Ben Wood   Wood & Zapata
In 2003 workers clearing Underbrush and organic sediment in Peace Park discovered a memorial stone monument to Mary Pomery (1842-1915).The monument is engraved on three sides with the names of several of Mary’s descendants including her granddaughter Maude who died at age 26.A few yards away form Mary’s Memorial is a second stone entablature with inscription “erected by her loving sons”. Nothing more is known about this family or how this monument ended up in the Park..
Mary’s religious faith and Country of origin is unknown. We can only assume that her daughter and granddaughters and grandsons were part of shanghai’s “stateless refugee”community.Many were European and Russian Jews who came to escape the Holocaust.Others were pre-war foreign residents simply unable or unwilling to leave Shanghai after the Japanese invasion. Unlike Mary,these many thousands will forever remain nameless,lost in translation.As the only known memorial to a stateless refugee family remaining “in situ”Mary’s monument will bring dignity to all those thousands.
The effort to recover any more gravestone of Shanghai’s Jews is unnecessary. Separted
From the remains of their dead, these stones deserve quietrpose.Leave them to rest in peace.
Only then can we bury the dark hubris of man’s inhumanity to man and live as one.

Ben Wood Wood & Zapata
Benjamin Wood,AlA, feceived his Masters in Architecture from MIT in 1984.In 1997he and Carlos Zapata founded Wood and Zapata Architects.The firm’s first commission in China was Xintiandi, a culturl entertainment district in Shanghai. The project received a 2003 Award of Excellence from the Urban Land institute.Wood and Zapata is a 50 person firm with offices in Boston, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

 
Many thanks to the family of the late Mr Alfred Harris of Wimbledon, England.
Home | Contact Us | Copyright 2006 Shanghai Jewish memorial