Hans Shippe: An Internationalist Fighter in the Yimeng Mountains

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Hans Shippe was a member of the Communist Party of Germany and an internationalist fighter. He loved the Chinese people, supported China’s revolution, and reported on China’s revolution with great ardor. After the Anti-Japanese War broke out, he visited Yan’an and the headquarters of the New Fourth Army, publishing many influential reports to denounce the aggression of Japanese imperialists and call on the whole world to support the Chinese people’s war of justice. He arrived in the CPC’s anti-Japanese base in Shandong in September 1941 and fought alongside Chinese soldiers against the enemy, giving his life for China’s war against Japanese aggression.

Interest in China

Hans Shippe was born in Krakov in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Poland) in June 1897. While in college, he was influenced by revolutionary thoughts and participated in the workers’ movements led by the Social Democratic Party of Germany in Leipzig and Stuttgart. After World War I, he joined the Communist Party of Germany and became a journalist.

Shippe had always had a great interest in China’s 5,000-year-old civilization. He went to Shanghai for the first time in 1925 and got to know the actual situation by talking to the poor. When the May 30th Movement broke out, he was there to expose the lies and distortions of the reactionary authorities and imperialists. He truthfully reported the Chinese workers’ poor lives and their struggle for the right to live. In 1926, he joined the Northern Expedition Army in Guangzhou. He worked as a translator at the political department of the National Revolutionary Army and an editor for China News, a journal. He wrote many articles about the Chinese revolution and was optimistic about its future. But as Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei betrayed the revolution, white terror enveloped China, and the First KMT-CPC came to an end, announcing the failure of the Great Revolution. Shippe returned to Europe in angst. In February 1928, he published From Guangzhou to Shanghai (1926-1927) in Berlin, introducing China’s Great Revolution and the CPC’s positive role. The book was well-received by the public.

May 30th Movement

On May 15, 1925, Japanese capitalists announced the closure of a cotton mill in Shanghai, forbidding workers to enter. Gu Zhenghong, a worker at the mill, led his coworkers to storm in but was shot and killed. About a dozen workers were injured. The CPC Central Committee decided to mobilize workers to fight against imperialism and establish the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions. On May 30, more than 2,000 students from middle schools and colleges in Shanghai gave speeches and marched in the concessions, and about a hundred were arrested. This angered the public even more. Several thousand gathered at the police station and demanded the students be released. The British police shot and killed a dozen people and injured several dozen. The incident is known as the May 30th Massacre. The CPC Central Committee immediately set up a committee and called on the Shanghai people to go on strikes protesting the massacre. Under the leadership of the CPC, the movement soon spread across the nation. Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Tangshan, Jiaozuo, and other cities and mining areas saw huge gatherings, demonstrations, and strikes, culminating in a surge of anti-imperialist sentiment.

After the September 18th Incident, Hans Shippe wrote for the German journal World Stage, condemning Japan’s invasion of China. In the autumn of 1932, he came to Shanghai for the second time and stayed in the concession. With an editor of Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury, a Shanghai-based English newspaper, Shippe founded the city’s first international Marxist study group, which was joined by Agnes Smedley, Dr. Shafick George Hatem, and Rewi Alley. He published “On Karl Marx’s Comments on China” in China Weekly to spread Marxist theory and contacted the CPC’s underground organization in Shanghai to help place radio stations, doing what he could for underground work. He also wrote articles to introduce the CPC’s political platform for The Guardian and other foreign newspapers. He criticized Chiang Kai-shek’s policy to settle domestic affairs first before resisting foreign aggression and exposed Japan’s ambition to control China.

*September 18th Incident

On September 18, 1931, Japanese imperialists blew up a railway section near Liutiaohu in the northern suburb of Shenyang and planted it on the Chinese army. Japanese troops thus attacked the Chinese base nearby and bombarded Shenyang. The Kuomintang government chose not to fight. By February 1932, the entirety of the northwest fell under Japanese occupation. Under CPC leadership, the soldiers and civilians in the northwest rose to fight. The Chinese People’s War Against Japanese Aggression began.

Reporting of China’s Anti-Japanese War

After the Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937, Hans Shippe grew increasingly concerned about the future of the Chinese nation. Around the time of Shanghai’s fall, he and his wife tried every means to buy medicine and disguised themselves as doctor and nurse to send medicine to the Chinese army and the CPC’s underground liaison stations. Seeing that news of the CPC-led war efforts was blocked by the KMT, he decided to go to the bases of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army.

In the spring of 1938, Shippe arrived in Wuhan and went to Yan’an with the help of the Eighth Route Army’s office. In Yan’an, he met with Mao Zedong, who gave information on the CPC’s role in the anti-Japanese war. While in Yan’an, Shippe visited many officials, workers, and peasants and participated in various activities. He spoke highly of the CPC’s United Front policy and the Chinese people’s high morale.

In February and March 1939, Shippe interviewed Zhou Enlai and leaders of the New Fourth Army at the Army’s headquarters in Jingxian County, southern Anhui. Then he published articles on the Chinese army’s guerrilla war, Zhou Enlai’s opinion on the new stage of the Anti-Japanese War, and contention between the Fascist Axis powers and China’s United Front. He spoke highly of the New Fourth Army’s guerrilla war, introduced the strategy and guidelines in fighting a protracted war, and exposed Chiang Kai-shek’s tendency to compromise with Japan. His reports were truthful accounts of the war situation.

Shippe was appalled by the Southern Anhui Incident in January 1941. He wrote articles on the life of General Ye Ting and pointed out that the civil war in China was helping Japan. He also told the truth about the Southern Anhui Incident and exposed Chiang Kai-shek’s crimes and lies with irrefutable facts.

In May 1941, when he heard that the New Fourth Army rebuilt its headquarters in Yancheng, northern Jiangsu, he and his wife disguised themselves as doctor and nurse and took a boat from Shanghai to the anti-Japanese base there. While in Yancheng, he wrote many reports and an 80,000-word book on the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army. His reporting told the world the role of the CPC and its armies in China’s war against Japanese invasion.

Sacrificing His Life for the War

In September 1941, Shippe went to Shandong for interviews and reporting. With the help of the army and locals, he crossed the Japanese blockade and arrived at the headquarters of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army in Binhai District.

On October 4, the base held a grand welcome party for Shippe, who said that the visit was “the best trip” in his life and promised to tell everything he saw to the world. After the party, he changed into the Eighth Route Army’s gray cotton uniform and set to work.

He interviewed Luo Ronghuan, political commissar of the 115th Division, Li Yu, head of the Shandong brigade, and many officials and common people. He wrote series reports on the Eighth Route Army in Shandong and its fight to recover Shandong, giving a comprehensive and vivid account of the Army’s battles. The reports were published in foreign newspapers, and the anti-Japanese bases drew wide attention from the foreign audience.

In November 1941, the 115th Division decided to take part in the battle against Japanese encirclement in the Yimeng Mountains. The army leadership decided to move Shippe to a safe place, but he declined and decided to stay to report on the heroic deeds of the Chinese soldiers. After the battle started, Shippe worked and lived with the soldiers and quickly adapted to the fast pace of war. As the enemy was closing in, the army leadership again decided to take Shippe to safety and assembled a team for the mission. But Shippe had made up his mind to fight alongside the army. He said, “My mission is to fight the invaders. I will hold my pen with one hand and my gun with the other.”

The war tempered Shippe’s character. On November 30, 1941, his company encountered the enemy in the Daqingshan Mountain, the highest point at the intersection of Feixian, Yinan, and Mengyin counties to the east of the main peak of Mengshan Mountain. Outnumbered, the Chinese army fought bravely, and the company leadership split the troops into three groups to break out. Shippe was assigned to the first group, but he would not go. He joined the third group with a gun in hand, which was to go last, and fought valiantly. His translator and guard fell down before him. Shippe was furious and picked up their guns to shoot back. He was shot and seriously injured but carried on to the last minute, giving his precious life at the age of 44.

Shippe was buried in the mountain where he died. In 1942, a white monument was erected in his memory, with inscriptions by Luo Ronghuan to commemorate his internationalist spirit and heroic deeds. In October 1963, his remains were interred in the Linyi Martyrs’ Cemetery.

Hans Shippe has not been forgotten. Just as Gu Mu said, “He was a well-known journalist, but died on the battlefield as a soldier. He was a European but gave his life in China’s Anti-Japanese War. There have been many foreign friends who have fought in various ways to support the Chinese People’s War Against Japanese Aggression, but he was the first European to don the Eighth Route Army’s uniform and fight Fascists with a gun.” Hans Shippe will forever live in the heart of the Chinese people as a true hero who told real stories of China’s war of justice and sacrificed his life for justice.

Source:

Shan Wei, Shared Ideals: The Communist Party Of China Its Cherished Friends From Around the World , FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS,2021.6