China’s little-known Role as Sanctuary for Jews

On January 27, the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest concentration camp where the mostly Jewish inmates were held prisoner and exterminated by Nazi forces during World War II.

During the Holocaust, many Jews managed to find refuge in the Chinese city of Shanghai, one of few places in the Far East that accepted them.

Chinese authorities have been eager to preserve the historical record about their experiences. In 2007, the government-run Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum was opened in Hongkou, and later expanded before it reopened in December 2020.