New York City, Nov. 11, 2015, — On November 16, the Premiere of TV documentary Survival in Shanghai will be held in Park East Synagogue in New York. This event is also part of the Exhibition on Jewish Refugees and Shanghai Global Tour.
The documentary Survival in Shanghai recalls an important history. During the Second World War, about six millions of Jewish people were persecuted and killed. Over 25,000 Jews managed to Shanghai, some of whom became the only one who survived in their extended family. This part of history shouldn’t be forgotten and many stories about Jews’ survival in Shanghai are still unknown to the public. Many of these Jews have passed away and those who are still alive are all in their 70s, 80s and 90s. To document this episode of history has become a race against time.
Over the past eight months, SMG TV News Center has been working on this documentary Survival in Shanghai and sent TV crews to Germany, Austria, Israel and the United States, interviewed around 40 Shanghai Jewish survivors. This is the largest scale of finding and interviewing Shanghai Jewish refugees in Chinese TV history.
Survival in Shanghai consists of three 30-minute episodes which also record the Jewish Refugees’ current live. Most of them have a big family now and feel grateful to Shanghai. Just as one interviewee says, “I’m the only child, the only one person survived. I created all these people.”
Besides interviewing the Shanghai Jewish survivors, SMG TV crews also filmed WWII Memorial Museums and Jewish Museums in various cities and talked to WWII and Holocaust experts. Many valuable materials and documents emerged during this process and become open to the public for the first time in our documentary.
The exhibition on Jewish Refugees and Shanghai global tour also uses a large amount of historic pictures to show the Jewish refugees’ life in Shanghai. It consists of six parts: fleeing in Shanghai, refugee life in Shanghai, the Hongkou Ghetto, affectionate neighborhood, leaving Shanghai and unforgettable history, recording Shanghai Jewish refugees’ experiences from different angles.
The TV documentary and exhibition tell the stories of people of different race and different religions who lived together in Shanghai during the WWII. Recalling these history is not only to remember yesterday but also to embrace a better tomorrow. On the documentary premiere, Jiongming Song, Managing Director of News of Shanghai Media Group says, “Their peaceful life nowadays makes us feel how important an open city and a diversified civilization is.”