Heroic Refugees, Past and Present

In early 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg handed over the chancellor's seal to Hitler, and Germany fell to the power of the Nazis. Two months later, over the turbulent Pacific Ocean, an old man played a violin on a ship from the U.S. to Belgium to raise money for persecuted German Jews. This man learnt from the radio that the Nazi Storm Troopers had ransacked his house at Caputh "in search of weapons," and a street named after him was re-named. He delivered a public address on the ship: "These people broke into my home with weapons and ransacked it, [this is] only one example of the unrestrained violence currently taking place in Germany. This is the result of the government handing police power overnight to a group of Nazi thugs..."

On March 28, the ship arrived at the Antwerp Port. The mayor of Antwerp and many Belgian scholars welcomed him and invited him to take refuge in Belgium. He went to Brussels, placed his German passport in front of the German ambassador and officially declared the renunciation of his German citizenship. This man was Albert Einstein.

From then on, until his death in 1955, this great scientist never again set foot in Germany.

Einstein didn't have to flee to a foreign country. If he had compromised his principles, he could have enjoyed privilege and fame because of his influence in the scientific community, like other scholars at the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He probably would have been sent to German-occupied regions as was Werner Heisenberg, to play the role of "good-will ambassador." Albert Einstein could have also chosen to stay in the academic ivory tower and focus on science, but he chose to leave, because his values and humanitarian principles forbade him from remaining in the same country with the Nazis who massacred the Jews.

A large photography book published in Germany containing pictures entitled, "Enemies of the Third Reich" displays Einstein's picture on the first page. The caption following the photograph states, "Yet to be hung." Despite death threats, Einstein still made speeches to help the public gain a clear understanding of the Nazis.

Seventy years later, what kind-hearted people could not have expected is that Jiang Zemin in China is carrying out a similar campaign of genocide, although it is more hidden than Hitler's slaughter of the Jews. A group of well-educated and well-paid refugees fled China although they wanted to contribute to the development of their country. Jiang demonised these people and from personal spite and resentment, claimed they were enemies of the state. Jiang's followers cancelled their passports and they lost their citizenship. They were treated unjustly merely because they wanted to say "no" to Jiang's atrocities, to call for help to rescue the persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China, to call on the international community to help end the persecution, and to expose the shocking genocide.

I know several such refugees. They are intelligent and trustworthy friends. If they had gone along with the Chinese totalitarian regime they could have had their passports extended; they could have visited their elderly parents in China, and they would have not been followed and harassed by spies, had their phones tapped and even their personal safety threatened while in foreign countries. However, they chose to remain loyal to the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I believe in my friends. Their morality and levels of education are representative of the more than 70 Falun Gong practitioners who have had their passports cancelled by Chinese consulates in 17 countries.

Einstein said this in his letter to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, "You said if I could say 'something good' about the 'German people' it would have great influence in foreign countries. Regarding this, I must respond as follows: asking me to testify as you suggested is the same as asking me to completely give up my lifelong understandings of justice and freedom. Such testimony will not speak for the benefit of the German people as you said; on the contrary, it will only benefit certain people who are planning to sabotage opinions and principles that have enabled the German people to earn their glorious place in the civilised world. If [I] give such testimony under the current circumstances I would be contributing to moral decay and the destruction of all existing cultural values, even if only in an indirect way." [Paraphrase]

These refugee friends of mine adhere to their belief in the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, which are universally acknowledged values that are deeply rooted in traditional Chinese culture. These principles also ensure the long-term, peaceful development of the world, while Jiang's persecution of this belief takes another extreme. Jiang's persecution is, in Einstein's words, "contributing to moral decay and the destruction of all existing cultural values." From this perspective, the significance of these refugees' refusal to compromise becomes clear.

Although these Falun Gong practitioners lost their citizenship, they are not to be looked down on; on the contrary, the practitioners in China who persist in their belief despite the ruthless persecution are models of morality. When the persecution ends and the truth is revealed before all, their morality and courage will be remembered and talked about amongst people just as we talk about the noble deeds of Einstein in WWII today.