Righteous Among the Nations
聖誕假期，讀到一個舊日中國的故事。
那是一九三八年，二次大戰前夕，德國納粹已經崛起，並開始迫害猶太人了。那年三月德國吞併了奧地利，十一月九日晚上，納粹突擊維也納的猶太人商店，打碎櫥窗玻璃，七千五百間商店被搶劫一空，二百間猶太教堂被毀。猶太人紛紛尋求到外國的簽證。但那年七月在法國Evian召開的國際難民會議，與會的三十二個國家包括美國、加拿大、澳大利亞等都不敢招惹納粹，全部拒絕接收猶太移民。維也納的猶太人因拿不到簽證，想逃也逃不出去。這時，一個猶太青年艾瑞克帶着全家二十張申請書，跑遍維也納外國領事館，都被拒絕後，他抱着最後希望，來到中華民國領事館。
當時中國駐維也納領事館的總領事，名叫何鳳山。他毫不猶豫，甚麼都沒有問，就直接發給艾瑞克全家去上海的簽證。這消息一夜間傳遍維也納，天未亮領事館就排滿了申請簽證的人龍。接下來，每天如是。何鳳山和領事館人員，每天工作到深夜。無數猶太家庭，搭上輪船，逃難到上海。
何鳳山很快成為納粹的眼中釘，他們向中國駐柏林大使館施壓，駐德大使陳介打電話給何鳳山，要他不要再給猶太人發簽證，何鳳山不為所動，他知道一張簽證代表一個生命，因此不顧警告，繼續發簽證。接着納粹德國宣稱中國領館的房子是猶太人物業，要沒收。其時中日開戰，中國政府無錢支援，何鳳山於是自掏腰包，租下一個小房間，掛起國旗，繼續為猶太人辦簽證。直到一九四〇年五月何鳳山奉調回國，他在兩年間共簽發多少張「生命簽證」？根據已找到的半年簽發的號碼近二千個統計，他在兩年內大約共發出七千張簽證。他出於人道及公義，在其他國家綏靖之中，獨抗強權。
此後，何鳳山又先後擔任中華民國駐外大使，他退休後於一九七三年移居美國。一九九七年以九十六歲高齡在三藩市去世。生前他幫助猶太人的事迹並不為世人知曉，他去世後家人在《波士頓環球報》（The Boston Glob'）刊登了一則訃告，提及他為猶太人頒發簽證之事，這則訃告被美國一個猶太歷史學家注意到，於是開始搜集何鳳山的資料，並聯繫曾經被何鳳山救助過的倖存者或其後裔。二〇〇一年一月二十三日以色列政府在耶路撒冷猶太大屠殺紀念館舉行儀式，授予何鳳山「國際義人」（Righteous Among the Nations）稱號。之後何鳳山的事迹為世所知，並被譽為「中國的舒特拉」。 (李怡)
----Wikipedia
Biography[edit]
In 1935, Ho Feng Shan started his diplomatic career within the Foreign Ministry of the
Republic of China. His first posting was in
Turkey. He was appointed First Secretary at the Chinese
legation in
Vienna in 1937, and when
Austria was
annexed by
Nazi Germanyin 1938 and the legation was turned into a consulate, Ho was assigned the post as
Consul-General.
After the "
Kristallnacht" in 1938, the situation for the almost 200,000 Austrian Jews got rapidly more difficult, but in order to leave the country they had to provide proof of emigration, usually a
visa from a foreign nation or a valid boat ticket. This, however, was difficult and the
Evian Conference, in 1938, where 32 countries had failed to take a stand against Nazi Germany, made this even more complicated. Acting against orders of his superior
Chen Jie(陳介), the Chinese ambassador to
Berlin, Ho, for humanitarian reasons, started to issue visas to
Shanghai. At the time it was not necessary to have a visa to enter Shanghai, but it allowed the Jews to leave Austria. Indeed many Jewish families left for Shanghai, whence most of them would later leave for
Hong Kong and
Australia. He continued to issue these visas until he was ordered to return to China in May 1940.
How many Jews were saved is unknown, but given that Ho issued close to 2,000 visas only during his first half year at his post, claims in the thousands could well be correct.
Later, Ho Feng Shan served as the
Republic of China's ambassador to other countries, including
Egypt,
Mexico,
Bolivia, and
Colombia. After retirement in 1973, Ho settled in San Francisco in the
United States, where he wrote his memoirs,
40 Years of my Diplomatic Life (外交生涯四十年) published in 1990.
After his retirement in 1973,
Taiwan denied Ho his pension on the grounds that he had "not properly accounted for" the equivalent of
$US300 in embassy expenses. These charges are widely believed to have been politically motivated. Despite repeated appeals, the Taiwanese government has not exonerated him.
In the 1980s, he returned several times to
Mainland China and also visited his
alma mater in Changsha during its 80th anniversary in 1986. He was, perhaps wrongly, impeached for embezzlement (said to have taken place in 1970) in 1985 by the Taiwanese government.
Ho's actions in Vienna went unnoticed during his life (save for a black mark in his act for disobeying orders), but were recognized posthumously when he was awarded the title
Righteous Among the Nations by the
Israeli organization
Yad Vashem in 2001. He is the second of only two Chinese to be given this honor; the first was
Pan Jun Shun.
******
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Junshun
Pan Junshun (traditional Chinese: 潘均順; simplified Chinese: 潘均顺; pinyin: Pān Jūnshùn; 1889 – 1974), was the first Chinese national to be awarded the title ...
Pan Jun-Shun[edit]
Pan Jun Shun moved to Russia in 1916 looking for work. He settled in
Moscow where he found work as a laborer. He was unable to return to China due to events surrounding the
Russian Revolution of 1917 and subsequent
civil war. He married and had two sons while living in Moscow, after which he moved to
Kharkov,
Ukraine in 1936. His wife died before the outbreak of World War II. This loss was further compounded when his two sons were drafted into the
Soviet Army at the beginning of the war, they never returned home and were presumed to have been killed during the war.
He survived the war and continued to live there until his death in 1974.
Reason for Righteous award[edit]
Pan Jun Shun provided shelter and hiding for a Ukrainian Jewish girl who had escaped from a detention area set up by the occupying
German Army. She escaped through the efforts of her father who realized that his children were likely to be killed as they were being transferred to another town.
聖誕假期又讀到今日中國官場的熱門故事，就是中共統戰部長令計劃落馬的醜聞。令計劃家人親屬貪腐的數額，與之前揭發的周永康同樣驚人，光是他收受賄賂藏在山西的黃金、字畫、古董，就被起出六卡車之多，他老婆在日本的房產市值五億（人民幣）。能夠與這些駭人聽聞大貪官共事或在他之下工作的，會是些怎麼樣的人，還需要分析探討嗎？反貪反腐，就像毛澤東時代的反走資派、反修正主義一樣，都是權力鬥爭的藉口而已。令計劃和周永康、徐才厚、薄熙來結盟奪權的情節，比任何電影都詭異精采。我們可以想像，如果他們奪權成功，今天抖出來的就是另一些人的故事。令計劃擔任一人之下的中共中央辦公室主任、中央書記處書記這個大內總管多年，他又是港澳協調小組副組長，他弟弟令完成更向當局供出一些官員通過令計劃買官的細節，而他執掌買官人事大權時代，正是香港二〇一二年選特首並指令要選委會從支持唐英年轉軚支持梁振英的時候。中華民國時代當然也有腐敗的官員，但因為社會仍然有個人發揚獨立精神和自由思想的空間，因此會產生何鳳山這種有良心的、有人道主義精神的「國際義士」外交官，也有陳寅恪、王國維這類學者和知識分子；中共國今天讓我們看到的外交官，是或以利害取捨說《中英聯合聲明》失效，或以「中國反腐敗取得舉世矚目成就」來印證中國是「清廉國家」的這類人，而中共國的學者就是孔慶東或掛上北大清華教授招牌的「護法」們。中國現在有一個半個何鳳山或陳寅恪嗎？當社會使人人的思想受集體主義愛國主義麻醉，當人們的行為受權錢色主導，所形成的權貴資本主義「共和國」當然盛產令計劃、周永康、梁振英，而不會有何鳳山。二〇一四是香港關鍵的一年。這一年應使我們相信：何去何從是由自主命運所決定的。（https://www.facebook.com/mrleeyee
）李怡
美河市案圖利日勝生，前北市府捷運局官員被起訴（資料照，記者翁聿煌攝）
