Books Kept by the Lin Daozhi’s Family-Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum

There are more than 1600 books in this batch, mainly about children's education. The title pages of most books are stamped with “Paul School · Shanghai Hebrew Project · Shanghai” or “China Inland Mission · Girls School”. These books were entrusted by Carl, a Jewish refugee, to Lin Daozhi during World War II.

Lin Daozhi was the headmaster of a missionary school in Hongkou. Born to a poor family, Lin Daozhi was a kind and generous man. In 1943, a Jew called Carl entrusted this batch of books to Mr. Lin, saying that he would come back to collect these book. In 1947, Lin Daozhi received a letter from Carl, and after that, they lost contact with each other. Lin Daozhi kept his promise to take care of these books carefully no matter how bad the environment was until his death in 1981. Since then, his children have taken over his job of keeping the books.

In October 2013, the old house of the Lins was about to be demolished, so the family tried to find the owner of the books through the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. After many efforts, the museum got to know that Carl had died without offspring. Therefore, the Lins decided to give all the books to the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum.