghai released a public service video on Wednesday to thank Shanghai for helping Jews during World War II.
The short film, shot in Israel, features hundreds of Israelis holding signs saying “Thank You” in Chinese to express gratitude to Shanghai and Chinese people for shelter and their friendship during that time.
Some Israelis in the video are former refugees who grew up in Shanghai, and in the video, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also expresses thanks to Chinese people.
“The place the Jews could come to and save their lives was here in Shanghai. More than 20,000 chose to do so saving their lives and the lives of their family. They shared life here with their Chinese neighbors, the good with the bad, the happiness with the sorrow. It was a hard time for everybody, but the Jews and the Chinese lived as friends, as good neighbors. And, for that, the Jewish people will always be thankful. And, because of that, we thought it is a right way of doing it by creating a short movie called ‘Xiexie Shanghai’,” said Arnon Perlman, Israel’s Consul General in Shanghai.
Perlman said the film was supported by Jewish refugee descendants and a wide range of other people.
