In the past during the Second World War, there are dark and brutal moments, as well as warm human light.
The famous movie "Schindler's List" is based on the true story of a respectable man who ventured to save Jewish victims, and has moved countless people for many years.
However, it was not until the mid-90s of the last century that the righteous deeds of Mr. He Fengshan, the Chinese "Schindler", gradually became known to the worldWith his sympathetic help, thousands of Jewish families were granted "life visas" and were able to escape the clutches of Nazi Germany.
It was 1938, and the European continent was in the midst of a stormy atmosphere.
Although no one could have predicted exactly when the war would come – at most, World War II, marked by Nazi Germany's blitzkrieg on Poland, would break out in a little more than a year. But for the Jews of all European countries, the deterioration of living conditions is clearly felt day by day.
The Jews of Vienna, the capital of Austria, were also in the midst of such a precarious fear.
At that time, Austria was the third largest number of Jews in Europe, and the capital Vienna was home to about 90% of the population, about 180,000 people. Among these people were Jews with businesses, industries, wealth, and social status.
But these "advantages" were of little use to Hitler, who had already taken full control of Germany and had his grip on Austria.
Since the German army entered Vienna, all kinds of **, deportation, and killing of Jews have become unscrupulous public acts on the table. The Nazi "Yellow Jackets" smashed down Jewish-owned properties and shops, and then arrested the bosses and sent them to concentration camps.
Less than a month after the German-Austrian merger, a large number of Jews were already being held in Dachau, Buchenwald and other concentration camps. The Nazi authorities declared that the Jews must leave Austria immediately.
Faced with imminent danger, the Jews of Austria could only hope to escape from Europe and go where Nazi influence could not reach.
At that time, however, it was easier said than done: to cross borders unhindered, there had to be evidence of consent, i.e. a visa from the destination country. But none of those countries with better conditions do not strictly restrict immigration.
The Jewish community, desperate to flee, was isolated and had nowhere to stay. Every day, thousands of Jews travel from one foreign consulate to another, trying to get visas to other countries, and there are often long queues in front of the consulates.
One Jewish survivor recalled after the war: Every day, every moment, all the most important thing everyone was about visas. As soon as I woke up, my mind was full of this, and after meeting and interviewing this, I worked hard to get documents, approvals and seals during the day, and even dreamed at night that I was full of scenes ...... queuing up for visas
Many Jews were eager to go to the United States, but the United States had long since declared that "immigration quotas were full" and closed the door to visa issuance;Britain was under pressure from Arab countries to strictly control the movement of Jews to British-controlled Palestine;After the conclusion of the Evian Conference in France in 1938, the 32 countries that attended the conference unanimously refused to accept Jewish immigrants.
As a result, the situation of the Jewish community is even more dilemma.
Eric Goldsdeburg, a 17-year-old Jew at the time, was among the crowd trying to get a visa. In order to obtain a document with the official seal of the consulate, he went to more than 50 foreign consulates in Vienna in a few months, but was rejected again and again, and never found anything.
In the end, the young man knocked on the door of the Chinese consulate with the hope of just in case and applied for a visa to China. At the time, he probably didn't know whether the application would be successful or not, and how important it would be to him and his family.
Just a few days later, he and his father were involved in the "Night of the Broken Glass" riots**, but because they had Chinese visas, they were released after only a few days of detention and successfully boarded a ship bound for Shanghai, China.
As soon as the news spread, a large number of Jews rushed to the Chinese consulate, hoping to apply for visas to Shanghai, just like Eric Goldstedberg's family.
At that time, the Chinese Consul General He Fengshan presided over the work of the Chinese Consulate in Vienna and advocated the issuance of visas for Jews.
He Fengshan was born in Yiyang, Hunan Province in 1901, and his family was an ordinary farming family, he lost his father when he was seven years old, and has been dependent on his mother and sister since then.
Thanks to the assistance of the local Lutheran Lutheran Lutheran Church in Norway, he was able to attend a church school, and later entered the Yale-China High School in Changsha with honors, and obtained a state-funded study abroad qualification from the University of Munich in Germany, where he received a doctorate in political economy.
In 1935, because He Fengshan mastered English and German Chinese and had the experience of studying in Europe, he became a staff member in the field of Chinese diplomacy.
During his work in Turkey, he not only fulfilled his duties, but also found time to complete a research report on the situation in Turkey, and sorted out the first collection of China's national conditions, "New China", and distributed it in Turkey, in order to promote mutual understanding between the two countries.
From 1937 onwards, He Fengshan began to work as first secretary at the Chinese Legation in Austria. However, as Germany continued to exert pressure on Austria until it was annexed, the institution was renamed the Chinese Consulate in Vienna, with He Fengshan as consul general.
Until he was transferred out in May 1940, He Fengshan served as consul general for about two years. It was because of his consistent advocacy and actions during his tenure that at least thousands of Jews were able to flee Austria, which was under the control of Nazi Germany, and also from threats to their lives.
Kilda Krauss, a survivor, once recalled that as more and more people became aware of the Gothsdeburg family's precedent, people who had been turned away from other consulates turned to the Chinese consulates, and there were long queues with no end in sight every day.
Klaus's husband was also in the queue, and one day he was in the middle of the queue when he noticed a car passing by, and the destination was supposed to be the Chinese consulate. The Jew was in a hurry and quickly threw the application in his hand through the crack in the window into the car
Luckily, he was right on this "adventure", the car was the one in which Consul General He Fengshan was riding, and Klaus's husband soon got a visa to leave Vienna and go to Shanghai.
Why is it that the Chinese consulate can issue a visa that is hard to find at the consulate of other countries?
First of all, of course, because China at that time did not participate in the "anti-Semitism" meeting and tacit understanding, although it was inconvenient to publicly offend Germany with military aid and military instructors, but at that time, *** advocated leniency towards the Jews.
He was the President of the Executive Yuan at the timeKong XiangxiHe has publicly expressed sympathy for the Jews on many occasions, and even put forward the idea of opening up Hainan Island to accommodate Jewish immigrants. There are not a few people in China who hold Kong Xiangxi's views, so the official attitude is quite open and friendly.
However, not everyone thinks so.
Chen Jie, the ambassador to Germany, was worried that "going against Germany would affect diplomatic relations" and was afraid of pressure from Nazi Germany, so he called He Fengshan more than once, asking him to tighten the restrictions on the granting of visas to Jews.
He Fengshan disagreed, reminding him that the instructions were "lenient conditions, no refusal", Chen Jie still threatened him not to offend Germany, and even made up rumors of "selling visas and bending the law for bribes" to obstruct it.
Counselor Ding Wenyuan was instructed to go to the Vienna Consulate to investigate, first to check the files, and then to check the accounts, hoping to find evidence of fraud.
He argues that this claim is a rumor: if the visa requirements for going to China are strict, or if Shanghai is similar to the United States and is a highly desirable destination for Jews, then it is logical to sell visas for profit.
But now, according to the "open policy", everyone can get a Chinese visa, who is willing to increase the price in exchange for a visa?Therefore, the so-called "** fraud" must be framed.
Although Ding Wenyuan did not find out anything, in 1939, the year after He Fengshan began to issue a large number of visas, ** still gave He Fengshan a demerit punishment.
The Nazi authorities had long regarded the "green light" given to the Jews by the consulate in Austria, and soon confiscated the building used by the consulate on the grounds that it was "Jewish property." On the other hand, China's ** side has been reluctant to allocate the cost of renting a new office address, and the visa work is about to reach an impasse.
Ho paid out of his own pocket to rent a smaller apartment at 22 John Lane nearby and continue to work.
Regarding the situation at that time, He Fengshan wrote many years later in his memoir "Forty Years of Diplomatic Career" that it was very normal to be "compassionate and willing to help others."
Moreover, after entering 1939, the situation of the Austrian Jews became more and more dire.
In that year, the secretary of the German embassy in France was shot dead by a young Jew in Paris. Hitler was so enraged that he directly imposed a grounding order on all Jews in Germany and Austria. As long as there are Jews in the family, they lose the freedom to go out and must close their homes and wait for the ** to come to investigate.
The personal safety, personal freedom, and property security of the Jews were all at stake.
It was out of a clear view of the situation that He Fengshan decided that he must do everything he could to save people by all means possible – as long as Jews came to apply for visas to Shanghai, the consulate would issue them upon request.
He has repeatedly admonished the clerks to improve efficiency and not to leave a single claimant behind;If there is no office space, it is up to the Consul General himself to figure it out.
It is precisely because of his persistence and resistance to pressure from many parties inside and outside that the visa issuance work of the Consulate in Vienna has always been smooth and efficient, bringing hope to a large number of Jews.
Among the Jewish community who have successfully applied for visas to China, they excitedly refer to the document as "the ticket to freedom."
In that tense two-year period, how many "life visas" were issued through He Fengshan's hands?
Of course, it is unlikely to leave accurate figures, and later researchers have different estimation methods and come to different conclusions. However, if we extrapolate from the visa numbers that can be corroborated by physical objects, there are at least thousands of copies.
Since the "Night of Broken Glass", the number of Jews applying for visas to travel to Shanghai has skyrocketed, with an average of more than 500 visas issued per month, and even more than 900 in January.
Although even if these people get a visa to go to Shanghai, they may not actually go to Shanghai in the end. He Fengshan himself also knew this, because Shanghai had fallen into the hands of the Japanese army at that time, and the entry visa existed in name only. A significant number of Jews actually hoped to flee Austria on visas, or to use Shanghai as a transit point and go elsewhere.
By September 1939, 70 percent of Vienna's Jews had fled. Among them, the number of Jews in Shanghai reached 180,000 people.
In 1943, when the number of refugees was counted, there were 4,000 Jews from Austria in one area in Hongkou alone. Many others passed through Shanghai and went to Palestine, Cuba, the Philippines and other places.
Israel Singh, who was the secretary general of the World Jewish Congress and the vice-chairman of the committee of the Great ** Memorial Hall in Israel, applied for a visa issued by He Fengshan and fled to Shanghai smoothly, and then transferred to Cuba.
When Singh later went to He Fengshan's tomb to pay respects, he said that if it weren't for the Chinese visa of that year, his parents and himself would probably no longer exist in this world.
Among those who received visas to come to China was Dr. Rosenthe, a left-winger from Austria. He came to Shanghai in 1939 to open a clinic, and later joined the New Fourth Army and became the Minister of Health of the Four Fields and One Column, known as the "Bethune of the New Fourth Army".
After officially retiring from Taiwan in 1973, Ho Fengshan settled in San Francisco, USA, and wrote memoirs for his own entertainment. In the 80s, Ho returned to China many times to visit relatives and sightseeing, and was invited to attend the 80th anniversary celebration of his alma mater, Yali Middle School.
He rarely took the initiative to talk about the rescue of the Jews during his time in Vienna, and even in his memoirs, he only mentioned it in a calm and calm tone.
After entering the 90s, some organizations and experts who were concerned with the study of Jewish history gradually discovered the deeds of He Fengshan from a large number of historical materials. When Ho died in San Francisco in 1997, the obituary published by his daughter Manley Ho aroused great interest from Jewish historian Eric Saul.
Until 1999, with a number of physical visas, eyewitness memories and other materials as evidence, He Fengshan's deeds were made public at the "Jews in Shanghai" event, and appeared in the "Life Visa - Righteous Diplomat" United Nations ** exhibition in the following year.
These ** were exhibited at the United Nations exhibition hall in New York, USA, and He Fengshan was one of more than 70 diplomats who were specially reported, and the only Chinese among them.
In 2001 and 2007, after a fact-finding investigation by a select committee, Israel awarded honorary titles such as "Righteous Person of International Justice" and "Honorary Citizen" to the late Ho Fengshan. The former is the highest honor bestowed by Israel on non-Jews. The United Nations also called him "China's Schindler" in 2005.
In 2015, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War, a commemorative bronze plaque of Dr. He Fengshan, a "man of international justice", was placed on the south wall of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Vienna (where the former Chinese Consulate General in Vienna was located).
The event was jointly organized by the Chinese and Israeli embassies in Austria, and the bronze medal was directly opposite the famous bronze statue of Beethoven.
The Houston Jewish Memorial Museum also presented him with the 2015 "Moral Courage Award" for his contributions to the protection of Jewish refugees during World War II.