[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 93 (Friday, June 6, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5374-S5375]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING DR. FENG SHAN HO

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
the Senate now proceed to consideration of S. Res. 588, which was 
submitted earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:


[[Page S5375]]


       A resolution (S. Res. 588) honoring Dr. Feng Shan Ho, a man 
     of great courage and humanity, who saved the lives of 
     thousands of Austrian Jews between 1938 and 1940.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be 
agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be 
laid on the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 588) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 588

       Whereas, at great personal risk and sacrifice, Dr. Feng 
     Shan Ho authorized the issuance of Chinese visas to Jewish 
     persons so they could emigrate from Austria and escape the 
     horrors of the Holocaust;
       Whereas it is necessary to honor Dr. Ho posthumously 
     because, in the ultimate demonstration of selfless 
     humanitarianism, Dr. Ho never sought recognition for his 
     courageous actions;
       Whereas 70 years ago, Adolf Hitler's troops crossed into 
     Austria and announced the Anschluss (the annexation of 
     Austria to Germany), thereby applying all anti-Semitic 
     decrees to Austrian Jews;
       Whereas the Nazis brutally persecuted more than 200,000 
     Austrian Jews, by forcibly segregating them, depriving them 
     of their citizenship and livelihoods, and interning them in 
     concentration camps;
       Whereas the fierceness of the persecution in Austria became 
     the model for the future persecution of Jews in other Nazi-
     conquered territories;
       Whereas the Nazis initially assumed a policy of coerced 
     expulsion, with the goal of eventually removing all Jewish 
     persons from Europe;
       Whereas most other foreign consulates, although besieged by 
     desperate Jews, offered no help;
       Whereas a young Chinese diplomat in Vienna, Dr. Feng Shan 
     Ho, refused to stand by and witness the destruction of 
     innocent human beings, and authorized the issuance of visas 
     for all Jews who asked;
       Whereas word spread quickly and Jewish persons formed long 
     lines in front of the Chinese Consulate to obtain the 
     lifesaving visas;
       Whereas the Chinese ambassador in Berlin ordered Dr. Ho to 
     stop authorizing visas for Jews, but Dr. Ho nevertheless 
     continued, at risk to his career, to prepare the visas;
       Whereas in 1939, the Nazis confiscated the Chinese 
     Consulate building, on the grounds that it was a Jewish-owned 
     building;
       Whereas, when the Chinese government refused funds to 
     relocate the Consulate, Dr. Ho reopened the Consulate in 
     another building and personally paid all the expenses;
       Whereas in May 1940, Dr. Ho left Vienna, having authorized 
     visas for thousands of Austrian Jews;
       Whereas after 4 decades in diplomatic service to China, in 
     1973, Dr. Ho moved to the United States to join his children;
       Whereas Dr. Ho became a United States citizen and lived in 
     San Francisco until September 28, 1997, when he passed away 
     at the age of 96;
       Whereas, the world only knows of Dr. Ho's courageous 
     actions because of a chance discovery among his diplomatic 
     papers after his death, and the full extent of Dr. Ho's 
     heroism is still being uncovered; and
       Whereas, in 2000, the State of Israel posthumously made Dr. 
     Ho an honorary citizen of Israel and granted him one of 
     Israel's highest honors, the title of Righteous Among the 
     Nations, ``for his humanitarian courage in issuing Chinese 
     visas to Jews in Vienna in spite of orders from his superior 
     to the contrary'': Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) honors and salutes the great courage and humanity of 
     Dr. Feng Shan Ho for acting at great personal risk to issue 
     Chinese visas to Jews in Vienna between 1938 and 1940; and
       (2) recognizes his heroic deeds in saving the lives of 
     thousands of Jewish persons by allowing them to escape the 
     Holocaust.

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