Jewish former refugee glad to be ‘home’
Print Edition
MICHAEL Blumenthal’s eyes filed with tears yesterday when he found his name on a list at the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum in Hongkou District.
“Here I am, and here are my father, mother and sister,” said the 89-year-old former United States Secretary of the Treasury.
Blumenthal, originally from Germany, was one of about 15,000 Jews who found refuge in Shanghai after fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe. He arrived in the city in 1939 and spent nine years here with his parents and sister, who is now 94.
In 1948, he left the city for the United States, where he spent the next six years studying for a degree in medicine at Princeton University.
At the age of 35, Blumenthal was appointed by President J. F. Kennedy as deputy assistant Secretary of State and became Treasury Secretary in 1977.
“The period in Shanghai taught me to work hard and overcome hardship,” he said.
Returning to his “second home,” Blumenthal walked around the museum and said “man hao” in his Shanghai dialect. The phrase translates as “pretty good.”
“The old photos bring back memories for me, of both happy and hard times,” he said.
Both the Jewish people and the locals suffered a lot during the war, so they had to work together, he said.
“Shanghai people taught us Chinese and the local dialect, while we taught them German and English,” he said.
“This is my eighth visit to Shanghai and I find more changes every time,” he said.
“Young Chinese should realize how lucky they are to live in this beautiful city,” he said.
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