Cherishing the Memory of My Father

ovember 16， 2014 marked the 10th anniversary of the passing of my father Richard Frey. Over that time， when sorting out books， writings and other materials left by him， I came to know more of family history and many parts of his life previously unfamiliar to me. This has made me miss him all the more.

My father was born into a well-off middle-class Jewish family in Vienna in February 1920. My grandfather named the new arrival， his only son， as Richard Stein. My grandfather was a tax collector and grandmother a dressmaker， both receiving a good education before the First World War. During the war， my grandfather was an army quartermaster and grandmother a nurse. They met on the battlefield and married when the war was over. Those who knew my grandfather say he was a very attractive man， so it’s a pity I have never seen him. Wurst， my father’s childhood friend—they were together from kindergarten to graduation from junior middle school—once told me： “Your grandfather lived in a house on Nussdorfer Street of the Ninth District not far from where musician Franz Schubert was born. My family lived opposite， so I often went to your grandfather’s house. He was not very talkative. Your grandmother was straightforward and warm-hearted. Your father Richard had great confidence in himself， not because he was the tallest in his class， but because he did very well at school and was honest and upright. After Hitler came into power， your father became very active at school and may well have been a member of the Communist Party. Your grandmother was afraid that he might get into trouble， so she kept a close eye on him.”

At the beginning of 1934， when my father was aged 14， a civil war broke out in Austria because of economic depression and the growth of fascism. The Social Democrats and the working class fighting for democracy and freedom launched protest marches that later developed into a desperate street fighting against government troops. There were a few boys who took part， carrying ammunition for the revolutionary forces and helping wounded fighters. One of them was my father. After four days of fierce fighting， the revolutionary forces were cruelly suppressed by the government troops. The spilling of blood by the Social Democrats and the working class made my father realize his social responsibility from which emerged his goal in life of fighting for peace and justice.

After the civil war， my father secretly joined the Communist Youth League led by the Austrian Communist Party （ACP）， and took part in the first aid training it organized. He had aspired to study medicine since childhood. When my grandparents realized his talent in it， they managed to create conditions for his study. At that time Vienna was the center of modern medical science in the world. With the support of my grandparents， besides studying in a school of liberal arts and sciences， my father attended some training courses in medical specialties. Helped by family members and friends， later， my father learned radiography in the Institute of Radiology Holzknecht and Kaiser Franz Joseph-Ambulatorium und Jubilaumsspital. In addition， he often went to Vienna University near his home to sit in on classes in the Department of Chemistry. During this time he made friends with some students who were ACP members and he joined the Party in 1937. At school he secretly propagated communist theory and， after school， he took part in underground activities against fascism. As a result， he was on the Gestapo blacklist.

At the end of 1938， the underground ACP informed my father that he must leave Vienna within 24 hours to escape Gestapo arrest. He had to give up the medical work he loved and part from his girlfriend Hanna， a staunch anti-fascist fighter. He hurriedly took leave of his parents and quickly boarded a train heading south. Vienna then was under a white terror. The Central Committee of the ACP was forced to evacuate to Moscow， and most of father’s comrades-in-arms （including his sponsor when he applied for Party membership） went to the United States， although Hanna travelled to Britain. On the spur of the moment， my father chose to go to China because he had learned at school that the Communist Party of China （CPC） had its own army.

After escaping from Austria， he got to Genoa， an Italian seaport， via Switzerland and， after more than three weeks at sea， finally reached Shanghai， China in early 1939. At first， he worked in the Shanghai Infectious Disease Hospital. Before long， he sought to join the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression， leaving Shanghai on a long journey to North China. He worked successively in the German-American Hospital in Tianjin， Beijing Douw Hospital， Xingtai Gospel Hospital and the Dr. （John Kenneth） Mackenzie Memorial Hospital in Tianjin. While doing medical work， he tried hard to make contact with the CPC military forces.

In 1941， at last， my father got in touch with CPC’s underground organization in Beiping. With its help， and at great risk， he crossed the enemy’s blockade line to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei anti-Japanese battlefront， and joined the Eighth Route Army. There， Commander Nie Rongzhen changed father’s name from Richard Stein to Richard Frey with his consent.

He told Nie Rongzhen he wanted to take part in Party activities， but was informed that this was impossible under Party regulations as he was unable to present a recommendation letter from the ACP at that time. Nie hoped my father would prove himself fit to be a qualified Party member through his deeds. He took part in many battles against the Japanese troops， treating numerous wounded officers and soldiers fighting against Japanese aggressors and training over a thousand Eighth Route Army doctors and medical workers.

In 1943， the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border area was infected with malaria. Due to the Japanese military blockade， there was a serious shortage of quinine， but my father then learned from experienced local doctors of traditional Chinese medicine and used acupuncture and moxibustion to treat malaria patients. He visited most of the local hospitals， army field hospitals， emergency operation stations， nursing homes and clinics in the border area， popularizing the therapy to treat malaria-infected patients， effectively controlling and finally eliminating the epidemic.

For this work， Mao Zedong and Zhu De especially cited him， and the citation was circulated to the entire army. The American journalist Agnes Smedley introduced Frey’s deeds to American combat medics. In 1944， recommended by Nie Rongzheng and approved by Peng Zhen， who was then Minister of the Organization Department of the CPC， my father， an Austrian fighter for international communism， at last joined the Party and realized his long cherished wish to promote revolution in China.

（In 2011， seven years after his death， the Austrian Communist Party sent a special letter to the CPC Central Committee， giving a detailed explanation about his ACP membership， thus concluding this historical problem.）

In early 1945， in order to solve the problem of shortage of doctors and medicine in the army， my father， through Madame Soong Ching Ling， got in touch with the China Aid Council of the United States. After writing many letters to it， he finally got the penicillin strain and some equipment from the United States. Soon， under the extremely difficult conditions in Yan’an， he and his assistants， after more than 50 tests， successfully produced for the first time in China primarily processed penicillin and penicillin for external use.

This helped solve the problem of medicine badly needed by the troops at the front and people in the base areas， and saved the lives of many wounded soldiers. As a result， however， until the end of the “cultural revolution”， he was secretly blacklisted as a suspected spy who had illicit relations with foreign countries.

After joining the Eighth Route Army in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border area， he completely lost touch with his girlfriend Hanna back home and broke contact with my grandparents who following him had come to Shanghai. After the victory of the anti-Japanese war， most of the international fighters who had supported China’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression left China one after another and returned to their homes.

My grandparents also returned to Vienna having not been able to get any news in Shanghai. By then， my father had come to love China and its people. He decided to stay in the country. On the eve of the victory of the anti-Japanese war， he married my mother， Li Bingzhu， a veteran fighter in the anti-Japanese war， in Yan’an to establish his own family in China.

When the War of Liberation began， he went to Zhangjiakou from Yan’an. He was put in charge of reorganizing the Mengjiang Hospital recovered from the Japanese puppet regime and continued his work of developing and producing penicillin to supply the battlefront. He took part in the storming of the heavily fortified Datong， the battle of Taiyuan and the battle to liberate Tianjin， and saved the lives of many wounded soldiers.

On the eve of liberation of China， he and Qian Xinzhong were sent to the Second Field Army. From then on， in the large contingents of the southward-advancing army there appeared a tall foreign soldier.

After the whole country was liberated， he threw himself into the cause of developing medical science and the medical services of New China. In the early years after liberation， he worked in the faraway backward southwest region. He often went deep into the countryside and the areas inhabited by ethnic minorities， studying endemic and infectious diseases there.

He wrote and compiled books on health care and many other important items of medical literature， providing a large number of full and accurate precious materials for disease prevention in China. In 1962， he was transferred from the Chongqing College of Medicine to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences， working as an advisor to the academy in charge of medical information. In the 1980s， under his leadership， the National Center and the Network Center of Biomedical Information， the first large Center of Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System （MEDLARS） and the MEDLINE Data Bank were established.

He went to all major regions of the country to organize and hold training courses on modern management of medical information and made important contributions to the modernization of biomedical information and medical libraries in China. Later， I learned that the tens of thousands of cards on medical literature he had collected and filed every day over the years laid the groundwork for today’s MEDLARS and MEDLINE.

After retiring from his leading post， he was still very much concerned about the development of China’s medical information. He offered many constructive suggestions and traveled to many countries and over 20 Chinese provinces and cities， helping to build a bridge for exchange in medical research between China and foreign countries.

In 1961， my grandfather passed away and in 1962， in order to see my grandmother， my father returned to his hometown of Vienna that he had left 24 years before. He had mixed feelings of sadness and joy regarding this first trip back to Europe after the war. My grandmother took him to pay respect at the tombs to dozens of their relatives who had been cruelly killed by the Fascists in Austria and Czechoslovakia.

（To be continued）