‘Thank You Shanghai’ features Israelis expressing gratitude for the sheltering of Jewish refugees during WWII. Photo: Screenshot.

A short video released on Wednesday by the Israeli consulate in Shanghai shows Israelis thanking the city for offering Jewish refugees shelter during World War II.

In the video, titled “Thank You Shanghai,” Israelis hold up signs expressing their gratitude in Chinese, Hebrew and English. Prominent Israeli figures appearing in the clip include Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Haifa mayor Yona Yahav, Nobel laureate Robert Aumann and magician Hezi Din.

“We are eternally grateful and we will never forget, thank you,” Netanyahu says in the video, according to China News Service (CNS), the country’s second-largest state-owned news agency. “When cities across the globe closed their doors to Jews fleeing genocide, Shanghai showed hospitality.”

The clip, which was shot across Israel, was shown at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum on Wednesday and is set to be screened in other parts of the city, China’s official press agency Xinhua reported.

Arnon Perlman, Israel’s consul general in Shanghai, said his team began making the video late last year and it took four months to complete. He told CNS that the final version of the clip, which is 60 seconds long, was created from four hours of footage. The video will be sent to all other consulates in Shanghai and to embassies in China, he said.

“It is here, in Shanghai, where Jewish refugees could find shelter from the Nazi regime. It was here, in Shanghai, where Jewish refugees were received with open arms by the Chinese people,” Perlman told CNS. “It is only logical that we should express our gratitude.”

He said the video is not just a thank you to Shanghai, but a way to remember the past. He told journalists, “If you remember the past, you can look to optimism in the future.”

The video was released a day before The Algemeiner reported on the reopening of a cafe that was popular among Jewish refugees in Shanghai during World War II.