Foreword

More than 70 years ago, Nazi's anti-semitism pervaded the entire Europe and the Jews started a new round of large-scale exiles. Those ships were just like the Noah's Ark which brought thousands of Jews to Shanghai, the only place in the world which could accommodate so many Jewish refugees.

In this catastrophe of the Jewish nation which used to have a population of 12 million, 6 million were killed. At that time, 20 thousand escaped to Shanghai. That is to say, one out of every 300 Jews was received by Shanghai and its people.

In 1933, the protest lodged by Soong Ching-ling, Lu Xun, Cai Yuanpei, Yang Xingfo and Lin Yutang to the German Consul General in Shanghai against Hitler's anti-Semitism was the earliest protest in the world. In “Ark on the Sea” , 30 stories are told, whose content varies from escaping from the monster's den, exile to Shanghai, struggle in the plight, ghetto sufferings to the victory of the war, refl ecting from various perspectives how the Jewish refugees tried to assimilate into the local community after they got familiar with it as complete strangers.

“Ark on the Sea” describes many new stories about the Jewish refugees, but even the old ones also provide new details and understandings.