IN the years before World War II, ahead of the coming Holocaust, tens of thousands of Jews tried to flee Germany and other Axis countries. As the only city in the world with an “open door?for refugees in those days, Shanghai became home to more than 30,000 of them.

While many of the refugees had a tough time finding the shelter of Shanghai, a Chinese diplomat eased the way for many others.

He was He Fengshan, the Chinese Consul-General in Vienna. He was born on September 10, 1901 in Central China’s Hunan Province. In 1932, he graduated from Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich in Germany with a PhD. In 1938, after Austria’s anschluss with Germany, he was appointed as Consul-General in Vienna by the Chinese Government of the day.

In 1938, the Nazis had stepped up their persecution of the Jews under their control and Jews in Germany and Austria were trying to escape. Although many countries were sympathetic towards the plight of Jewish refugees, the Jews could not get out because of the restrictions on granting them visas.

If a Jewish family in an Axis country wanted to escape, they had to produce visas for the destination country.

However, Shanghai in the late-1930s was an ideal refuge to escape fascist persecution. Because of the existence in the city of the Japanese Concession, the International Settlement and the French Concession, the rules and regulations covering the arrival of immigrants had become rather chaotic and there were fewer and fewer restrictions on the necessity for a visa for anyone who wanted to come to Shanghai. In fact, by the end of the 1930s, one did not even need a visa to enter Shanghai.

However, one big problem still remained for Jews trying to escape from Austria and Germany: they could not leave unless they could acquire a visa issued by the country they wanted to go to.

He Fengshan, as Consul-General in Vienna, already knew that Shanghai would be a haven for Jews and after learning of the Nazis?intentions to exterminate them he decided to do his best to help the Jews in Vienna get out.

From 1938 to 1940, unlike his fellow diplomats, He Fengshan issued thousands of visas to the Jews in Vienna without worrying about any restrictions that had been set by the Chinese Government. He continued to do so despite threats from the Nazis and he didn’t stop issuing visas until the day he had to leave Vienna in 1940.

In 2001, the government of Israel honoured He Fengshan with the title, “Righteous Among The Nations? In March 2002, an exhibition which told of He Fengshan’s actions was held in Shanghai. Many children of the Jews He Fengshan had saved more than 60 years before visited the exhibition as did the Israeli Consul-General in Shanghai.

He Fengshan is regarded as the “Chinese Schindler?today and is thought of as a hero by Jewish people. Shanghai, the “open city? received the most Jews of any place in the world in the years leading up to World War II and even today a lot of the Israeli younger generation think of Shanghai as their real hometown.

(Star News)