A 71-year-old Jewish woman returned to Shanghai on April 14 to visit her former residence, where she lived for 10 years, and to retrieve her missing passport.

In 1999, a Shanghai resident named Zhu Peiyi found several Jewish passports in the antiques market. After research, assisted by the old Ohel Moishe Synagogue (now a memorial to Jewish refugees), Zhu located the owner of one of the passports, Ms Brender, in Sydney.

She fled Europe when she was only four and lived in a house in the Hongkou District from 1939 to 1949. "I never felt any annoyance living with Shanghainese. When I used to play with the local children they would touch my hair curiously," she smiled. "I was shocked when they told me my passport had been found. So I decided to travel to Shanghai to pick it up myself."

Between 1937 and 1941, Shanghai received more than

30,000 Jewish refugees fleeing fascism in Europe. (Star News)