Norman Bethune
Henry Norman Bethune (born March 3, 1890 in Gravenhurst, Ontario , † November 12, 1939 in Huangshikou , Tang County , Baoding City , Hebei Province , China ) was a Canadian doctor and internationalist who was a leader in the surgical treatment of tuberculosis and worked as a surgeon in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1937) and in the Republic of China (1938-1939). He died of blood poisoning in the Second Sino-Japanese War on the communist side.
Life
Bethune is from Gravenhurst in the Canadian province of Ontario . After many years of work as a pulmonary surgeon , he decided in 1936 to support the Spanish Republic in its fight against the putschists under Franco .
Doctor in Spain and China
In Spain he initiated the establishment of a blood transfusion service on the front line that flexibly followed the battle, an innovation in the history of the military medical service . Similar services were used, among other things, from the Korean War to 1997 by the USA under the name Mobile Army Surgical Hospital . The new form of wound care led to innovations in the field of blood transport.
Bethune left Spain on June 6, 1937 and arrived in Montreal , Canada on June 18 . He toured the United States and Canada for the next seven months as part of a solidarity campaign. Troubled by news of intensified attacks by the Japanese army on Chinese territory, the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War , he decided to join the Chinese Communist Forces, the 8th March Army , a forerunner of the People's Liberation Army . At the end of February 1938 he joined this army.
Doctor in china
The Chinese medical service was in much worse shape than the Spanish one. There was a lack of material and skilled workers, and the wounded were not treated by doctors at the front, but only after being transported to the hinterland for days. Bethune began to reorganize the medical service, to create opportunities for training and worked with great commitment in the mobile surgical field hospitals he initiated. The funds were nowhere near sufficient to set up a transfusion service or were not available because of the blockade. During an operation, he suffered blood poisoning from a cut, which resulted in his death on November 12, 1939 in Huangshikou Township (黄石 口 乡), Tang County (唐县), Baoding City , Hebei Province .
His work and his tireless commitment made a deep impression in China, especially on Mao Zedong . Mao later published the essay In Memory of Norman Bethune (Chinese original title: 紀念 白求恩 Jinian Bai Qiu'en ), which was about Bethune's time in China. The writing was widespread at least in Mao's time. Mao wrote in the foreword: As a selfless internationalist, Doctor Bethune is a role model for everyone.
Norman Bethune College of Medicine
In 1939, Marshal Nie Rongzhen founded the Norman Bethune College of Medicine in Tang County, Hebei Province . It still exists today and belongs to Jilin University .
Further honors
- In 1998, Bethune was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame .
- In 2009, 56 million Internet users of Radio China International (CRI) voted for the “Top Ten International Friends” from abroad over the past 100 years. Bethune reached number 1 on the list.
- His birthplace in Gravenhurst is a National Historic Site
Norman Bethune statue, Bethune International Peace Hospital, Shijiazhuang
Tomb in Shijiazhuang Martyrs Cemetery (Bethune's actual tomb is in North China Martyrs Memorial Cemetery, Hebei Province)
literature
- Mao Tse-tung : The Memory of Bethune. In: Mao Tse-tung: Selected works, 2nd publishing house for foreign language literature , Beijing 1968, pp. 391–393
- Ted Allan , Sydney Gordon: Doctor on three continents. Translated by Eduard Klein . Verlag Volk und Welt , Berlin 1954 (From Canadian English: The Scalpel, the Sword. The Story of Dr. Norman Bethune. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, first 1952, last 1983)
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Thomas Oliver Newnham : Dr. Bethune's Angel: The Life of Kathleen Hall. Foreign Language Press, Beijing 2004 ISBN 7-119-03538-X
- Dr. Bethune's Angel: The Life of Kathleen Hall. Graphic Publications, Auckland 2002 ISBN 0-9597819-9-4
- Zhou Erfu: Doctor Norman Bethune. Foreign Language Press, Beijing 1982 ISBN 0-8351-0997-6
- Harry Lannant: Norman Bethune's Writing and Art. University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1998 ISBN 0-8020-0907-7
- Norman Bethune his time and his legacy. Canadian Public Health Association, Ottawa 1982 ISBN 0-919245-11-0
- Jean Ewen: China Nurse 1932-1939. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 1981 ISBN 0-7710-3092-4
- Wendell MacLeod, Libbie Park, Stanley Ryerson: Bethune: the Montreal Years. James Lorimer & Company, Toronto 1978 ISBN 0-88862-212-0
- Sylvia DuVernet: Norman Bethune Memorial Poems. University of Toronto Press 1990 ISBN 0-9693238-6-7
- Roderick Stewart: Bethune. New Press, Toronto 1973 ISBN 0-08-870191-3
- Roderick Stewart, Sharon Stewart: Phoenix: The Life of Norman Bethune. McGill Queens University Press, Montreal 2011 ISBN 0-7735-3819-4
- David Lethbridge: Norman Bethune in Spain. Commitment, Crisis, and Conspiracy. Sussex Academic, Eastbourne 2013
Web links
- Norman Bethune ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
- Jean Deslauriers and Denis Goulet: The medical life of Henry Norman Bethune. PMC 4676399 (free full text) Comprehensive biographical article (English)
- Kevin Levangie: “Born a Bourgeois. Died a Communist ”: Cultural Portrayals of Dr. Norman Bethune. 2016 (English, PDF)
- Norman Bethune College of Medicine
Individual evidence
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Bethune, Norman |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bethune, Henry Norman (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian doctor |
DATE OF BIRTH | March 3, 1890 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Gravenhurst, Ontario , Canada |
DATE OF DEATH | November 12, 1939 |
Place of death | Huangshikou , Tang County , Baoding City , Hebei Province , China |