Holocaust refugees recall sheltering in Shanghai

New life

The day the war ended — at first nobody knew Japan had surrendered — Kracko's mother only remembered waking up early that morning, and it was very quiet outside. She had never heard such a quiet street.

Then, she heard people crying in the distance. Then came the laughter. Kracko's mother opened the door to find that all the Japanese stationed at the entrance of the ghetto had evacuated in the middle of the night — the war was over, Kracko's mother realized.

The Chaim family retained almost all evidence of their life in Shanghai, including a dog license issued by the Shanghai Municipal Council. The Jewish couple had a Pekingese when they were in Shanghai.

In 1949, when the Chaim family was preparing to leave Shanghai and packing their luggage, their dog, not knowing what was happening, chased after their car as they drove away. The small dog, of course, could not catch up to the car, and the Chaim family never saw the dog again.

After the war, Lindenstrau traveled to South America and the United States. Soon after settling in New York, he founded his own company. In his later years, Lindenstrau lived in an apartment three blocks away from his son's family.

Some 33 years later, Lindenstraus returned to Shanghai for the first time, in the late 1970s, with his son. Unlike the Shanghai he had seen when he was 17, there were no more rickshaws and beggars on the roads, yet people were still playing mahjong on the roadside.

When he returned to his boyhood residence, an old Chinese lady living next door came out and said, "Ah, I remember him."