“The Wall of Names of Jewish Refugees in Shanghai during the 1930s-40s” was unveiled on September 3, 2014. It has truly recorded the history of Jewish refugees taking refuge in Shanghai during World War II.

The "prologue" of the Wall is a memorial sculpture created by the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, which is composed of the images of “six people”, a Jewish believer, an elderly Jewish woman, a middle-aged man, a child, and youngsters, respectively representing faith, suffering and love, firmness and future, brightness and hope, and the 6 million Jews who had been massacred. The upper part of the sculpture includes a flying seagull and the water of the Huangpu River, implying that the Jews from across the ocean had lived along the Huangpu River.

The first version of the Wall had recorded the names of 13732 Jewish refugees. Based on a list of more than 14000 names attached to Sonja Muehlberger's book “Exil Shanghai”, and the more than 900 names collected by the museum, all the names had been cross checked and verified by Sonja. The name list was therefore made.

Since the establishment of the Wall, the museum has collected more names of Jewish refugees. In 2020, the museum was expanded, and the names on the Wall increased to 18578. In order to add more names of the survivors, a large blank space was left at the end of the Wall.

Over the years, many former Jewish refugees and their descendants have found their own names and the names of their family members on the Wall. The Wall has become an important bridge connecting the museum and the former Jewish refugees as well as their descendants.

If you have family members or friends who had been Jewish refugees in Shanghai, but whose names have not been found on the Wall, please do contact us. E-mail address: info@shjews.com.