Jakob Rosenfeld

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Rosenfeld (center), Liu Shaoqi (left), Chen Yi (right) in 1943.

Jakob Rosenfeld , also General Luo , Chinese  羅 生 特  /  罗 生 特 , Pinyin Luó Shēngtè (born January 11, 1903 in Lemberg , Austria-Hungary ; died April 22, 1952 in Tel Aviv , Israel ) was an Austrian doctor and communist internationalist who served as chief doctor of the People's Liberation Army and minister of health under Mao Zedong from 1941 to 1949 in the areas controlled by the Chinese Communist Party .

Life

Youth and education

Jakob Rosenfeld spent most of his youth in Wöllersdorf in Lower Austria , where the family had moved in 1910.

He attended the Kaiserjubiläumsschule in Wöllersdorf and then the State High School in Wiener Neustadt . In 1921 Rosenfeld moved to Vienna to study medicine. In 1928 he received his doctorate as Dr. med. univ. and specialized in urology and gynecology . He initially worked in Vienna as a regular doctor and assistant at the Rothschuld Hospital. With his sister he opened a practice in Vienna. After the "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938, Rosenfeld was interned first in the Dachau concentration camp and later in the Buchenwald concentration camp . In June 1939 he was released on condition that he leave the country within 14 days.

Rosenfeld's time in China

Since China did not require a visa for Jewish forced emigrants in Shanghai , he fled by ship in 1939 and began working there as a resident surgeon.

In a café that was very popular among exiled Austrians, he met a Chinese army doctor through a friend in 1941 and, as a staunch anti-fascist, joined the communist New Fourth Army and in 1942 the Communist Party of China . This fought there against the Japanese invaders and in the Chinese civil war against the Kuomintang army led by Chiang Kai-shek . Rosenfeld was sent to Mao's Red Army in Shandong Province , where he became the personal physician to Marshal Luo Ronghuan , commander of the 8th Field Army.

In 1945 Rosenfeld was appointed Head of Health Services for the 1st Army in Manchuria ; As a general in a medical brigade, he was responsible for medical care. He served under China's later President Liu Shaoqi , among others . In 1947 he became Minister of Health in Mao's Provisional Government.

Because of his good work as an army doctor, he was nicknamed "Tiger Balm Doctor" by the Communist soldiers, as tiger balm was considered a remedy.

Return from exile

In 1949, after the communists marched into Beijing , he returned to Vienna via Shanghai, but his relatives in Austria had all emigrated or, like his mother, had been murdered in concentration camps . A planned return to China turned out to be very difficult at this time, so Rosenfeld emigrated to Israel in 1951, where he died of heart failure eight months after his arrival in 1952.

Aftermath

In the spring of 1944 he arranged for the Rosenfeld Hospital to be built, which was rebuilt in 1946 after it was destroyed by Japanese bombers. In his honor, a statue was erected for him in front of the hospital. Today Jakob Rosenfeld is celebrated as a national hero in China. On his 100th birthday, he was honored with a large exhibition in Beijing.

literature

  • Gerd Kaminski : Jakob Rosenfeld - I knew them all. Diaries from China 1941–1949 , Löcker-Verlag ISBN 3-85409-363-2 .
  • Gerd Kaminiski: General Luo called long nose. The adventurous life of Dr. med. Jakob Rosenfeld. Vienna 1993 (= reports of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for China and Southeast Asia Research , 31).
  • Andreas Mettenleiter : Testimonials, memories, diaries and letters from German-speaking doctors. Supplements and supplements III (I – Z). In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 22, 2003, pp. 269-305, here: p. 288.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Sulzgruber: Die Jewish community Wiener Neustadt Remember.at, accessed on December 15, 2014
  2. ↑ Jewish doctor turned 'Buddha savior' under Mao . In: Ynetnews . ( ynetnews.com [accessed June 4, 2017]).
personal data
SURNAME Rosenfeld, Jakob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES General Luo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian doctor
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Lviv
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1952
Place of death Tel Aviv , Israel