Theo Balden's personal journey took him from Brazil to Berlin and Weimar, back to Berlin, on to Prague and London, to an internment camp in Canada, back to London and then to Derby. In Prague Balden preferred constantly changing quarters to the straw mattresses of the Strašnice emigrant home; in England, by contrast, he had fixed addresses. When Theo Balden settled in Derby in 1941, he earned his living by creating showpieces (predominantly from plywood) for the School Museum. He moved into a small house in a suburb, the garage of which he used as a workshop for making sculptures and reliefs.

The motif of the wandering Jew is based on a Christian legend from the 13th century. According to this, a Jew denied rest to Jesus Christ on the way to his crucifixion. Thereupon, the Jew was doomed to roam the world for all eternity.

The rhythm of the lines give the Wandering Jew bas-relief a sense of movement. The limbs are very large in comparison to the head, resulting in a low-angle perspective for the viewer. Balden developed this type of vertical perspective during his time in British exile, both in his sculptures and drawings. Theo Balden exhibited the relief at the Ben Uri Art Gallery in London, as evidenced by a surviving label.

One of Balden's most renowned works is his sculpture entitled Head of a beaten Jew created in 1943.