Fu Lai, an Austrian doctor who has devoted his life to the medical cause of New China

Fu Lai, an "international communist fighter" who made great contributions to the Chinese War of Resistance, rested in peace with Bethune and Dr. Ke Dihua in the Jin-Cha-Ji Martyrs' Cemetery in Tang County, Hebei Province. On both sides of Fu Lai's tomb there is a pair of ribbons - "traveling thousands of miles to devote himself to the cause of the Chinese revolution and dedicate his life to promoting the spirit of internationalism", which is a pertinent evaluation of the old Bolshevik.

He threw himself into the cause of the Chinese revolution without hesitation

During World War II, the German fascists pursued an anti-Semitic policy after annexing Austria, ordering the arrest and massacre of Austrian Communist Party members and patriots. At the end of 1938, Fu Lai, an 18-year-old austrian young doctor, in order to escape the Gestapo's pursuit and support China's War of Resistance Against Japan, took a passenger ship alone and came to China after a one-month ocean voyage, which began the long years of his devotion to China's revolutionary construction for more than 60 years.

Because of his opposition to fascism and admiration for the Chinese Communist Party, Fu Lai painstakingly pursued the traces of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and other places. After several tosses and turns, it took 3 years, and finally in 1941, I looked forward to the news of the underground party organization of the CPC, and received a message from Nie Rongzhen, commander of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, welcoming him to work in the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region. Fu Lai, who heard the news, was overjoyed, feeling "like seeing the dawn in the darkness, like an orphan returning to his mother's arms." In the autumn of the same year, Fu Lai, who had gone through twists and turns, finally arrived at the long-awaited Jin-Cha-Ji base area under the escort of the underground party and guerrillas, and met Commander Nie Rongzhen.

After Fu Lai came into contact with the Eighth Route Army, he felt that such an organization was consistent with his beliefs and his pursuits.

Fu Lai needed to have a Chinese name in China, and Nie Rongzhen named him Fu Lai according to his German name pronunciation, because "Fu Lai" is a consonant for "freedom" in German, so it is good to call him the Eighth Route Army in pursuit of freedom. After nie Rongzhen consulted him, he arranged for him to serve as a teacher at the Bethune International Peace Hospital Affiliated Health School, where Dr. Ke Dihua was the president. The internationalist fighter traveled far and wide to smoke-filled China, and in the decades since, he has traveled every inch of the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region.

Successful trial production of penicillin

In the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region, 21-year-old Fu Lai began to actively participate in frontline battles, mainly engaged in medical teaching and scientific research. During his teaching work, Fu Lai tried every means to overcome the difficulties of lack of teaching materials and experimental equipment, and trained a large number of urgently needed medical workers and medical cadres for the troops. In addition, he also devoted himself to the treatment and research of infectious diseases, studied traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, and used the combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine to treat many anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians, known as "living Bethune". Lorraine, who served as a professor at the Central Party School after liberation, was the first scientific test subject of Fu Lai's treatment of infectious tuberculosis, and Professor Lorraine fondly recalled: "Dr. Fu Lai is a savior I can never forget. In the process of treatment, the two established a precious friendship that lasted for more than half a century.

At the inaugural meeting of the Natural Science Research Society held in 1942, Fu Lai made an academic report on "Diagnosis and Treatment of Scabies, Tuberculosis and Malaria", and became the leader of the teaching of infectious diseases in the Health School. In 1943, measles and malaria were rampant in the Jin-Cha-Ji base area, and Fu Lai combined traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine to find a way to treat malaria with acupuncture, saving the lives of many military and civilians in the base areas, and was praised by Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and Nie Rongzhen, and reported to the whole army for praise. In 1944, through Nie Rongzhen's introduction, Fu Lai joined the Communist Party of China, fulfilling his long-cherished wish to continue the revolution in China as an Austrian communist fighter.

Penicillin is a potent medicine for war wounds and many infections, but it is extremely scarce in the Chinese battlefield. Faced with the current situation of lack of medical treatment and heavy casualties in the base area, Fu Lai made up his mind to develop penicillin and save the lives of thousands of soldiers and civilians. From March 1945, he used the penicillin strains and some written materials provided by the American Committee for China Aid to start an experiment in the trial production of penicillin in a cave in the village of Dongliushudian in Yan'an City, using harsh and simple medical equipment. After more than 50 failures, Fu Lai developed a special drug developed in Europe and the United States with developed medical technology and equipment for more than ten years - the initial penicillin and topical penicillin, which greatly reduced the infection mortality rate of soldiers. "Liberation Daily" once wrote: "Penicillin is one of the world's elixirs... Now, through Dr. Fu Lai's painstaking study, the successful trial production in the culturally backward border areas will make great contributions to ensuring the health of the people and cadres and enhancing the strength of the War of Resistance. ”

He has contributed to the medical cause of New China all his life

After the founding of New China, the 29-year-old Fu Lai had difficulty leaving this hot land and chose to continue to stay in China and dedicate himself to the medical cause of New China. At the beginning of the liberation, he carried out disease investigation and prevention in southwest China for a long time. In 1952, he applied for Chinese nationality, growing from a humanitarian who sympathized with the anti-fascist cause of the Chinese people to a staunch anti-aggression fighter, from an international friend of the Chinese people to a member of the Chinese people. In 1962, when Fu Lai's family returned to Austria to visit their relatives, some people speculated that he would definitely not return to China again, but he returned as scheduled. He said: "I participated in a great experiment in China, that is, the cause of socialism under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, which is still under way, and I cannot abandon the cause for which I am fighting for my personal interests halfway." ”

In the following years, Fu Lai became the advocate and builder of China's medical information modernization project, led the construction of the first large-scale medical literature computer retrieval system in the mainland, and ended the history of manual retrieval of Chinese medical literature; he successively served as a member of the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, actively participated in the administration and discussion of politics, and worked hard to provide suggestions and suggestions for the development of the national economy and medical reform; he won the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government Award, the National Ministry of Health Scientific Contribution Award, the Chinese Medical Association Award, the Independence Freedom Medal of the People's Republic of China, Liberation Medal of the Third Degree, etc.

In 2004, Fu Lai died of illness in Beijing at the age of 84. Before his death, he made a will to donate his body to a medical career for research purposes. In 2006, funded by the National Committee of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference, the Austrian President wrote an inscription and erected the Fuley Monument at a school in Vienna where he had attended. Fu Lai is a persistent follower of the revolutionary construction cause of the Communist Party of China, has a firm belief in communism, adheres to his original intention in the torrent of the times, has achieved his brilliant life with a fearless revolutionary spirit, and contributed his life's energy and wisdom to China's medical cause.