Between 1937 and 1941, approximately 20,000 European Jews fleeing Nazi persecution arrived in Shanghai — one of the largest concentrations of Jewish refugees in the world at the time — and settled in the Hongkou district, the only place in the world that admitted them without visas. The neighbourhood they occupied, around Zhoushan Road and the surrounding lanes, has been partially preserved and is one of the most historically significant Holocaust-related sites in Asia.
The Jewish Refugees Museum at 62 Changyang Road (the former Ohel Moishe Synagogue) is the primary institution; the surrounding lanes retain some of the refugee-era architecture and café culture that made Hongkou a miniature European enclave within Shanghai. The neighbourhood walk from the museum through the surrounding lanes is essential context for understanding the full history of Jewish Shanghai.