1,000 Exhibits Open the Door of Time
On the first day of the opening to the public, the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum witnessed a large number of Chinese and foreign tourists. Photo by Qi Chuanbin
By Zhang Yanli
From over 1,000 square meters to more than 4,000 square meters, and from 150 exhibits to almost 1,000 exhibits, the Museum took nearly 3 years to completed the reconstruction and expansion project, and embraced visitors all over the world with a new look on December 8.
Telling Chinese stories in an immersive way
After expansion, the Museum has a total area of more than 4,000 square meters. Except the original site of the Moses Hall, the exhibition hall and the square of the Museum have been expanded and upgraded. The exhibition area has been expanded by 3 times, and the exhibition area has been expanded by 10 times.
Through the expansion, the new exhibition hall of the Museum not only has simple and fashionable design, but also has more abundant exhibits. The exhibition is divided into six parts: "Escape to Shanghai, Living in Refuge, Helping Each Other, Parting after the War, the Special Friendship and Sharing the Future", containing nearly 1,000 exhibits. More than a dozen recovery scenes and 161 vivid character stories tell the moving story of how the Jews escaped from the Nazi massacre, how they came to Hongkou, and how the Chinese people got along with them peacefully.
Different from the past, the whole exhibition hall of the new Museum leads visitors to learn the historical past by listening to stories in an immersive atmosphere. Visitors can watch the video materials and listen to the Jewish refugees for their experiences; they can learn how the Jewish refugees fled to Shanghai from the sea through a historical relic; they can know the living environment of Jewish refugees and their neighbors in Shanghai through a recovery scene; they can also quickly understand the historical background through a historical short film. In particular, the introduction hall of the Museum has achieved a special effect similar to the naked eye 3D through the multimedia image device, so that visitors can instantly integrate into the dignified historical atmosphere.
The wall of the list of Jewish refugees in Shanghai, which was originally located at the entrance of the Museum, has also been moved to the expanded square. At the beginning of the establishment, only 13,732 names were engraved. At present, the number of names on the list wall has increased to 18,578. An empty space is left on purpose at the end of the list wall, waiting for more names to be added through the future collection of historical materials.
The celebrities from all over the world send congratulates
In order to commemorate the history of Shanghai's acceptance and protection of Jewish refugees in 1930s and 1940s, the Museum was established in Hongkou District with the former site of Moses Hall as the core in 2007. Since its establishment, the Museum has been visited by Chinese and foreign guests from all walks of life. Politicians, celebrities, scholars, former Jewish refugees and descendants have become frequent visitors.
Mo Yan, China's first Nobel Prize winner for literature, who visited the Museum a few years ago and was deeply impressed, specially wrote a congratulatory letter. "Congratulations on the new opening of Shanghai Jewish Refugee Memorial Hall. The historical and cultural value of the Museum will be further highlighted and enhanced. The functions of learning and education will also be further strengthened."
On knowing that the Museum will open in a brand new appearance after the expansion, Jews all over the world burst into rapture. Aaron Ciechanover, the Nobel Prize winner in chemistry in 2004, Jack Rosen, President of the American Jewish Congress, Steve Orlins, President of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, Omer Yankelevich, Minister of Diaspora Affairs of Israel, and Sidney Ganis, a well-known international filmmaker and "Ambassador of Sino-Jewish Cultural Exchange" of the Museum sent congratulations to the Chinese people to expressed their deepest thanks to the governments of Shanghai and Hongkou district for their efforts to safeguard the important history.
"I can't wait to go back to Hongkou district, to visit the new Museum and to see the haven that once provided protection for Jews", Arthur Schneier, President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, is looking forward to the new Museum.
Laurence Tribe, a professor of Harvard Law School born in Shanghai in October 1941, said: "My parents were Jewish refugees who escaped the Holocaust. Because of Shanghai, the shelter, I was able to survive. I am very glad that the Museum is reopened. "
Every exhibit tell a history
Among the one thousand exhibits on display, there are not only old exhibits such as Betty's wedding dress and Joseph's toy unicycle, but also many new products on display for the first time.
In the exhibition hall of "Helping Each Other", a seemingly ordinary silver whistle is the silent witness of the isolation zone.
The peaceful life of European Jewish refugees in Shanghai was broken with the establishment of the restricted residential area for stateless refugees in 1943. At that time, for the convenience of management, the Japanese authority set up a Jewish self-governing organization, the "foreigner Baojia system", in which Jews served as "Baojia personnel" to monitor whether their compatriots left the isolation area without permission and so on. It was the whistle that was used by Jewish "Baojia personnel" at that time. Its donor, Hnnelore Es⁃quenazi, was a Jewish refugee who once lived in Shanghai.
There is a story of twists and turns on the displayed whistle. In early November 2019, a foreign lady Jo Ann came to the Museum. She pointed to a name on the list wall and said excitedly, "This is my mother! This is my mother!" After talking to her, the staff learned that her mother, Hnnelore Es⁃quenazi, was a former Jewish refugee. Jo Ann found the names of six family members on the list wall in that visit. She told the staff that her mother is now living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. If having opportunity, the staff can visit her mother. Just in late November, the Museum hosted the "Jewish Refugees in Shanghai" tour exhibition in Brazil with the Jewish Museum in Sao Paulo. Therefore, the staff of the Museum went to Hnnelore Es⁃quenazi's home in Rio de Janeiro. 86-year-old Hnnelore Es⁃quenazi told about her refuge experience and expressed her gratitude to Shanghai, which was edited to the 30-minute video by her granddaughter. Hnnelore Es⁃quenazi donated the video and her lifelong treasure whistle, entry permit to the slaughterhouse of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Industry, German passport and other items to the Museum.
In the same exhibition hall, a slightly shabby handbag is waiting for its owner to appear.
Mr. Jin, the grandfather of Ms. Jin Wenzhen, a Shanghai resident, once ran a rice shop at about No. 500, Dongchangzhi Road. At that time, many Jews living in the surrounding areas were in difficulties and often came to rice shop to borrow rice and flour. Mr. Jin always responded to every request. Sometimes he lent money without receiving a receipt. Sometimes he didn't care if they didn't return money back. On an evening in 1940, a Jewish couple borrowed money from Mr. Jin with a beautiful handbag as collateral because their child was having a high fever. They told him that once they had money, they would redeem it. Mr. Jin gave the Jewish couple the amount of money equivalent to a month's revenue of the rice shop at that time, but he never saw them again. The old man has been thinking about their safety. Later, Mr. Jin handed over the handbag that he had kept to Ms. Jin Wenzhen, and asked her to continue to save it well in the hope of finding the Jewish couple one day. Ms. Jin Wenzhen went to the Museum, handed the handbag to the staff for preservation, and tried to find the descendants of the Jewish couple through the exhibition, so as to fulfill the wishes of the three generations of Jin family.
The old houses tell stories
Compared with the modern layout of the Museum, the new Museum still remains in its original appearance. In order to protect the style and features of historical buildings and let the old houses tell stories, Hongkou has done a lot of things.
2020 is the first year of the development and construction of the North Bund, which will welcome more and more guests from home and abroad. This warm harbor that once sheltered Jewish refugees will become a part of the reception hall worldwide in the future, telling people about the special friendship and unforgettable years of across ethnic groups on this land. In recent years, the scale of the Museum has been expanding, and its international influence has been increasing. It has become an important platform for the study of Jewish refugees in Shanghai. How to protect this important context and show this unique history while promoting a new round of development in the North Bund area? So, Shanghai and Hongkou District decided to expand the Museum. Two buildings to the southwest of the Museum, where Jewish refugees once lived, were included in the scope of the expansion and reconstruction of old areas and the land expropriation, in a bid to let the old houses that witnessed the history tell truth.
Visitors can touch the button so that a device can tell a story, and a large touch screen can interact with them. After the expansion and transformation, quantities of high-tech have converged in the two old houses. A visual feast of history, technology and art is brought to visitors based on the rich historical materials and by combining artistic expression with scientific and technological support.
"The reconstruction of the new Museum in the buildings where Jewish refugees once lived shows the importance and determination that Shanghai protects historical and cultural heritage in the new era of urban construction", said an official of Hongkou District. The Hall tells the story of humanity's friendship and tolerance across ethnic groups, and preserves the light of human justice and civilization.
In addition, the memorial square has been expanded simultaneously. It not only has a larger area, but also has more perfect functions. The Atlantic Cafe, originally located in the square, has been upgraded from a semi open-air mode to a physical shop. The shop signs including "Atlantic Cafe", "Sausage Tenor" and "He'en Snack Bar" of the original history were moved into the garden of the Museum. After visiting the exhibition hall, visitors can have a cup of coffee and recall the past under the historical shop signs.