During the outbreak of World War II, an ordinary Chinese woman saved countless Belgians from the guns of the Nazi German army, even the high-ranking politicians of the time could not do it. After world war II, she stood up in court-martial for General Alexander von Färgenhausen, Germany's number one war criminal in Belgium, despite all the insults and obstructions.
Her name is Qian Xiuling, born in 1912, born in Xinzhuang Town, Yixing, the family belongs to the local famous family, but she has not been arrogant since she was a child, and she is peaceful. Her cousin Qian Zhuolun, who held the rank of Kuomintang lieutenant general, once served as the director of the first department of the Kuomintang Ministry of National Defense and other important national defense positions.
Qian Xiuling has loved chemistry since she was a child, and Joliot Curie is her idol. Although she was a woman of the old times, she had great ambitions like all young men.
At the age of 17, she went alone to the chemistry department of the University of Leuven in Belgium, and during her time at the school, the beautiful and oriental charm of Qian Xiuling harvested her love in college.
At the age of 22, Qian Xiuling not only successfully completed her studies, but also obtained a doctorate from the University of Leuven in Belgium at that time, becoming the only Chinese female doctoral student.
At the age of 23, Qian Xiuling married Grecia of Russian and Greek descent, in fact, this marriage was not favored by the conservative family at all, but in the turbulent years that followed, they walked together for 60 years.
After marriage, Qian Xiuling, who had not fulfilled her wish to serve the motherland, has been trying her best to persuade her husband to return to China to settle down. Unfortunately, however, when it was ready to leave, Japan launched a war of aggression against China, and its plan to return to China was shattered.
At the age of 27, Qian Xiuling's scientific dreams never changed, and she decided to go to Paris to follow Jolio Curie. When she arrived at the Atomic Energy Institute headed by Joliot Curie in Paris, unfortunately World War II broke out in Europe and the whole of Paris had fallen and was controlled by the Nazi Germans. The research institute was already empty, and later through inquiry, I learned that it had moved to the United States.
The disappointed Qian Xiuling was shattered by Japan, the scientific dream was shattered by Nazi Germany, and the whole person returned to Belgium like a lost soul. But when she returned, Belgium was already under Nazi German control, and in order to escape the war, she and her husband settled in a remote town of Eheidum to run a clinic to make ends meet.
One day in May 1940, the people of the town rushed to tell each other, and a brave young man in the town, Roger, risked his life to blow up the German railway with a mine, exposed the matter, was arrested and imprisoned, and was about to be executed three days later.
A few days later, Roger's big wedding, his parents washed their faces with tears all day, begged helplessly, and looked for the King of Belgium at that time, but the Gestapo leader did not buy the king's face at all, and the whole town fell into helplessness and despair, because Roger was the hero of the town.
Qian Xiuling, who inherited as a righteous qian Xiuling, told herself that she could not sit idly by, and she learned that General Alexander von Falgenhausen, the top administrator of the German army in the Belgian theater of operations at that time, had served as a military adviser to the Kuomintang and was a friend of her cousin Qian Zhuolun.
She remembers her cousin Chandollen leaving, handing her a picture, dotingly touching her head and telling her, if anything happens in Europe, contact Von, he is a German celebrity and will definitely help you.
When she told the townspeople that she could save Roger, people didn't believe that the skinny Chinese woman in front of her could do it, after all, the powerful king was helpless.
In fact, at that time, Qian Xiuling also had doubts, but after all, saving people was like putting out a fire, even if her reputation was discredited, she still had to try. So she immediately wrote to Roger from a humanitarian point of view, pleading that Roger be spared the death penalty.
Early the next morning, she took her eldest son, a joint letter of intercession from the townspeople and a photograph of her cousin to Brussels, the capital, 160 kilometers away.
Seeing Feng, Qian Xiuling introduced herself and explained her intentions straight away. Feng looked at the sister of the old friend in front of him, the young girl, sighed in her heart for her courage and spirit of saving people, hesitated and said: "I will find a way, let me try it!" And when Qian Xiuling left, she did not forget to instruct her, "If you need my help, you can come to me at any time."
A few days later, Roger actually returned to the town, and the incident quickly spread from the town to the whole belgium, and Qian Xiuling became a national hero, and this day happened to be her birthday.
Feng did not forget his old love affair with his cousin Qian Zhuolun and pardoned 2 Rogers, because at that time he found that 2 young people in the arresters were named Roger, so he directly pardoned 2 Rogers.
Later, people from all parts of Belgium who encountered those detained by the German army would turn to Qian Xiuling for help.
On June 7, 1944, in the city of Akchen, guerrillas killed 3 German troops. In retaliation, the Germans immediately arrested 97 local young men and demanded that the local people immediately hand over the murderers, or else 15 would be executed every once in a while. But where there are guerrillas here, desperate people have found Qian Xiuling for help.
At that time, Qian Xiuling did not say a word, stood up with a pregnant belly, stood up to the night, rode in a broken car, and rushed to Brussels at the risk of gunfire and bullets. Before she could speak, Feng already knew her intentions and was very embarrassed because of his war-weariness and the release of too many people, which caused the Gestapo to be dissatisfied and was monitored, and Feng was also unable to protect himself.
A few days later, however, 97 young people were miraculously released. Von was then removed from his post as the supreme commander of the Belgian theater and transferred back to Berlin.
After the war, Qian Xiuling's heroic rescue deeds under the guns of the German army have not been forgotten by the Belgians.
On Belgium's National Day, when Qian Xiuling appeared at the celebration venue in the city of Aixing, the whole audience boiled over, and people shouted "Virgin Mary" and "Belgian Mother".
The mayor of Eksing announced: "In order to let the Belgian people always remember, the name of this Chinese who saved the lives of the Belgian people will be named 'Mrs. Qian Road'
The Belgian government sent officials from the capital to the city of Aixing: "Thanks to the unremitting efforts of Ms. Qian Xiuling and the tireless efforts, she has saved countless lives and allowed hundreds of families to be reunited from the new, she is the pride of China, but also the pride of Belgium, and the Belgian people will always thank her".
Qian Xiuling was awarded the supreme "National Hero" medal.
In 1948, Feng was extradited to Belgium as the supreme commander of the Nazis in the Belgian war zone at the time, becoming the number one war criminal to stand trial.
When Qian Xiuling heard the news, she did not forget Feng's feelings of saving people at that time. She went around appealing, looking for rescued people to sign a joint letter, using the power of the Belgian media to save Feng.
At this time, Belgium, the people who had been devastated by the war, the pain of losing their loved ones, and the cruelty to the German army, all vented on Feng's body, and they accused Qian Xiuling of interceding for war criminals.
She told people that "although Feng had unshirkable sins in the war, at the same time, he also helped many Belgians from the scourge of killing from humanitarianism."
"Although I have rescued many people in the war, without Feng's help, I may not be able to do anything."
At the court session, Qian Xiuling also testified with the people she rescued Feng. Feng, who was already desperate, saw hope. In the end, the court ruled that Feng, as the commander of the war zone at the time, had unshirkable responsibility in the war of aggression and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Feng served a 3-year sentence and was released nine years early. In 1966, at the age of 88, Feng died at his home in Bonn, Germany.
During Feng's imprisonment, a well-known Belgian anti-German Nazi heroine often secretly visited Feng in prison to deliver food and clothes. After Feng was released from prison, the two returned to Germany to settle down together.
Later, Qian Xiuling returned to her hometown in the motherland 3 times, and after decades of parting, she finally got her wish. But she never mentioned to her family the act of righteousness in Belgium, because she thought it was an act of conscience, and no one in the country ever knew about it.
It wasn't until 2015, when King Philip and his wife visited China, when mainland leaders presented them with a book called "Chinese Women under the Gun of the Gestapo", that Qian Xiuling's feat was known to us.