A passport lost around the time of World War II and found a few
years ago in Shanghai is finally being returned to a 71-year-old
woman who now lives in Australia. The search for the owner of a
second passport is still being sought.
The owner of the document has been identified as Gerti
Waszkoutzer, a girl born on December 9, 1934, in Vienna,
Austria.
She may have been among the 30,000 European Jews who found asylum
from the Nazi Holocaust in Shanghai during the 1940s. But
confirmation will have to wait until her son comes to town in April
to pick up the passport.
The document was bought at a flea market near Yuyuan Garden six
years ago by a local collector, Zhu Peiyi. Zhu stumbled across
Waszkoutzer's passport along with a similar document.
Zhu decided to track down their owners in December last year when
he heard the city was planning to build a Jewish cultural heritage
site along the northern Bund and that many Jewish people were
returning to the city to remember their past.
He first approached the Xinmin Evening News on December
7, which reported his quest, then contacted the Shanghai Jewish
Refugees Memorial for help. They posted the documents on the
internet, prompting a quick response from Waszkoutzer's son, who
mailed his mother's childhood picture as confirmation of her
identity two weeks ago.
Qin Siquan, who works for the memorial group, said the son sent
an email explaining that his mother married in Australia in 1954
and has remained there ever since.
The owner of the second passport was Manfred Lichtenstein, born
on August 24, 1932, in Halle, Germany. No one has claimed ownership
so far.
Both of the passports were marked as belonging to Jewish people,
and contain confirmation of restrictions on how much money they
were allowed to change into foreign currency. On leaving Germany,
they had to leave most of their possessions behind.
(Shanghai Daily February 4, 2005)
