Feature: A Jewish Australian's life story with Shanghai

"Shanghai opened the door to us and saved my family from almost certain annihilation in Europe. I must say that I have been very fortunate in that our immediate family was able to escape from Germany before World War II and receive refuge in China," Peter Witting, an 87-year-old Jewish Australian said after sharing his life story with viewers of a documentary about Jewish refugees and Shanghai.

At Canberra Multicultural Center, the documentary, titled "Ark Shanghai," was on an open viewing to dozens of Canberrans on Monday. Peter and his sister Marion were among more than 30 interviewees appearing in the documentary shot about ten years ago.

Born in Gleiwitz in 1928, Peter experienced the height of anti- Semitism in Germany before the World War Two.

"I was the only Jew in the Realgymnasium (a middle school) and was subject to abuse and beatings, culminating in an incident when I was nearly drowned in the school swimming pool," he said.

He could still clearly recall the morning after the notorious Kristallnacht (Crystal Night), the Night of Broken Glasses on November 9 to 10, 1938, when the Nazis went on a well-organized rampage in Germany and Austria. Over a thousand synagogues and other Jewish property were destroyed as a result. A great number of Jewish men were later arrested and put in the concentration camps.

"I still vividly remember walking to school with my sister the next morning and seeing the shattered shop-fronts, people being beaten and led away, graffiti on Jewish shops and homes, such as dirty Jews, Jews perish, etc. It was a frightening experience for us kids of nine and ten which we shall never forget."

Peter's parents redoubled the efforts to get out of the country. Though the family had relatives in the United States, South Africa and Australia, it was very difficult to get a visa to those countries due to the long waiting period. So instead of waiting for the visa in Germany, the parents decided to go to some other country in the meantime. Shanghai, as a free port, became the only place one could emigrate to with a minimum of formality.

Peter arrived in Shanghai on June 4, 1939, just a few months before the outbreak of the World War Two. Settled in Hongkew, now Hongkou District in Shanghai, Peter's parents tried to find some jobs to make ends meet.

In 1943, more than one year after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese forced all stateless European refugees to move into a designated area in Hongkew.

There, Peter's and other Jewish families lived harmoniously with local Chinese, many of whom were even worse off than the Jews.

There, Peter and his sister Marion witnessed the extreme poverty in the largest city of China. Also, on an open ground near their house, they witnessed a number of executions of Chinese by the Japanese occupiers.

"While this year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Japanese should at least admit the atrocities they've committed in China during the war," Peter said.

The Wittings left Shanghai for Australia in 1947. Since then, Peter has revisited Shanghai twice, first in 1974 as an Australian government official and then in 2006. He has been impressed by the speed of Shanghai's development in recent years and by the friendliness of the Shanghai people, which to him has never changed.

According to the statistics provided by the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, more than 30,000 Jews arrived in Shanghai between 1933 and 1941 and about 500 babies were born to Jewish families in Shanghai between 1939 and 1947.

As the documentary says, "This is not the end of the story, but the starting point of the future. Not only in Shanghai, but in the entire world." Endi