SHANGHAI, China - Shanghai's Jewish community celebrated the launch Friday of a database that will document the stories of the thousands of refugees who found a safe haven in China's commercial capital during World War II.

So far the database lists the names of about 600 of the 30,000 Jews who fled to Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s to escape Nazi death camps and other horrors of the Holocaust.

The database, supported by the Israeli and Chinese governments, is housed in a museum in the city's former Ohel Moshe Synagogue.

"The independent state of Israel emerged out of the ashes of the Holocaust and we have the obligation to document and to keep the stories of the past alive for future generations," Israeli Consul General Uri Gutman told local and foreign dignitaries at the event.

Donations from Israeli companies helped finance the creation of the database, which is just beginning to take shape. Those developing it have names and some other information on some 10,000 refugees.

"We hope this database will be further supplemented by all sources from around the world," said Shen Xiaoning, a Shanghai vice mayor.

Shanghai was a major trading center long before the war and had a well-established Jewish community, making it a natural destination for many of those fleeing persecution in Europe. And while in many cases Jews were denied entrance to other countries, China was relatively open to refugees.

As the Japanese invaded and occupied many regions of China during the war, growing numbers of Jews migrated to Shanghai.

Despite its willingness to take in Jews, the thriving refugee community in Shanghai was forced into a teeming riverside ghetto in the city's Hongkou district during the Japanese occupation.

It gradually dwindled after the 1949 communist revolution, though many refugees remained for years before leaving for the West or for the then-British colony of Hong Kong.

Among the mostly European Jews who found refuge in Shanghai was Jakob Rosenfeld, an Austrian-trained doctor who was deported to Dachau concentration camp and then to Buchenwald, both in Germany. In 1939, he was released and fled to China.

The Chinese honor Rosenfeld, who died in 1952 while visiting Israel, for his later role as a field doctor for the Chinese Red Army.

Margaret Friga - a niece of Rosenfeld's from Miami, Florida, who attended Friday's celebration and a former history teacher - said the database would be an important historical accomplishment.

"Helping keep the story alive for my children and my grandchildren, that's what's important," Friga said.

As Shanghai has regained its status as an international commercial center, the growing Jewish expatriate community has won support from local officials for restoring some synagogues and preserving the Hongkou ghetto as a historic district.

After a painstaking refurbishment, Ohel Moshe opened its doors last month for its first wedding in about 60 years.

The database is part of a three-phase project that included renovating a neighborhood senior center and donating equipment to a social welfare facility.

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Israeli Consulate in Shanghai: http://shanghai.mfa.gov.il