Someone from my town was rescued from the Holocaust by escaping to Shanghai as a child. She said, "Life was really tough in Shanghai. I thought I was in hell. But when i realized what happened to those who stayed in Europe, I realized I had been in heaven." Thank you Feng-Shan Ho
@ryandelong2759 Thatz very rude and disrespectful to people who saved the Jews in time of need during the Nazi Holocaust. He saved thousands of people, show some respect.
@@unclescipio3136 this got me interested, and i googled A photo at Temple Emanu-el shows Austrian Jews who turned to the Chinese consulate in Vienna. It looks like there are 30 people lining up. That's for a day. Plus, I read that each guy would request and take more than 5 visas for their familly. Lets say he took weekends off: 30 x 260 = 7800 for a year. He could have saved anything from 8000 to 20000 jews per year, at least. And he was there for two years. God knows how many he saved.
@@enkii82 the funny thing is china at the time is probably the only consulate that can issue those visa. Shanghai was in a entanglement with international powers, making it a visa free port, you dont need traveling documentss to go there.
When I was a student in an Australian University, my lecturer who was then Dr Walter Ivantsoff told me, “Do you know I’m a Chinese? I consider myself Chinese because we were rescued by China and we escaped via China and finally ended up in Australia. “ Wished I had asked him more of his story as he was keen to share it. He told me he would always be grateful to china for allowing his family entry and to stay there. He has since departed this chaotic world.
Yes he issued a lot visas to Jewish people. So they could go to Shanghai, now Shanghai has a Jewish museum that tells history. If you go to Shanghai, you can visit the museum.
@@jonwijaya8539we should not let the chaos of today obscure the past. There're lessons to be learned from history, a shame that today's power reject to see them...
I'd also recommend looking up Chiune Sampo Sugihara. He was a Christian. A Japanese diplomate who was stationed in Lithuania. Going against his diplomatic orders, he wrote transit visas for thousands of jews to travel through Japan to reach another country. He was recalled to Japan, and as the train pulled out of the station - he threw his blank forms and his stamp to the jews on the platform. He lost his position, and lived quietly. No one knew what he had done, until the Israeli Ambassador to Japan showed up at his funeral.
Please allow me to express my most sincere tribute to Mr. Ho for his contributions to the Jewish community and to humanity. It is a profound regret that we will never know exactly how many people he saved during those times-thousands, or perhaps tens of thousands? Mr. Ho himself never thought to keep track of these details. As his daughter has mentioned, I am not at all surprised by his deeds, for he was indeed a man of integrity. It is important to acknowledge that the story of the Jewish people did not end upon their arrival in Shanghai. There, they received protection from more benevolent souls; life in Shanghai might have been harsh, but those kind-hearted individuals did everything within their power to assist the Jewish people.
This is a GREAT video! I am Jewish and I never heard of this wonderful man. I'm sending the link to your video to all of my family members. THANK YOU for the time and effort you put out to illuminate this true hero!
Dont believe everything you hear from Chlna. Their school text books says China played the main role in victiorious i outcome of the allies in the WW2. They celebrate VJ day every year as thier victory over the Axis power
I volunteered as an English interpreter for the Jewish museum in shanghai one summer during college there. I knew Ho’s story and was deeply moved. I recently learned my Russian-Jewish-Australian colleague’s family sought refuge in China before moving to Australia. His legacy lives on.
People like Feng-Shan Ho, Oskar Schindler, Manuel L. Quezon, Abdol Hossein Sardari, Chiune Sugihara, Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg, and others deserve to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for their Compassion, heroism, and bravery
What a great story! I never heard of Feng-Shan Ho before. It does remind me of the story of Chiune Sugihara, the "Japanese Schindler." He saved thousands of Lithuanian Jews also by issuing passports. He too was honored by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Wow… just wow… what a beautiful human being. Humanity can be lacking at times as this world can be very dark. These incredible brave souls that pop up from time to time produce enough light to radiate for future generations to live in peace or at the very least the hope for peace. Long live Feng-Shan Ho!
Hopefully, a future episode will cover Manuel Quezon, given that he played a huge role in saving over a thousand Jews from the Holocaust by welcoming them to the Philippines (my home country).
I wish I could hear about Feng-Shan Ho before. His story brings back hope in the human nature. My father freed a transit camp near Nuremberg. Hundreds of corpses were overleft. He had a post traumatic syndrom the rest of his life.
May his memory be a blessing : thank you Mr Feng-Shan Ho. Thank you _Unpacked_ for giving him the recognition he deserved, and kudos for his daughter's dedication to honour her father's memory.
There is a gigantic difference between a Chinese diplomat who although in real danger also enjoyed far more safety with a diplomatic status with most likely the worst fate he would have received was being deported back to China which is a place he could go at any time and indeed was back in China by 1940 and Schindler who was a German and saved Jewish lives all the way to the end of the war and the defeat of the germans in 1944 who would only have recieved the worst kind of death if found out. Feng-Shan Ho was a moral human being and a great man and saved many lives by helping them to flee before the holocaust but not anywhere near a comparison to Schindler in what was accomplished as he KEPT Jews alive at the height of the holocaust under the regime that was in the full force of it's extermination and in it's most darkest days. I am eternally grateful for them both.
@@Flintlockon He would've been arrested by the SS though, not just deported back to China. China was weak at the time & in good relations with Germany, which they couldn't afford to damage.
@@dyawrYour absolutely right but Germany in 1940 is not Germany of 1944 and the SS would only have deported him at that time and would under no curcumstance execute a foreign diplomat for signing visa's. They would have declared him persona non grata and sent him back and it may have soured relations with China maybe but Mr Ho was not under anything like the danger Schindler was in 1944 dealing with the SS directly every day. Mr Ho is a hero and stands with the finest of human beings and many diplomats did similar things for the same noble cause but Schindler kept Jews alive all the way through the war and holocaust while they were in the SS clutch the entire time. I mean it when i say i am grateful for them both
@@Flintlockon I would say the SS was very strong & confident at the beginning of the war, no? Between 1938-1940 it could've been very dangerous if they wanted to make an example out of him. _"At first, diplomats posted in Germany were spared and even wooed by Hermann Goering, but their situation started deteriorating in 1935. Their sources of information dried up. They knew their German employees were spying on them and sometimes feared for their lives._ _André François-Poncet preferred meeting his British and American counterparts in the Tiergarten, the large park in Berlin. Germany’s alliances in the Axis increasingly isolated Western diplomats."_ - from "Diplomats facing the Shoah", article
I had tears in my eyes. He was a true humanitarian, a true hero. May he never be forgotten and people of all nations know of his Christ-like compassionate actions. His heart was in the right place. May his soul rest in peace and his descendants be blessed
Considering that the Jews were huge supporters of the Chinese Exclusion Act despite the Chinese never having treated Jews with any malice.😐 I doubt they would have done the same for the Chinese if the roles were reversed.
@@oh_k8 You seem to have found the cloud in the silver lining. Assuming you’re correct, is your point that he should have let European Jews die because American Jews a couple generations before discouraged immigration on the other side of the planet? So, by your logic since Chairman Mao’s great leap forward caused the death of 30 million Chinese in the 1950s, then the American Jews were right to exclude the Chinese in the 1880s in the Chinese Exclusion Act? I get it now. Thanks.
Thank you for this incredible information. This gentleman was incredibly brave and must have had a stalwart personal code in order to maintain his intended mission through such all-encompassing pressure. Thank you for honoring his achievements.
China and Chinese will never forget anyone that had helped them during WW2. They restored his residential house in Nanjing and built a memorial for him.
He's just an arms dealer tho. He turned against the Japanese not because he wanted to save the Chinese, but because he couldn't stand to see his business ruined by the Japanese army. He was only taking China's side for his own benefit, since his position in China would be jeopardized if Japan and Germany were to form an alliance. To say that he fought to save the Chinese from the Japanese sounds pretty much like propaganda to be honest. And his testimony was so full of contradictions that it was not even adopted at trial.
@@user-qm7jwnot true, the japanese fully occupied the territory, there is nothing the german government or the chinese government can do that can protect him. He absolutely have to risk his life to save the chinese refugee. Shindlers testimony was also full of holes, but its the testimony of the those he saved that counts the most. The irony was the chinese refugee were saved by a giant nazi flag.
Thank you so much for this! It's very fascinating. Can you please run a clip like this on Aristedes de Sousa Mendez? Extremely similar story on a Portuguese diplomat working in France. He personally helped rescue my grandfather and my wife's great grandfather, just days apart from each other.
Thank you for including this man’s name in Chinese characters. That is such an important detail that unfortunately few people not conversant with the Chinese languages even know that they do not know…too often, to their own detriment as seekers of knowledge. Well done.
as a Taiwanese Chinese, I let my 3rd grader learnt and researched this couple years ago as it is such an important humanitarian integrity to pass down to our next generation.
My children's preschool teacher's father, who was a part of a Yeshiva in Shang Hai and later lived in New York, was saved by Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat with a similar story.
According to his daughter He Manli, Mr. He came from a poor family since he was a child. He received help from the Lutheran Church before he could continue his studies and eventually received a doctorate in economics from the University of Munich in Germany. After retiring, he settled in San Francisco, USA. In addition to writing, he was enthusiastic about church work. He died in 1997 at the age of 96.
My grandfather was captured during 2nd world war,and was taken in concentration camp.He was soldier of red army,he have seen all things that nazi have done for jewish people. From Kazakhstan🇰🇿🇮🇱 I wish prosperity and peace to Israel,wonderful nation😌❤️
Do you mean to? RIP all beautiful souls lost in the Holocaust, n4zi brutality, human attrocities and tragedies, God be with them and all their families, friends and loved ones✝️🙏🤍
A wonderful hero, wish I learned about him sooner! There are many obscure heroes who helped save thousands of Jews, one of which (I found the most interesting) being Albert Goering. Operated under the shadow of his vicious brother to help save thousands of Jews. Its a shame that his name resulted in him losing it all.
Let us be reminded that a person’s nationality, ideology and lifestyle make up only a part of their true self. What truely defines an individual is always their personal conducts, both in everyday life and in time of crisis. I wish the world could be united by our shared kindness to each others rather than divided by the fickle definition of our differences.
Today I read about Feng Shan Ho for the first time. Our newspaper reported on him in a large detailed article. A great person who stood up for other people. Simply a great story - they should make a movie about this hero !!!
He worked for the Chinese government under Guo Min Dang (also Kuomintang, National party of China). As Ho retired, the government he worked for was in Taiwan. But this video said the Chinese government denied him his pension. That’s misleading. Because at that time, the official Chinese government was CCP. Ho lived in Taiwan after 1949. So the government that denied his pension was the Taiwanese Government.
China and Taiwan are 2 different govt, he works for china govt but as u said retired to Taiwan,how do u expect the Taiwanese govt to pay his pension when he doesn't work for them?
@@judymckee5992 Learn some history. Every single one in the Taiwanese government was from mainland China, and they call themselves the Chinese government.
@@judymckee5992 I have already described the answer clearly enough in the previous comment. I don't see any need to add anything. You obviously don't know enough about Chinese history. If I were you, I would have informed myself first and acquired the knowledge before asking such a question and embarrassing myself completely
For the record, Schlinder was treated oh so very well in Mr. Speilbergs movie. The man, while doing a great thing, was a monster in his own right. No props deserved.
Reminds me of the Japanese ambassador to Lithuania , Chiune Sugihara, during world war II, who wrote many hundreds of visas for the Jewish people living there to escape the Nazis.
There was a Dutch diplomat, Jan Zwartendijk, in Lithuania at the same time who did the same thing. He was reprimanded, of course, and it took quite some time for him to be exonerated, posthumously.
@@har3036 Actually, the Chiune Sugihara and Jan Zwartendijk story should really be told together. They were the one-two that allowed the Lithuania Jews to leave for safer areas. Zwartendijk issued Curacao "visas" that would not have allowed the Jews to leave for Curacao but enabled Sugihara the excuse to issue Japanese transit visas that allowed them to leave. Both did so at great personal risk and later career loss.
There were - like Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg, Chiune Sugihara, and Abdol Hossein Sardari: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SLcuUG1CTBo.htmlsi=dU4Y3MEENnLcBrwO
Wonderful story! I had never heard about Feng-Shan Ho before. The roads on the banks of the Danube in my hometown Budapest are named after people who saved Jewish lives in World War II, including diplomats like Raoul Wallenberg (Sweden), Carl Lutz (Switzerland) or Angelo Rotta (Holy See).
I have seen the Shanghai Jewish quarters but I never knew the reason why so many Jews chose a city in the middle of a warzone as a destination. Now I know why. Thanks for this documentary.
If all history books being wrote with full truth, no countries in this world will be able held their head up All histories in this worlds full of blood and cruelty
It’s relatively well known in Chinese social media. And because of stories like these Chinese people had a good impression of Israel. cnetz were appalled to see Israel’s actions from Oct 2023.
Chinese, Japanese, Pilipino, you name it, you will find good people willing to help those who suffered. Feng-Shan Ho is one of them. You dig deeper, you will find more.
This is something I never knew about but youtube somehow found itself on my page to watch it. Now I have some researching to do. thanks! I even had an experience about Jewish ancestry in China. Keep reading. I was in a relationship with a woman who I thought at that time was a mixed person with Chinese / American descent, boy was i wrong. I was 27 at the time when we went together to visit her grandparents in Kaifeng, China. I visited her grandmother on her mother's side of the family and that was when l learned about her Jewish family ancestry. Her great grandmother was chinese and her great grandfather was Jewish. He escaped the war in europe and lived in Kaifeng city. My girlfriend and her mother were the descendents of the Jewish people who once lived in this small city in Kaifeng . From what I can remember during my conversation with my former girlfriend is some of the Jewish people have either assimilated to the Chinese culture and became mixed like her and her mother. While other Jewish family in Kaifeng after the war ended many left China to live in Australia, America or went back to Europe and to Israel. At that time I never understood why she kept her jewish background from me until I visited China with her. She thought other people and I would look down on her for being a descendent of Jewish ancestry. Her family taught her to hide it and because of her family having to deal with being looked down upon in China so it carried over into her life. Honestly I believe even today she still is ashamed of her Jewish background which she shouldn't be. Her family story was amazing to hear and learn about and her family should openly tell it to the world not by me. Another history I learned about the city of Kaifeng during my visit to China. It's one of the Eight Ancient Capitals of China dating back to warring states period all the way to the the Song Dynasty. The infrastructure of the old city walls still stands today even though it has been fixed still that is Amazing!
Thanks so much for sharing this mostly unknown hero's story. I've never heard of him until now. People today need to stop using the word "hero" to portray someone who expresses a societal taboo lifestyle to the public. There's nothing heroic about that honestly. Heroes risk their life and livelihoods for others, not for themselves.
wow i never heard of this guy and what he had done for the Jews. he faced odds like no other person did at the time. risking his life and didnt think twice about trying to help the Jews. what a hero was at the time !!
Important to note that Feng Shan-Ho was born on 9/20/1901, the Jewish date was Tishrei 7th (Friday)5662. Shan-Ho died on 9/28/1997 = Elul 26th. Elul is the last month in the Jewish yearly cycle before Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year), it is viewed as a month of reflection on the previous year and looking forward to the next year. Based on this information, I strongly believe Shan-Ho is at peace in Heaven.
