Ohel Moshe Synagogue

Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum

上海犹太难民纪念馆
Location within Shanghai
Established	2007
Location	62 Changyang Road, Hongkou, Shanghai, 200082
Coordinates	31°15′16″N 121°30′33″E / 31.254352°N 121.509196°E / 31.254352; 121.509196
Website	www.shanghaijews.org.cn

Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum
Traditional Chinese	上海猶太難民紀念館
Simplified Chinese	上海犹太难民纪念馆
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Shànghǎi Yóutài Nànmín Jìniànguǎn
Ohel Moshe Synagogue
Traditional Chinese	摩西會堂
Simplified Chinese	摩西会堂
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Móxī Huìtáng

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Shànghǎi Yóutài Nànmín Jìniànguǎn

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Móxī Huìtáng

The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum is a museum commemorating the Jewish refugees who lived in Shanghai during World War II after fleeing Europe to escape the Holocaust. It is located at the site of the former Ohel Moshe or Moishe Synagogue, in the Tilanqiao Historic Area of Hongkou district, Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The museum features documents, photographs, films, and personal items documenting the lives of some of the more than 20,000 Jewish residents of the Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees, better known as the Shanghai Ghetto, during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai.

The museum is situated in what was once the Jewish Quarter of Shanghai, which had had a Jewish community since the later 19th century, in Hongkou District (formerly rendered as "Hongkew").

After the 1937 Battle of Shanghai, Japan occupied the Chinese sections of Shanghai, but the foreign concessions—the Shanghai International Settlement and the Shanghai French Concession—were still under the control of the European powers.

In the 1930s, Nazi Germany encouraged the German and Austrian Jews to emigrate, but most countries closed their borders to them, Shanghai and the Dominican Republic being the only exceptions. 20,000 European Jews sought refuge in Shanghai, which did not require a visa to enter, the most of any city in the world. The Ohel Moshe Synagogue was the primary place of worship for the Jewish refugees in Shanghai.

Soon after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and declared war on the allies, Japan invaded Shanghai's foreign concessions and occupied the whole city. The war ended the flow of American funds to the impoverished Jewish refugees. The Japanese imposed restrictions on the Jews, and in 1943 officially established the Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees, better known as the Shanghai Ghetto, in Hongkou, forcing most Jews to live there. After World War II, China soon fell into a civil war, which ended in the victory of the Communist Party in 1949, and almost all the Shanghai Jews emigrated by 1956.

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