Doctors without borders
Two Austrian medics who served China during wartime and beyond remembered as true heroes
Two doctors from Austria landed in Shanghai in the same year, 1939. They had at least one thing in common — both faced persecution at the hands of the Nazis.
Then, embracing the communist aspirations and spirit in their hearts, they set off to different parts of China to wholeheartedly serve the army led by the Communist Party of China, as well as ordinary Chinese people.
Through tireless medical service, the duo would eventually become legends as they contributed to China’s efforts in resisting Japanese aggression and fighting for national liberation, while also continuing their work for many years after the war.
One of those doctors, Richard Frey, arrived in Shanghai at age 19, determined to devote himself to helping the Chinese. That was Jan 15, 1939, after a 28-day voyage of escape from the Nazis in Europe.
The same year, another Austrian doctor Jakob Rosenfeld, also fled to Shanghai from Austria after he was released from torture at a Nazi concentration camp.
Widely respected now as an outstanding doctor from the Danube riverbank, Frey was born as Richard Stein, in a middle class Jewish family in Vienna. Though details of his youth are somewhat scarce, he was known to have secretly joined the Communist Party of Austria by age 17 and was hunted by the Nazis for his active involvement in underground anti-fascist activities.
Despite being far away from China, Frey had long heard about the CPC’s fight against Japanese aggression, and believed that the Party shared his commitment and pursuit, so he decided to go to China notwithstanding the long journey.
Frey first went to Shanghai, and then to Beijing and Tianjin to look for local CPC organizations.
Finally he got a message from Nie Rongzhen, commander of the ShanxiChahar-Hebei military area, welcoming him to work in the military area. Frey was thrilled when he received the message.
Not long afterwards, he was escorted by underground Party members and guerrilla fighters to the ShanxiChahar-Hebei base area where he was received by Nie.
Nie said to him, “Fulai (Frey) sounds like freedom in German and you have come to join the Eighth Route Army in the pursuit of freedom, so this is a very good name.” Frey was delighted with his new name and used that name for the rest of his life.
Gratified that he could continue his medical work in China, Frey went to the Norman Bethune Health School with an appointment letter signed by Nie. Life was hard and battles were cruel, but Frey worked at the frontline with full passion for the revolution.
He taught at the school, saved soldiers injured on the battlefield, and helped with the military’s public health work. On top of all that, he overcame difficulties and actively conducted medical research.
Around the same time, under tough circumstances, Rosenfeld — the other Austrian doctor who came to China — started to develop an extraordinary friendship with Chen Yi and other leaders of the New
Fourth Army during the war.
Affectionately known as “Uncle BigNose”, Rosenfeld would also later win the deep admiration of the Chinese people.
After witnessing the atrocities of the invading Japanese army, he volunteered to join the New Fourth Army in 1941, and utilized his outstanding professional medical and surgical expertise.
Rosenfeld developed a deep friendship with Chen. When they first met, Rosenfeld was greatly impressed by Chen, a talented military commander and statesman, and they soon became friends.
Chen was moved by Rosenfeld’s devotion to the Chinese revolution through his life-saving medical expertise. And Rosenfeld admired General Chen for his literary talent, merit-based selection of officials and extraordinary charisma.
After he learned that Chen wrote good poetry, Rosenfeld, himself a fan of literature, regarded Chen as a close friend, and they had conversations in French which sometimes lasted all night.
In early 1942, Rosenfeld mentioned a plan to write a book on the New Fourth Army to Chen, and received strong support.
In his letter of reply, Chen wrote to Rosenfeld, “You have seen and
experienced for yourself the arduous struggle of the New Fourth Army, and will always be a witness to that... I look forward to your book being published. I thank you for assisting the New Fourth Army and I am more than willing to help you complete this meaningful work as a comrade.”
In the early 1940s, Frey often joined the inspection group sent by the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei military area’s health ministry to visit military subareas and combat forces to inspect the public health work.
Astonished by the serious lack of medicine for the troops, and encouraged by the use of penicillin in the United Kingdom and the United States to treat war wounds and infectious diseases, Frey decided to make penicillin in China.
In 1945, with approval from the government of the Shaanxi-GansuNingxia Border Region, Frey and two assistants built a biochemical lab — actually, just a small workshop — to conduct research about making crude penicillin using raw methods. The facility was set up at the then China Medical University located in Liushudian, east of Yan’an.
Without thermostatic devices to grow bacteria, they made a mud hut into a lab and built a heated brick bed to keep the temperature constant. Without functional stainless steel fermenters,
they used small-necked glass bottles of different sizes instead. Without mixers and shakers, they went in the lab to shake the bottles manually on a regular basis. Without air compressors, they used bike pumps instead. Without air filters, they used bike pumps to get air through a tube stuffed with sterile cotton and filter cloth.
After countless failures, Frey and his assistants produced China’s first crude penicillin in 1945. That was a great contribution to relieving the lack of medicine faced by the military and particularly to reducing infection caused by wounds.
For Rosenfeld, he once said that he came to China not to enjoy life, but to join the revolution.
As the doctor observed that the New Fourth Army suffered from a huge lack of medical staff, Rosenfeld set up a medical school for the purpose of training professionals.
To solve the shortage of medical material, the doctor was innovative as he used cheap local supplies such as bamboo, butter and paper to fix injuries and wounds.
In 1943, he began to treat the longtime kidney illness of the military leader Luo Ronghuan.
While in Shandong, where he worked as a field doctor, Rosenfeld contributed many articles to major newspapers in the base area, expressing his abhorrence of the invaders and his love for the hard-working, brave and honest Shandong people. He believed that under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people would win ultimate victory, realize national liberation and live a better life.
In a letter to his friend and Polishborn author Israel Epstein, Rosenfeld expressed hope that journalists would report the stories of the heroic resistance of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army against Japanese invaders to people all around the world.
That would help the world know about the arduousness and remarkableness of China’s War of Resistance, and the fearless revolutionary spirit of the army and people in anti-Japanese revolutionary bases led by the CPC. This letter is yet another historical record of the CPC being the mainstay in China’s fight against Japanese aggression.
Frey and Rosenberg both realized their dream of becoming CPC members. In 1944, recommended by Nie, Frey’s application for CPC membership was approved.
In 1953, Frey was granted Chinese citizenship after making active efforts towards that end, enabling him to complete the transformation from being a foreigner to becoming a Chinese national.
In the spring of 1942, Rosenfeld also applied to the CPC for Party membership and Chen offered to put in a recommendation. In the spring of 1943, Rosenfeld was admitted as a special CPC member.
In 1949, a farewell dinner was held for Rosenfeld before he returned to Austria to find his family members that survived the Holocaust. At the dinner, Chen spoke highly of the doctor’s contribution to the Chinese revolution, comparing him to Norman Bethune — a Canadian surgeon who devoted himself to helping the Chinese patients and became a hero in China — and awarding him a certificate of honor written in both Chinese and German.
After visiting Austria, Rosenfeld hoped to return to China again, but unfortunately in 1952, he died of a heart attack at the age of 49 when visiting his younger brother in Israel.
Rosenfeld is remembered fondly for devoting the prime of his life to the liberation of the Chinese people and deciding voluntarily to join the CPC, forging a close bond with the Party based on a common ideal.
As for Frey, the doctor made his first visit home, since he left Austria, in 1961 after his father passed away. His mother hoped that he could stay with her.
While many in China thought he would not return, as it was a time of economic difficulties in the country, Frey however came back.
He said the thought of not returning never crossed his mind because China had become a second home to him and where his career was based.
He said that even in the toughest days of the war, when students at the health school only lived on black beans, teachers such as him and the Indian doctor Dwarkanath Kotnis, who was also serving in China, sometimes lived on a diet of millet.
Frey also recalled that for ordinary teachers at the school, two people had to share a one-wick oil lamp.
In the 65 years when he lived and worked in China, Frey witnessed the victory of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression and the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and contributed to the country’s development, reform and opening-up.
He was a member of the sixth to ninth National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and he received several government commendations.
On Nov 16, 2004, Frey passed away due to illness in Beijing at the age of 84. In accordance with his will, his body was donated for China’s medical research.