Recently, the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum welcomed another descendant of the former Jewish refugees in Shanghai. Her name is Ellen Kracauer Hartig, from New York. Her parents took refuge in Shanghai for nine years during World War II. Ellen brought a carefully prepared presentation titled "The Shanghai Adventure, Once Removed" especially for this visit.

Ellen sharing the story of her family with the Museum staff

"The Shanghai Adventure, Once Removed" records the Shanghai experiences of Ellen's family. "The day when my parents left Berlin was exactly my mother's 28th birthday. They took my elder brother and came to Shanghai by ship from Naples. In order to integrate into Shanghai, the whole family took lessons in Mandarin while Gertrude learned to speak the Shanghai dialect..." Ellen began with two documents that allowed her family to flee Europe. She talked about her mother, who was always optimistic and faced hardships with a smile, her father, who continued to make a living by opening a pharmacist laboratory, and her elder brother, who was naughty but had excellent grades.

Photo of the Kracauer family in Shanghai

Ellen said that her family moved to the United States after the war, and she was born and grew up there. She had heard the stories of her parents taking refuge in Shanghai since she was a child, but didn't really understand it. In 2019, Ellen visited the "Jewish Refugees and Shanghai" exhibition held by the Museum at the Brooklyn Library in New York. Since then, she began to deliberately collect materials related to Shanghai, shared her family's Shanghai adventure on multiple occasions, and her desire to visit Shanghai became stronger and stronger.

When Ellen saw the rich collections of the museum and the wall of names of survivors, she was so excited, "I cannot be more grateful to Shanghai." During the visit, Ellen met two visitors from Mexico. After learning about Ellen's identity, they started to chat with her for half an hour. They said that it was "unexpected".

Ellen visiting the Museum

The story of Ellen's family taking refuge

Paul Kracauer and Gertrude Kracauer were German Jews. They got married in 1933. Paul was originally a pharmacist in his own pharmacy. As anti-Semitism in Germany escalated, Paul was forced to close his pharmacy in 1936. On March 9, 1939, the couple took their son Hans and fled Berlin by train. Later, they took the Japanese cruise ship Terukuni Maru in Naples and came to Shanghai, living in the French Concession.

Before leaving Germany, Paul ordered a pharmaceutical machine and had it shipped to Shanghai, hoping to support his family by continuing his previous profession. After arriving in Shanghai, he found a business partner and jointly opened a pharmaceutical laboratory named "Ekra Pharmaceutical Works" on Rue Du Consulat (now East Jin ling Road)and Gertrude was the saleswoman. At first, the medicines were sold to doctors among European Jewish refugees. and later even to Russian Jewish doctors and Chinese Western medicine clinics.

In 1942, a new member, Ruth, was born into the family. There was also a story behind it. At that time, pregnant Gertrude went to watch the movie Gone with the Wind with Paul. Unexpectedly, before the movie ended, Gertrude suddenly felt that she was in labor, so she rushed directly from the cinema to the hospital.

In 1943, Paul had no choice but to move the pharmaceutical workshop to Ward Road (now Chang yang Road) in the designated area, and the whole family lived in the warehouse of the pharmaceutical workshop. Since it was relatively easy for children to enter and exit the designated area, Hans took on a lot of medicine delivery work.

In 1945, World War II ended. Gertrude wrote in her memoirs, "As a sign of victory, the streets were adorned with tall sugar cane stalks, artfully bundled together… our Jewish New Year fell early that year. I walked home after the service feeling at peace and optimistic that I would soon be reunited with my family in New York."

However, the Kracauer family encountered many twists and turns when reuniting with their relatives. In 1947, the family was registered in the project of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, but they didn't get the opportunity to go to the United States. In 1948, they finally got the documents to enter the United States, but they couldn't take a ship due to an American ship strike. Seeing that the coverted affidavit paper was about to expire, Paul had to turn to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and finally successfully took a plane to leave Shanghai for the United States.