Ho feng shan biography of barack obama

Two separate buildings are home to an exhibition of the stateless refugees and to their rescuer, Viennese Consul General Ho Feng Shan.

In order to do so, the Nazis required that Jews have entry visas or boat tickets to another country. Unlike his fellow-diplomats, Ho Feng-Shan, who served as the Chinese consul-general in Vienna during , issued visas to Shanghai to all requesting them, even to those wishing to travel elsewhere but needing a visa to leave Nazi Germany. Many of those helped by Ho did indeed reach Shanghai, either by boat from Italy or overland via the Soviet Union.

Many others made use of their visas to reach alternate destinations, including Palestine, the Philippines, and elsewhere The rush for visas assumed panic proportions during and immediately after Kristallnacht , in November , when thousands of Jews were thrown into concentration camps , only gaining release if their relatives produced visas or tickets for travel to other destinations.

Gerda Gottfried Kraus, based in Canada, relates that after Kristallnacht, her husband waited in a long line for admittance into the Chinese consulate. Ho refused to abide by the instructions of his superior, the Chinese ambassador in Berlin, Chen Jie. Chen Jie, hoping to cement closer ties between China and Germany, had forbidden Ho to issue visas on such a large scale, estimated to run into the hundreds, perhaps even thousands.

Ho Feng-Shan, “The Chinese Schindler,” was born in rural Hunan in Ho grew up poor.

Although visas were not required for entrance to Shanghai, such a document was, as noted, a prerequisite for Jews wishing to leave Nazi Germany. After a long diplomatic career, Ho retired in , and died in , at the age of After carefully evaluating the case, the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous decided to award Feng-Shan Ho the title of Righteous Among the Nations for his humanitarian courage in issuing Chinese visas to Jews in Vienna in spite of orders from his superior to the contrary.

Ho's daughter, Manli, accepted the award on his behalf. Sources: Yad Vashem ; Elis, Niv. Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library. Category » Biography. Actors and Comedians.