Holocaust refugees recall sheltering in Shanghai

Arriving with Lindenstraus were about 18,000 Jewish refugees who fled Nazi-occupied areas of Europe and settled in Shanghai from 1933 to 1941 to escape the Holocaust, as the Chinese city was among the few places that Jewish refugees were guaranteed acceptance in the early days of the war, according to the Shanghai Jewish Museum.

Lindenstraus' family did not realize it was time for them to leave until Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, happened in 1938 when the Nazis burned synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses, murdered close to 100 Jews and sent thousands of Jewish men to concentration camps.

"The next day I went to school, and the school was no longer there," Lindenstraus recalled.

However, the family had few options. In July 1938, representatives from 32 countries attended the Evian Conference in France, and none of them agreed to accept a significant number of Jewish refugees, including the US, UK and France.

Only two destinations were available to the Jewish family: Shanghai or the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa. They chose to go to Shanghai, which was an open city where no visa was required for entry.

The family of Ellen Chaim, who later in her life changed her name to Ellen Kracko, had never considered leaving Berlin before Kristallnacht, a place where her family had been living for generations.

"We are Germans, my grandfather fought for the Germans during World War I. They considered themselves good German citizens. But then Kristallnacht happened, and they realized that they could not stay there anymore," Kracko said.

In 1939, Kracko's parents joined the more than 10,000 Jewish people who sought refuge in Shanghai before and after World War II.