Cherishing Memory of Internationalist Fighter Dr.Richard Frey

Cherishing Memory of Internationalist Fighter Dr.Richard Frey Cherishing Memory of Internationalist Fighter Dr.Richard Frey Doctor Richard Frey, original name being Richard Stein, was born in Vienna on February 11, 1920. During his school days, he already took part in some activities organized by the Austrian Communist Party and got initial knowledge about Marxism. He loved science and attended medical training courses to learn how to operate X-ray machine, make laboratory tests, give protective inoculation and first-aid treatment, etc. In 1937 he joined the Communist Youth League led by the Austrian Communist Party. After Fascist Germany annexed Aus- tria on March 13, 1938, he was blacklisted by the secret service and could be arrested at any time because he opposed Hitler. In December 1938, the underground Austrian Communist Party organization told him to evacuate to other places immediately. In January 1939, Frey who was only 19 years old took leave of his family, boarded an ocean liner and went to Shanghai hoping to find and join the Eighth Route Army led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). He knew that at that time China was fighting against the Japanese fascist aggression and the Eighth Route Army led by the CPC was fighting bloody battles against the aggressors. So even when still aboard the liner he started to inquire about how he could find the Eighth Route Army and got to know that Madame Soong Ching Ling in Hong Kong could help him. When the liner berthed at Hong Kong for half a day, he went ashore to look for the Eighth Route Army, but failed to find it as he was unfamiliar with the place and people there. On January 15, 1939 the liner arrived in Shanghai. Helped by some European in exile, he stayed in a reception centre run by a charity organization and worked temporarily in a hospital for infectious diseases and at the same time tried to find out the whereabouts of the Eighth Route Army. Later he worked in hospitals in Tianjin and Beiping. Introduced by the CPC underground organization in Beiping, the 21-year-old Frey at last got to Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Command. Commander Nie Rongzhen received him and invited him to work as a teacher of infectious diseases in the Bethune Medical School in Gegong Village of Tangxian County, Hebei Province. Dr. Kotnis also taught in that medical school where Jiang Yizhen served as principal. Dr. Frey worked very hard. He spent a lot of time in preparing every lesson. He first wrote the lecture notes in German, then with the help of Chinese comrades and the dictionary, translated the notes into Chinese with phonetic symbols. He studied Chinese hard and made improvement quickly. Besides teaching, he also gave treatment to the sick and wounded. Living and working conditions in the border area were very poor, and there were very few medical examination apparatus and instruments. Once, a comrade suffered from typhoid fever. Thanks to the strict precautionary measures taken by Dr. Frey, no transmission of the disease occurred in the school. Dr. Frey had a heavy working task and lived under poor conditions. But he overcame all difficulties and lived a hard but happy life as other comrades. In Lingshou and Chenzhuang in the border area, he gave a lecture entitled Diagnosis and Treatment of Scabies, Tuberculosis and Malaria at the inauguration of the Research Institute of Natural Science and then attended the meeting on hygiene held by the Military Command. At the inauguration of the Medical Instruction Committee of the Military Command he was elected member of the committee. Since then, he took the lead in teaching infectious diseases in the Norman Bethune Medical School. Wherever there was infectious disease, there was he. Dr. Frey was one of the three doctors who stayed in the Medical School for the longest time: first Dr. Norman Bethune, then Dr. Kotnis and him. In 1944, he went to Yan’an and in the early 1945 he saw penicillin strain and read about it in some papers provided by American friends to the Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Area. Supported by the medical department of the Military Command, he set up a laboratory in Zhangjiakou, began his research on the production of penicillin and achieved success. Penicillin, one of the most effective antibiotics in the world, was invented by the American medical circles. Through Dr. Frey’s painstaking research, it was produced in the backward border area, contributing greatly to protecting the health of the people and cadres and enhancing strength against Japanese aggression. Dr. Frey loved China. In 1952 he applied for naturalization. Since then he worked in the information section of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and was elected member of the National Committee of the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In his last years, he offered to donate his remains to China’s medical cause and asked to scatter his ashes in Tangxian County of Hebei Province, the revolutionary base where he had once fought. Dr. Frey passed away at the age of 84 on November 16, 2004. He had dedicated all his life to the cause of the Chinese liberation and construction. During his lifetime, he was awarded and commended many times by the Chinese government and received the Medal of Independence and Freedom and the Medal of Liberation of s Republic of China and won the prize for contribution to science awarded by the the People’ Ministry of Health. In 2005, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World People’s Anti-Fascist War, his son, on behalf of him, accepted the commemorative gold medal of the victory of the War of Resistance. Dr. Frey’s tomb is in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Cemetery of Revolutionary Martyrs in Juncheng of Tangxian County where he once fought. The tombs of Dr. Bethune and Dr. Kotnis are also in this cemetery. In front of his tomb is his white marble bust and on the hexagonal stone seat behind his bust there is a big white marble globe with the map of the world. With the completion of his tomb a new bridge of friendship has been built to further promote friendly exchanges between the Chinese and Austrian people.