介绍:
Reporter:
"Well, Shanghai to me means survival. There were two kinds of survivors during the holocaust. There were survivors, there were lucky survivors. We in Shanghai were the lucky survivors."
This is Evelyn Pike Rubin, one of the thousands Jews that survived the holocaust by fleeing the Nazis' advance through Europe for Shanghai back in the 1940s.
"My mother was one of seven. One of her sisters had gone to what was then Palestine and survived; one brother had gone to England; all the others were all murdered by the Germans together with their husbands and children. The extended family we lost close to 80 people."
The 84-year-old was only eight when she fled to Shanghai with her family in 1939. Rubin is among the 20-thousand Jews that lived in Shanghai during the Second World War. At the time, Shanghai was one of the few options where Jews could find refuge from the holocaust. The city embraced the thousands refugees without requiring an entry visa.
Pointing at her teen class photo on the exhibition board, Rubin remembers well her eight years living in the oriental city.
"We lived in the French Concession. I went to the Shanghai Jewish School, where I learned to speak English. The Nazis came in 1942 and told the Japanese they wanted them to do away with us and that's when they put us into the ghetto and things got bad, but at least they didn't kill us. And we lived more closer with the Chinese people. I really got to know the Chinese people a little better. We never had a problem with them. They were very kind and very nice and very helpful."
Rubin's story is one of the hundreds of stories being displayed at the exhibition, "Jewish Refugees and Shanghai," which opened to the public on June 25th at the Washington Convention Center of the U.S. The event is co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, or AJC, and the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum.
Chen Jian, the curator of the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum, says the exhibition was well received when it toured the states last year, hitting Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. This year, the AJC invited the exhibition back to visit more American cities, including the nation's capital. The curator says it is a good time to tell the story again and reflect on the history as we approach the 70th anniversary of the victory of World War Two.
"The exhibition tells the story of the Jewish refugees coming to Shanghai and how Chinese people helped them through their hardest time in life. And through the stories, we pass our cultural concepts to the Americans; that we Chinese are always willing to help when needed. The freedom of the Jewish refugees is the fruits of the victory of the World War against fascism, as well as the victory of the Chinese people's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Therefore, it is of significant importance to tell the story again here; to reflect the history, and avoid repeating the tragedy."
Divided into six parts covering fleeing to Shanghai to the refugees' lives and the special hard days in the Hongkou Ghetto, the exhibition is comprised of many photos and documents from back then that revive the old days in "Little Vienna", Shanghai's Jewish Quarter.
There, you can find the visas for life that Dr. Ho Fengshan issued for thousands of Jews, the ferry tickets taking them away from danger, and you can also learn about many touching stories between the suffering refugees and the local Chinese who were, at the time, also in a tragically dire situation.
Several US congressmen and congresswomen, including Mike Honda and Judy Chu, are among the first to visit the exhibition.
Allan Reich is a member of the AJC Board of Governors and one of the people that made the event taking place in Washington, D.C. possible.
"In remembering the past, we also look to the future, to strengthen the positive relations between China and the United States, between China and Israel, and between the Jewish and Chinese communities globally and within our countries."
Chinese ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, is also at the opening ceremony and speaks with the Jewish survivors, while examining the exhibition closely.
Lu Kang, deputy chief of mission at the Chinese Embassy in D.C., stresses the significance for the exhibit to come to the U.S. capital.
"Behind each photo, there is a touching story. We are glad to see that neither the Chinese nor the Jewish people have let this part of history fade out and that our friendship has emerged stronger after our shared adversity."
The shared experience is not only being remembered, but also leads to further and deeper bonds between the two peoples.
According to the curator of the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum, Chen Jian, that's one of the reasons why there are about two-thousand Jewish businessmen in Shanghai today.
"Decades have passed, but they never forget the history. Over the period of China's opening up and reform, many Jewish businessmen invested in Shanghai and cooperated with us, which is another way to show their gratitude to the past history."
Just as the curator says, the story does continue.
For Evelyn Pike Rubin, who now lives in Long Island, New York, she just got an email from her childhood neighbor in Shanghai. The lady recognized her when Rubin returned to the community with three of her children in 2006 for the reunion of Jews once living in the Shanghai Ghetto. After many years, the Shanghai native finally got in touch with her Jewish friend.
The "Jewish Refugees and Shanghai" exhibit will be open to the public through the week until June 29 in Washington, D.C. It will later travel to Houston, Texas.
For Studio plus, I'm He Fei from Washington, D.C.
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