Former Israeli Prime Minister Sharon once commented on a certain Chinese: Not a hero, not an angel, he is "God".
Who is this Chinese? And what did he do to make former Israeli Prime Minister Sharon give such a high evaluation?
This Chinese who was highly praised by the former Israeli prime minister is He Fengshan.
He Fengshan is a native of Yiyang, Hunan, born in 1901, intelligent since childhood, with his own efforts, in 1926 was admitted to the University of Munich in Germany government-funded international students, in 1932 received a doctorate in political economy.
At that time, it was already very good to be able to read and write, not to mention that He Fengshan also obtained a doctorate degree in political economy, which was simply a talent among talents, and was reused after graduation, first serving as a national ** some civilian work, and then turned to work in the diplomatic field in 1935.
In 1937, He Fengshan was appointed First Secretary of the Chinese Legation in Austria and was appointed Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Vienna in May 1938.
As early as March 1938, Germany annexed Austria. Later, the Nazis unleashed an anti-Semitic frenzy in Austria, destroying a large number of Jewish shops and sending a large number of Jews to death in concentration camps**.
Although the Jews were rich, they had no power, let alone an independent state to back them up, so they had to find a way to escape from the clutches of the Nazis.
At that time, Austria was the third largest Jewish district in Europe, with about 1850,000 Jews, all of whom wanted to flee Austria, but visas to go abroad were difficult to obtain, on the one hand, no country was willing to accept Jews, and on the other hand, many countries did not want to offend Germany, so they were very strict about issuing visas to Jews.
On July 13, 1938, an international conference on the Jewish refugee question was held in Evian, France, at which the 32 countries involved stressed the difficulties and the inability to help the Jews.
Against this backdrop, the Chinese Consul General in Austria, He Fengshan, stood up and extended a helping hand to the desperate Austrian Jews by issuing visas to Shanghai, China.
After the news spread, a large number of Jews lined up in front of the Chinese Consulate General in Austria every day.
After obtaining their visas, they either went to Shanghai to settle down, or they passed through Shanghai and diverted to the United States, Canada, Australia and other places.
When the Nazis learned of the news, they were furious and confiscated the house under the pretext that the house of the Chinese Consulate General was the property of the Jews. But this did not scare He Fengshan, he chose to pay out of his own pocket, moved the consulate to a small house, and continued to handle the business of issuing visas to Jews.
At that time, the relationship between the people and Germany was okay, they would buy Germany's, and they cooperated with Germany in many ways, so they did not want He Fengshan's behavior to damage Sino-German relations and put pressure on him.
His immediate boss, Ambassador Chen Jie to Germany, heard that He Fengshan was paying for a visa, so he sent people to Vienna to raid and investigate, but because no evidence could be found, he finally failed.
In May 1940, He Fengshan was transferred out of Vienna.
From May 1937 to May 1940, there is no accurate data on how many visas He Fengshan issued to Jews, but there must have been several thousands, which is recognized by historiography and saved at least thousands of Jewish families.
On September 28, 1997, He Fengshan died in the United States at the age of 96.
It was not until after his death that his daughter published an obituary in the Boston Globe, mentioning that her father had issued visas to Jews, which immediately aroused the curiosity of the American Jewish historian Saul, and he personally went to investigate this period of history, only to uncover that dusty history and win the world's attention.
Subsequently, Israel awarded He Fengshan the title of "International Righteous Person", and He Fengshan's name was engraved into the "International Garden of Justice" in the Jewish Memorial.
Not only that, former Israeli Prime Minister Sharon once commented: He Fengshan is not a hero or an angel, he is God.