Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum

The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum is a municipal museum in the Hongkou district of Shanghai documenting the Jews who found refuge in the city before and during World War II. The museum opened in 2007 and focuses on the community of roughly 20,000 refugees who arrived in Shanghai in the 1930s and early 1940s.

The complex includes preserved prewar Jewish community buildings and exhibition halls displaying documents, photographs, personal effects and oral histories that trace refugee arrivals, daily life, communal institutions and departure. Exhibits include immigration records, family papers and photographic displays that explain how the community lived in the Hongkou area.

The museum was created on the site of the wartime Jewish quarter and incorporates surviving community structures to preserve material evidence of the refugee period. Collections were assembled from municipal archives, donations and international loans to document the European Jewish presence in Shanghai between the 1930s and 1940s.

Located in Shanghai’s Hongkou district, the museum sits within the area where the wartime refugee community lived and is accessible from central Shanghai by public transport and taxi.

• Refugee community: Around 20,000 Jewish refugees from Europe lived in Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s, and the museum holds passports, visas, photographs and personal belongings documenting that community.
• Site and opening: The museum occupies original prewar Jewish community buildings in the Hongkou district and opened as a municipal museum in 2007.

What to See #

• Ohel Moshe Synagogue: A prewar synagogue building incorporated into the museum complex and preserved as part of the site's material history; the space is used for exhibitions and interpretation of community life.
• Exhibition halls: Several permanent exhibition halls presenting documents, photographs, personal items and oral histories that trace arrival, daily life and community institutions of Jewish refugees in Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s.