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Painting gift from refugees
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ALTHOUGH many Jewish refugees who sought refuge in Shanghai during the World War II remember harrowing experiences during the Japanese occupation of the city, some of their former Chinese neighbors retain warm memories of special cross-cultural relationships that developed.
One Chinese family that lived in Hongkou, where the Jews were forced to live in what was called the Shanghai Ghetto, still have an oil painting that a Jewish neighbor gave their father over 70 years ago.
Ge Zhengrong, the 81-year-old elder brother of the family, showed Shanghai Daily what he called a “family treasure.” Encased in a dark frame, it shows two sphinxes, camels and palm trees in an exotic desert scene.
“My father loved looking at the painting and entrusted it to our safekeeping when he died in 2012,” Ge said.
He said the painting came from a Belorussian Jewish family that lived nearby.
They took the painting from their wall before they left Shanghai after the war in 1948 and gave it to Ge’s father to thank him for helping the family.
Ge, who was 8 years old at the time, remembers his parents hugging the Belorussians and waving good-bye to them from the window as they walked down the street.
Another local resident, Li Huirong, said many Jewish people lived near her during the war. She recalled the loud cheers that went up that night in 1945 when the Japanese occupation of Shanghai ended.
“The Jews wanted to have their pictures taken with us,” Qu said.
“We all celebrated liberation together. That is one of my warmest childhood memories.”
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