SHANGHAI, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- An exhibition on three late Jewish refugees, who came to China to evade the Nazis during World War II, opened to visitors at the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum starting Thursday.

(File Photo: VCG)

The exhibition includes documents, photos, material objects and videos related to Jacob Rosenfeld, Hans Miller and Richard Frey, who joined the Chinese Communist army as medical workers in the anti-Japanese war and later witnessed the birth of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.

The exhibition, "Three of Them and New China," was created to pay tribute and express gratitude to friends of Chinese people, who had made great contributions to the liberation of the Chinese people, said Wu Qiang, head of the publicity department in Hongkou District, where the refugee museum is located.

Frey's wife Jiang Guozhen said at the opening ceremony that her husband had maintained his affection for China until he passed away in 2004.

Miller's family donated some family collections, including letters between Miller and Soong Ching Ling, former honorary president of China and the wife of Chinese revolutionary Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

Tens of thousands of Jewish refugees came to Shanghai from Europe during WWII and mostly settled in an area in the northern part of the Suzhou River. They escaped Nazi atrocities and established deep friendship with the Chinese people.

Some Jewish refugees in Shanghai later joined the Chinese Communist army and among them were Austrian doctors Rosenfeld and Frey.

German doctor Miller, however, went directly to Yan'an in northwest China, then a revolutionary base of the Communist Party of China. He joined the Chinese Communist army there and continued to dedicate himself to the public health cause after the PRC's founding in 1949.