China's little-known hero saved hundreds of Jews
- Source: Global Times
- [22:06 June 14 2009]
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By Dror Poleg
The 20th century was one of the bloodiest periods in human history. In China, these times of hardship produced a variety of national heroes and villains. Recently, I had the privilege of meeting the daughter of one of China's heroes, Ho Fengshan.
Between 1938 and 1940, Ho saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish people while serving as First Secretary at the Chinese Legation in Vienna. His daughter, Ho Manli, was kind enough to share her father's life story and memoirs during a Holocaust memorial event held at the Embassy of Israel in Beijing.
Ho was born in 1901 in Yiyang, Hunan Province. He came from a poor family, but his academic performance gained him admission to undergraduate studies at the Yale-in-China University Program. In the mid-1920s, he was admitted to Munich University, where he completed his PhD in political economics. During this period, he witnessed the rise of Nazism. In 1935, Ho started his diplomatic career, in 1937 he was sent to Austria.
Following Austria's annexation to Nazi Germany in 1938, Hitler paraded into Vienna and the country's 200,000 or so Jews were violently persecuted. Nazi immigration policy did not allow citizens to leave the country without a valid visa to another country – a rare commodity due to restrictive immigration policies in most of the Western world.
During this period, Ho issued hundreds of travel visas to Austrian Jews. These visas allowed them to leave the country, in some cases after already being sent to concentration camps in Germany.
At the time, Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese and travelers did not need a visa to enter China. Hence, Ho issued visas with an intention of allowing Jews to gain transit visas to other destinations. Nonetheless, many of them did end up in Shanghai.
While his home country was being ravaged by foreign invaders, Ho put his career on the line and used the limited authority still available to him to save the lives of others.
He did so despite constant requests to desist sent to him by his superior, the Chinese ambassador in Berlin. A demerit was added to his personal file at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, probably as a direct result of his refusal to follow official instructions.
Throughout his diplomatic career, Ho did not seek official recognition and his heroic deeds were exposed only after he passed away in 1997. In 2001, he was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by the Holocaust Heroes and Martyr's Authority in Israel, and in 2007 he was awarded Honorary Citizenship by Israel's Ambassador to China, Amos Nadai.
Ho was the second Chinese to receive this type of recognition, together with Pan Junshun, who sheltered a Ukrainian Jewish girl after she escaped Nazi detention.
Ho's story is one link in the long relationship between China and the Jews. Jewish people escaping religious persecution in Tzarist Russia found refuge in China's northeastern regions and established prosperous communities.
In older times, Jewish traders traveled along the Silk Route to China, and some even set up their own communities, the most famous of which was in Kaifeng, Henan province.
As China claims its place among the world's leading nations, it is important to remember that global influence is gained through soft power and the promotion of values that are common to all people.
At a time of terrible darkness at the heart of “civilized” Europe, Ho served as a shining example of all that is good in humanity – he was hard working, cherished education, and was not indifferent to the oppression of others.
The memory of Ho should be kept alive, both inside and outside of China. He serves as a role model to all of us.
The author is a Beijing-based marketing specialist