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From 1933 to 1941, while many countries closed their borders to Jews trying to escape persecution in Europe, Shanghai offered shelter to around 20,000 Jewish refugees. Now, according to authorities at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, the archives of Jewish refugees living in Shanghai during this time are expected to be added to both national and international heritage lists.

“The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum’s goal is to get the archives into the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, but the application process is quite complicated. It requires approval at the municipal, national and international levels,” explained Liao Guangjun, a senior advisor at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, in an interview with thepaper.cn on Sept. 6.

According to Liao, the “Archives of Shanghai Jewish Refugees in the 1930-40s” project includes 549 individual archives, including photos, literature and historical mementos such as refugees’ boat tickets to Shanghai.

“The archives are sufficient to draw an outline of Jewish refugees’ lives in Shanghai, but we still need more in order to apply for them to be listed on the national archives heritage list. We hope to collect more documents from the government and from refugees themselves. As many of the refugees have died in recent years, some valuable material may be lost forever if we don’t take swift action,” Liao said.