A file photo of a Jewish girl (center) who posed for a group photo with her Chinese friends in Shanghai during WWII. Photo: shanghaijews.org.cn

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expresses his thanks to Shanghai for sheltering Jewish refugees during WWII in a short video released by the Israeli Consulate in Shanghai, China, on August 27, 2015. Photo: Beijing Times

 
The Israeli consulate in Shanghai has released a short video showing Israelis thanking Shanghai people for sheltering Jewish refugees during World War II, the Beijing Times reports on Saturday. 

The video, which was shot in locations across Israel, has met the public at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum on Wednesday and will be screened worldwide. 

The video was released to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the end of WWII. 

In the 60-second-long video entitled "Thank You Shanghai", more than 100 former Jewish refugees and their offspring in Israel expressed their gratitude, saying "thank you" in Chinese, Hebrew and English.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who appeared at the end of the clip, also thanked the city for its openness and generosity in helping the Jewish refugees during WWII. 

Chinese netizens have highly praised the video, which was created from four hours of footage filmed within four months. 

Chen Jian, the director of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, says the video gives a glimpse of the strong friendship between the Jewish people and the locals in Shanghai during WWII. Thousands of Jewish refugees lived harmoniously with the city's residents after fleeing the Holocaust in Europe.

Chen also says the video shows not only the former Jewish refugees' gratitude to Shanghai, but also serves as a way to remember the past and to advocate peace. 

With the help of the Israeli consulate in Shanghai, the museum has built a database of Jewish refugees in Shanghai during WWII. It also hopes to collect the unpublished video footage shot by the Israeli consulate in Shanghai. 

Shanghai became a modern-day "Noah's Ark" from 1933 to 1941, sheltering around 30,000 Jewish refugees fleeing from the Nazis.