A Chinese Rescuer in WWII Germany

by Xu Buzeng

Dr. Qiu Fa Zu (then spelled Tjiu Fa Dsdu in Germany) saved a team of more than 30 Dachau Concentration inmates (many of them were Jews) from likely execution.

In recent months I have watched in the CCTV (China Central Television) and have read Dr. Qiu's article on his ten years of life in Germany his rescuing the concentration inmates, in wartime Germany when Nazism ran rampant.

Dr. Qiu studied and worked in Munich from 1937-1946. He graduated from the Munich University Medical College with doctor's degree and worked as a surgeon at the University Teaching Hospital. Qiu was promoted to the post of Oberarzt in charge of daily affairs. As Munich suffered heavy Allied bombings, the part of the University Hospital was evacuated to Bad Toelz, some fifty kilometers from Munich. It was a place with less bombings. The site of this affiliated hospital of 200 beds (with Dr. Qiu in charge) was formerly a sanatorium.

One day in the spring of 1945 a group of concentration inmates (about 30 in number, with many Jews) were escorted by German soldiers passing Bad Toelz and they had a rest at the square in front of the hospital. They were said to come from the nearby Dauchau concentration camp to be transferred to other places. They were lean and shackled. Out of pity and sympathy Qiu gave false information to the German officer that the prisoners were sick and might be affected with typhoid fever which was epidemic. He said he would like to take them in and cure them. Unexpectedly the German officer agreed. Not long after this Germany capitulated and the prisoners were saved, surviving the massacre.

Dr. Qiu seems to be another Schindler or the Chinese diplomat Ho Feng Shan who were rescuers of Jews from the Holocaust. Qiu is ninety one years old and in good health. He is the academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the honorary President of Tongji Medical University in the Central China Metropolis of Wuhan. He lives with his German wife (formerly his pupil) there.

Dr. Qiu also told me that in 1985 the chancellor of Germany Mr. Kohl visited the University, met with Dr. Qiu and said, "We are schoolmates. You are the honorary doctor of the Heidelberg University (in 1982) and I graduated from the same University. We Germans will never forget our old friend who offered us a helping hand in the hard times (meaning the rescuing the masses of German civilians wounded in the Allied bombings during the Second world War)." For this, Dr. Qiu was conferred the Grand Cross of Germany. It was the first medal of State rank ever awarded to a Chinese scientist.

Dr. Qiu told me further that in the early 1980s when he revisited Germany he had met in Munich and Bad Toelz many of his former patients (including the son of the head of Bad Toelz Sanatorium whose knee cyst Dr. Qiu had cured). Dr. Qiu also met the girl who had worked in the bakery at Bad Toelz which provided Qiu's hospital with bread. If she is living, she may be approaching eighty.

On the occasion of world -wide celebration of victory over fascism, to publish Dr. Qiu's brave act at the risk of his own safety and even life seems more meaningful than ever.

[Postscript by Prof. Xu: I phoned Dr. Qiu in mid-September and he told me since the publication of Johnny Erling's report on his rescuing the Dachau inmates in the May 27 issue of the German magazine Die Welt he has received messages and congratulations from his old friends and colleagues in Germany. Among them is a lady who worked in the laboratory of the Bad Toetz Hospital headed by Dr. Qiu and she witnessed Dr. Qiu's brave and humane act. Dr. Qiu has been and still is famous as one of the best surgeons in China. He has been the academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a post of the highest academic rank in China. In spite of his ninety-one years of age, Dr. Qiu still works from morning to late evening.]