Hans Shippe

Hans Shippe (13 June 1897, Krakow, Poland – 30 November 1941, Yimeng Mountain, China) was a Jewish Chinese writer, journalist and military figure.

Born Morzec Grzyb into a Jewish family in Kraków (then Galicia, Austria-Hungary, now Poland), he went to study in Germany in 1919. After graduation from an university, he joined German Communist Party and changed his name to Hans Shippe. Later he went to the Soviet Union working as a journalist. In 1925, he came to Shanghai, and then to Guangzhou to join the Chinese revolution working in the translation section of the General Political Department of the National Revolutionary Army.

When Nazis came into power in Germany in 1933, Shippe and his wife decided to settle down in Shanghai. As one of the initiators, he together with Agnes Smedley, George Hatem and Rewi Alley formed a group to study Marxism, the international situation and China's problems. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on July 7, 1937, marking the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), he followed the cause of the Chinese national liberation with greater interest and continued to write. As a journalist, he was active and sharp, and stopped at nothing to gather information that told the true story of China. In 1938 he went to Yan'an from Wuhan to do interviews, and Chairman Mao Zedong met and talked with him. Mr. Hans Shippe was the first Jewish volunteer to fall in battle on China's soil during her war against Japanese aggression. In 1939, he left Shanghai and joined Chinese Army at Yan'an. In November 1941, he died on the battlefield in the Yimeng Mountain in Shandong Province. A monument was erected in 1942 by the Chinese army and civilians in the province in memory of Shippe. On it is inscribed the words of General Luo Ronghuan: "Advocating International Humanitarianism between Europe and Asia – Sacrificing his Life in Yimeng for the War of Resistance against Japan."