Returning for first time

Some 33 years later, in the late 1970s, Lindenstraus returned to Shanghai for the first time with his son. Unlike the Shanghai he had seen when he was 17, there were no more rickshaws or beggars on the roads, yet people were still playing mahjong on the roadside.

When he returned to his boyhood residence, an old Chinese lady living next door came out and said, "Ah, I remember him."

Lindenstraus' son, who was a university student at that time, witnessed it all and shed tears at his father's experience.

Lindenstraus' boyhood friend Kirchner also went to the US after the war and settled in San Francisco. In their later years, the two old men visited each other and attended parties together.

Kirchner, who passed away recently, learned Chinese in San Francisco.

"That's funny; not in Shanghai," Lindenstraus said.

Lindenstraus said his stories often end with a sentence that he tells his grandchildren, "If it weren't for Shanghai, I wouldn't be here."

The Chaim family lived in Shanghai for 10 years and then lived in Israel for about three years while waiting for the paperwork to go to the US.

In Israel, young Kracko still wore a qipao — the traditional Chinese dress for women — and some of the traditional Chinese outfits from Shanghai. She played in the Israeli desert and even witnessed snow there. If not for photos, she would have no memories of it all. Kracko's earliest memories of life began in New York.

By the sea in her yard, Kracko stood beneath the setting sun, watching seabirds on the nearby island flying back and forth, and watching the tide rise and fall. In the fading sunlight, ships were sailing back into a New York port.

Kracko said she often stands there and wonders how a girl born in Shanghai ended up living here.

"I was a little girl, born in Shanghai, a place across the world. And now, I'm here," she said.