Ho Carlson spoke about grandfather's efforts to help Jews during the Holocaust

On Tuesday, November 18, about 45 people gathered at the Congregation Emanu-El Israel (CEI) social hall to listen to Bettie Ho Carlson speak about her grandfather, Dr. Feng Shan Ho and how he helped rescue hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust.

The main point that Ho Carlson emphasized to the audience was that to her family, her grandfather was just an average man, and that she did not even learn of what her grandfather did during the Holocaust until she was in her adult years, with children of her own. “When I was asked to speak, I did not know really how to, because to me, he was just my grandfather,” she said.

As James Wong states in his research, “Jews, fleeing for their lives, usually needed government permission from the countries they were trying to enter. Obtaining this permission required a visa with an endorsement - often in the form of a stamp or signature on a passport from the consular office. While a transit visa did not allow a person to remain in a particular country, it did grant safe passage from danger.”

And as Ho Carlson was able to portray in her speech, Shan Ho was one of the diplomats that granted those stamps and signatures. “He wrote anywhere from 700 to 900 visa’s a month,” said Ho Carlson.

Shan Ho, who although was eventually fired from his position and later sided with the Nationalists when the Communists came to power in China, was under suspicion for misappropriation and denied a pension for his forty years of diplomatic services, was still awarded the title Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli organization Yad Vashem in 2001.“Because of the investigation, the award was not given to my grandfather until three years after he had died,” said Ho Carlson.

Ho Carlson also expressed how her grandfather thought what he was doing, was what everyone should have been doing. “It wasn’t a big deal to him - he thought everyone should have been doing what he did,” she said.

“I think he just thought prejudice was wrong…he just thought that no one should be treated that way when they had done nothing wrong,” Ho Carlson said. “He thought it was the right thing to do and didn’t know why more people weren’t doing the same to help those people.”

Terri Katzman, member of the CEI, who also helped to organize the event said, “We hear about the Holocaust so much for different ways and it is so great to hear it from the view of someone on the other side; that helped the Jews in such a great way.”

“We’ve met many of the survivors that my grandfather has helped to save and to me, their stories have just been phenomenal to hear,” said Ho Carlson.

Though the event focused around the work that Shan Ho was able to accomplish during the Holocaust despite what he was told, the underlying message rang true; to stand up for what you believe in, regardless of who is working against you. In his own words, Feng Shan Ho once said, “I thought it only natural to feel compassion and want to help. From the standpoint of humanity, that is the way it should be.”

Those that attended the event were able to also look over some articles and photos that Ho Carlson brought.