Revisiting Shanghai Jewish shelter

An old picture of Chaya Walkin Small's family with the Chinese nanny (the woman in the middle)taken when they took refuge in Shanghai. The girl on the left is Chaya Walkin Small.

The medal Small wears is from an American who is committed to the study of Jewish history.

"The silver medals are for the survivors of the Holocaust. There are only seven medals and I got one," she says.

The picture on the medal is a Chinese lady holding an umbrella for a Jewish little girl. "It symbolizes how Shanghai provided a shelter for Jews who fled here to escape persecution by the Nazis," Small says.

She sobbed when showing a photo of their family and some other Jewish families in Shanghai. "See, the woman is holding a baby and my mother was pregnant with my brother. Life was going on."

Memories in Shanghai were more than beautiful, Small says. She went to school, went shopping and played games, such as rubber band jumping, with Chinese girls.

"When I saw little children in the park today, it was like 70 years ago. Life doesn't change. Human nature doesn't change," Small says.

She remembers her address was 281 Liyang Road in Hongkou district, and it was a nice house with running water, electricity and a beautiful garden.

"My job in the US was to sell houses. When I saw the house where I live in Chicago, I said, 'That's my house. I grew up in a house like that'," she says.

She found a picture of her family with a Chinese nanny last month. "The woman in the middle with a boy sitting on her lap is Ama (mother in Shanghai dialect) and the girl standing on her right is me," says Small.