From 1938 until 1941, some twenty thousand European Jews sought refuge in Shanghai, in China, where the majority were to spend as long as ten years in exile. To a considerable number of these immigrants, flight to the city was the last resort to escape the Nazi horrors sweeping across Europe.

     A fact that is little known, the life of the Jews in China has been reconstructed as from the memories of four ex-refugees - Fred Fields, Ernst Heppner, Illo Heppner, and Siegmar Simon - and from a collage of extensive material on file. Letters, reports, or texts published about the refugees and secret documents, illustrated with rare homemade films in 8mm, photographs, news items and publicity films, reconstitute this moment in contemporary history. Extraordinary material that shows a world lost, when Shanghai was the most illustrious city in the East. Images of the refugees and the remarkable vision of life in China in the forties contribute to understand and to relive this story of survival.