Oskar Schindler, a German-Catholic industrialist, saved more Jews from the gas chamber than any other single person during World War II. As his legend grew, particularly after the release of Steven Spielberg's movie, Schindler's List, more stories of such courageous individuals were discovered around the world.
Ho Feng-shan (
His heroic past, along with those of other international diplomats, was told in a New York exhibition in April, "Visas for Life: The Righteous Diplomats," sponsored by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Risking his career and even his life, Ho issued visas that allowed Jews to escape the Nazis. As the exhibition proved about the diplomat who died in 1997, Taiwan people take pride in his courage and honor him as "Taiwan's Schindler."
Sadly, the name of the human rights hero was tainted with an impeachment for embezzlement in 1985, where he was charged by a former subordinate of embezzling US$300 and other minor counts.
Ho Feng-shan's son, Ho Mon-to (
Having collated records from evidence given by his father and written documents, Ho Mon-to and his younger sister became even more convinced their father was falsely accused and determined to put the record straight.
"When my father was appointed ambassador to Colombia, from Bolivia in 1970, he refused to recommend his subordinate to a consular position. This led to the subordinate's accusations two year later," said Ho.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs once sent its staff to investigate the accusations against my father and they found the story had been fabricated," Ho said. "But strangely enough, the ministry never released the results of the investigation nor told my father of them personally.
"It was only from media reports that my father came to know that his subordinate had filed complaints against him to the Control Yuan." The Control Yuan, the watchdog body for public officials, later referred the case to the Judicial Yuan's Committee on the Discipline of Public Functionaries (公務員懲戒委員會), which then impeached Ho Feng-shan and suspended him from official posts for three years in 1985.
Ho Feng-shan, who had already retired at the time of the impeachment, never returned to Taiwan to contradict the charges and spent the last years of his life in the US with his family.
Having tried in vain to exonerate his father's name, 73-year old Ho Mon-to said now is the best time to clear the accusations.
"Despite the results of its investigation, the foreign ministry has failed to restore my father's reputation. So it was with a feeling of irony that in April I saw the ministry honor my father as an outstanding diplomat who had made a great contribution to the country," Ho said.
"The disciplinary action actually had little effect on my father who had by then retired from official posts. But from our point of view as the son and daughter, we cannot allow his name to continue to be tainted by groundless charges."
Ho said few people can distinguish an accusation from a conviction and believes his father's reputation cannot be fully restored until the foreign ministry or judiciary formally quash the charges against him.
Israel's government, which has been dedicated to looking for "Schindlers" from different countries, is considering awarding a medal of grand-honor to the "Taiwan Schindler."
"For Taiwan, Ho's home country, the only way his honorable acts can be properly recognized is to clear his name," his son said. "Before then, it's impossible to talk about honor at all."
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