Dr. Yaakov Rozenfeld

In China he is considered a national hero, but in Israel almost no one has heard of him. The Jewish fighter Jacob Rosenfeld was born in 1903 in Lemberg, Austro-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine).

In 1910 the family moved to Lollersdorf in Lower Austria. In 1921 he began medical studies at the University of Vienna, in 1928 he qualified as a doctor and specialized in urology and gynecology. In 1934 he opened a clinic in the city of Wiener Neustadt with his sister, who was a general practitioner and dentist. In 1938, after the “Anschluss”, he was arrested in the street by the Gestapo, sent to “Dachau” and from there to “Buchenwald”. The prisoners who were with him in the camps told about his special character and his courage in providing medical help, at great personal risk. Then. About a year, in June 1939, he was released, on the condition that he leave the country within two weeks. He returned to Vienna and from there managed to escape with his brother to China, with the help of the Chinese consul. He opened a clinic and settled in the Shanghai ghetto (which was then under Japanese occupation).

In March 1941, despite his well-established financial situation, he joined the Chinese army and served in the Fourth Army which fought in southern China around Shanghai. He served as a surgeon at the field hospital and as a medical advisor to the army headquarters and its subordinate brigades. He operated on wounded soldiers, treated thousands of villagers and delivered babies. In 1943 he was transferred to the Eighth Army in northern China and served as a field doctor and medical advisor to the Shandong military area. He advanced to the position of chief medical officer, and was promoted to the rank of general by the chairman of the Central Council of the Chinese Communist Party – Mao Zedong. In the spring of 1944, he initiated the establishment of a hospital, which was bombed by the Japanese and rebuilt in 1946. In 1945, he was appointed a doctor of the First Army in Manz Varia

In 1946 he was appointed chief of medicine in the established army. It was an unusual appointment, as Dr. Rosenfeld was the only foreigner ever appointed to such a position in the entire history of the Chinese military. At that time there were no ranks in the military, but his position was equivalent to the rank of general. He served as a medical adviser to the military area The North-East (Manchuria), designed the medical infrastructure of the army and was responsible for building hospitals and training medical teams. He was admired for his work in the medical and humanitarian field and for the assistance he provided during the war, when he treated officers, belters and simple peasants alike and became one of the most famous warriors in the Chinese army.

In 1952 he died of a heart attack and was buried in Kiryat Shaul.

After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Israel in 1993, his grave became a pilgrimage site for guests from China – a symbol of friendship between the nations. In China a monument was built in his memory and a street was named after him. His diary is displayed in the exhibition. A hospital in Shandong province where he worked is named after him and his statue is placed there. In 2003, on the centenary of his birth, China Post issued a special series of stamps in his honor.

His statue was placed in 2016 at the Jewish Refugee Museum in Shanghai. In 1993 a plaque was placed at the entrance to the hospital in Graz, Austria. In 1999, an exhibition was dedicated to him at Beit Hatfusot. As part of the “Year of China” of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an exhibition about his life and work was opened in 2006 at the Jewish Museum in Vienna.