Opinion | How Shanghai opened its doors to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution
Nazi stormAmong thousands of Jews who fled to the city was a teen who later became a US Treasury secretary
Michael Blumenthal was 13 when his family fled Berlin and the Nazis in 1939, boarding the Japanese passenger liner Haruna Maru to sail to Shanghai - the only city that would admit Jews without visas.
Several prominent Jewish families were already settled in the city, and when the Blumenthals arrived a month later, the Jewish community already numbered in the thousands. Nine years later, the family left for the United States, where they settled as refugees. Blumenthal would go on to become Treasury secretary in the administration of Jimmy Carter. But he always remembers how hard life was as a teenager in Shanghai, and how the city changed when the Japanese took control of the foreign enclaves in 1941.
When he was young, he would visit a small cafe near his home. "It was called Wiener Stube, which means Vienna's small room in German. There were seven chairs and I often sat there for three hours in the afternoon," Blumenthal, now 89, said during a visit to the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum recently .
"Most of the time there was war and life was very hard. Shanghai people suffered a lot and we [refugees] were suffering too," Blumenthal said. "But in the end, we and local people lived peacefully as friends and that is a good memory for me."
The museum is among the most significant Jewish historical structures still standing in the city. It comprises three parts - the former site of the Ohel Moshe Synagogue, which dates to the early 20th century, and two exhibition halls, displaying photos, short films and other items representing refugees' life. The museum changed hands several times after the war, and was reopened in 2007 after the Hongkou district government allocated funds to renovate the synagogue in line with its original design.
In his memoir, Blumenthal wrote that Jewish émigrés expected life in Shanghai to be challenging but they had few other options. His parents tried to earn what little money they could trading petty items. "Shanghai was the only place where we could seek refuge," Blumenthal said at the museum. "Actually many who didn't escape [from Europe] were killed."