In the year 1842 newspapers contained an interesting headline though seemingly irrelevant to Yidden. The Opium War between China and England had come to an end. The bitter trade war had concluded and Shanghai became an international trading hub - an international city.
A hundred years later it suddenly became apparent that the story very much related to the Yidden. In the year 1940 the only city to which Jews could go to escape Hitler's gas chambers was Shanghai. Since, a hundred years prior it had received the status of an international city, it did not require a visa to enter it. It became a haven for over 50,000 Jews who would otherwise have been murdered.
In 1840 this had seemed like a story in the Far East, with no relevance to the Jewish nation. In 1940 it became clear that a century in advance Hashem had prepared a means of escape, a haven for thousands of Jews. Today many hundreds of thousands of Jews are only here because of this turn of events.
