THE address 20 Fenyang Lu is where the Shanghai Conservatory of Music is located today. When walking into its campus, visitors will first notice a Western-style building with a huge semi-circular French window.

This was a club built by Russian Jews in the 1920s mainly for musical performances.

In the late-1930s, when Nazi persecution forced thousands of Jewish refugees to flee to Shanghai, the club, which was previously filled with laughter and the sound of music, became a place for refugees to get together.

Soon after the Pacific war broke out in 1941, Japanese troops entered the foreign concessions in Shanghai and occupied the Jewish Club.

In 1943, the Japanese set up a restricted area in the Hongkou district and all "stateless persons" in Shanghai were compelled to move to it and were given one month to obey the order. In fact, the term stateless persons meant only the Jewish refugees who had been fleeing Nazi-conquered countries since 1937.

On the evening of February 23, 1037, hundreds of influential Jews were called together in the Jewish Club to hear some bad news.

The Japanese official in charge of the implementation of the new restricted area said that its establishment was not out of anti-Jewish sentiment. It was because the housing and food supply in Shanghai was in such a state that the Japanese had to take centralized control of all stateless persons.

It sounded like the Jews would be protected if they lived in the restricted area.

After these words, he sent an ultimatum to the Jews: co-operate with Japan or be "managed" by Japan. In either case, the Japanese were determined to have their plan obeyed.

The whole club was deadly silent as the Jews heard this order. They had nowhere to go in the world or China now.

As well as this ultimatum, they already knew that Rudolf Miethig, of the evil Gestapo, had arrived to Shanghai and planned to enlist the aid of the Japanese to "deal" with the Jews of Shanghai.

It was said that the plan was for the Jews to be driven on board ships and that once out to sea, all the ships would be scuttled! Thinking about this deadly scenario, the Jews kept silent just like a cicada in the cold of winter.