On March 26th, 2025, the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum welcomed a "guest with a mission from afar" - Ms. Debra Barnes, the head of the Descendants' Affairs of The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) from the UK. Her mission was to return two storybooks about former Shanghai Jewish refugees to Shanghai.

The AJR was founded in 1941 by Jewish refugees from Central Europe and is a national charity in the UK representing Holocaust survivors. The association provides social welfare and care services to Jewish refugees in the UK and is one of the largest funders of Holocaust education and memorial projects in the country. One of Debra's main tasks is to record the oral stories of Holocaust survivors and compile them into personal biographies titled My Story, leaving behind precious memory carriers for the survivors and enhancing public awareness of the Holocaust history. So far, she has collected and compiled 45 storybooks, including those of two former Shanghai Jewish refugees.

As the creator of the storybooks, Debra emotionally shared the warm moments of her interaction with Kurt Wick, a former Shanghai Jewish refugee. She recalled their first meeting when Kurt went to the association to apply for a subsidy. Compared to his brother, Kurt was more talkative and voluntarily shared his experience of fleeing to Shanghai during World War II with the staff. This was the first time she and her colleagues learned that Shanghai had once taken in Jewish refugees, inspiring her to document this elderly man’s unique story.

Debra and a volunteer were responsible for recording and organizing Kurt's oral narratives. Kurt told her that at the age of one and a half, he fled to Shanghai with his parents and 4-year-old brother from Austria during the war. After the war, the family settled in London, UK. In 2019, he returned to Shanghai with his family after more than 70 years and donated over 8,000 books he had collected throughout his life to the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, showing deep affection for this land and the Museum.

During the compilation process, Debra often visited Kurt in person. "This lovely old man would often 'happen to pass by' the office and share his stories. We all liked him very much." As the association’s familiarity with Kurt grew, his story was polished into a vivid manuscript, preserving both his personal history and the warm memories of Shanghai.

At the end of her sharing, Debra emotionally read Kurt's message: "This is my story. Now I am 83 years old and living a peaceful and happy life. The decision to seek refuge in Shanghai back then saved many lives - if not, they would not exist."

In February 2024, Kurt passed away from a lung infection at the age of 86. To honor his legacy, the Museum invited Debra to visit the library filled with Kurt's books. Debra was moved to film the space to share with Kurt's widow. "If Kurt saw that his books so well preserved, he would surely be very happy too!"