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OCA - GREATER SEATTLE CHAPTER

OCA-GS is grateful for the following contribution written by his daughter Manli Ho

Dr. Feng Shan Ho was one of the first diplomats to help Jews by issuing them visas to escape the Holocaust. He was the Chinese Consul General in Vienna, following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938 (Anschluss). With the Nazi takeover, Austrian anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews erupted in full force. Using a policy of coerced expulsion, Nazi authorities told Jews that if they obtained visas from other countries as proof of emigration, they, as well as relatives deported to Dachau or Buchenwald, would be allowed to leave.

Many Austrian Jews tried to emigrate, but found almost no country willing to allow them entry. Their plight was further exacerbated by the July 13 resolution of the Evian Conference, which made it evident that almost none of the 32 participating nations was willing to accept Jewish refugees.

Ho recalled: “Since the annexation of Austria by Germany, the persecution of Jews by Hitler's 'devils' became increasingly fierce”. He said he “spared no effort in using any means possible” to help Jewish refugees and “innumerable Jews were thus saved.”

Having been turned down by other consulates, the Jews came to the Chinese Consulate, which issued them visas to Shanghai, China. Ho authorized the issuing of thousands of visas to any and all who requested them, despite direct orders to desist from his superior, the Chinese ambassador in Berlin, and a subsequent demerit from his own government.

Shanghai harbor was under Japanese occupation, and did not require a visa for entry. But for Jews to be allowed to leave Austria, a visa served as proof of destination. “I knew that the Chinese visas were to Shanghai 'in name' only. In reality, it was a means for Austrian Jews to find a way to get to the US, England or other destinations, ” Ho recalled. Many Jews were released from Nazi concentration camps on the strength of the Shanghai visas.

One visa recipient, Eric Goldstaub, visited 50 foreign consulates in Vienna before obtaining 20 visas for himself and his family at the Chinese Consulate. On Kristallnacht, both Goldstaub and his father were arrested and imprisoned, but with the Chinese visas as proof of emigration, they were released within days and embarked on their journey to China. Karl Lang was among those arrested and sent to Dachau on Kristallnacht. He was released only after his wife obtained and presented a Chinese visa as proof of emigration. The Lang family left Austria for England and finally made their way to the United States.

In 1940, Dr. Feng Shan Ho was transferred from Vienna. He spent the rest of World War II involved in China's war effort against Japan. In 1947, he began a nine-year tenure as Chinese ambassador to Egypt and the Mideast. His subsequent postings were to Mexico, Bolivia and Colombia. After 40 years in the diplomatic service, Ho retired to San Francisco, California. On September 28, 1997, he died at age 96. He was never reunited with any of those he had helped.

Why was Feng Shan Ho willing to help the Jews of Austria when others would not? His reason was simple: “I thought it only natural to feel compassion and to want to help. From the standpoint of humanity, that is the way it should be.”In the year 2000, the state of Israel bestowed the title of Righteous Among the Nations, one of its highest honors, on Dr. Feng Shan Ho “for his humanitarian courage” in the rescue of Austria's Jews.

©2006, Manli Ho

Manli Ho, the daughter of Dr. Feng Shan Ho, was born in Cairo, Egypt and grew up in Mexico, Bolivia and Colombia. She graduated from Smith College in 1972 and was a reporter for the Boston Globe, and an editor for China Daily in Beijing. She now works for the executive search firm of Isaacson Miller in Boston, and divides her time between Maine and San Francisco.

"Courtesy Ho Family Collection"

Feng Shan Ho was born on September 10, 1901, in rural Yiyang, Hunan Province, China. Poor and fatherless by age seven, he and his family were helped by the Norwegian Missionary Society in Yiyang and educated in their schools. A brilliant student, he graduated in 1926 from the elite College of Yale-in-China in Changsha where he developed his lifelong dedication to Mens sana, Corpore sano (a sound mind, a sound body). In 1932, he earned a Ph.D. in political economics at the University of Munich, graduating Magna cum Laude.

Feng Shan Ho joined the Chinese Nationalist government and its Foreign Service in 1935 with a first posting to Turkey. In 1937, he was transferred to Vienna, Austria. When Austria was annexed the following year by Nazi Germany, he was appointed Consul General.