Willy Rudolf Foerster

Rescue of Jewish refugees

With the help of the "Jewish Refugee Committee" he employed a sizable number of Jewish refugees from Germany and the occupied territories in his company. Being "anti-Nazi", he organized, together with the "Jewish Refugee Committee" in Tokyo, the entry of his new employees and their families to Japan. Despite enormous pressure of the Nazi party and the German missions abroad in Tokyo and Yokohama, he refused to dismiss his staff members.^[5] Publicly he dissociated himself from NS policy and called himself a "stateless person".^[6]

Hans Alexander Straus (Columbia Records) and Karl Rosenberg (Liebermann-Waelchli & Co.) in Tokyo, who organized the committee, received application documents from persecuted Jews in Germany and the German occupied territories which they forwarded to Foerster. Foerster then provided a free passage to Japan. The family men worked at Foerster's company and their children attended school. In this way a sizable number of Jewish refugees from Germany, Austria, and other countries, such as Czechoslovakia, came to Japan.^[5] In a letter written in 1939 to a stateless Jewish engineer in Germany, who had lost his job because of his Jewish descent, Rosenberg described Foerster as a man of "extraordinary independence, full of character and without prejudice". But even though the engineer was able to provide a passport without imprinted "J" and an employment contract with Foerster's company, the Japanese denied the entry of the family. But Foerster – as Rosenberg described – "worked desperately" to get a permission for the family to enter Japan. At least, like in other cases, he was successful. Shortly afterwards Rosenberg noted overjoyed, that Foerster was able, "despite extreme difficulties", to convince the Japanese authorities. Several other cases are documented. At the end of 1940 Foerster saved the children of one of his employees in Vienna from deportation to a concentration camp. Some month after their arrival in Japan they were deprived of citizenship by the German consulate in Yokohama. But Foerster was able to prevent the deportation of the whole family to the Shanghai Ghetto at the very last moment.^[1]

Defamation as an alleged criminal by German diplomats

Because of his resistance work Foerster was defamed as an alleged criminal by German diplomats in Tokyo and Yokohama. For this purpose they used a forged criminal record, which they spread in the German community.^[7] After the war it was also handed over to the Allied Forces in Japan to discredit Foerster.^[8] It was based on the criminal record of a namesake of Foerster. This man was imprisoned several times in Germany for theft, dealing with stolen goods and sexual crimes. He was born in 1890 in Reichenbrand near Chemnitz and not in 1905 in Reichenbach in the Vogtland. His records clearly show that he was imprisoned from 23 July 1937 until 23 June 1938 in the prison of Hoheneck in Germany.^[9] At this time Foerster was already living in Japan for years as a successful businessman.^[10] But later SCAP included the forged criminal record into the Foerster-file, which led, in combination with false statements of interested parties, e. g. former officials, to the destruction of Foerster's credibility.

Arrest as alleged "Soviet spy" and "anti-Nazi element" at the instigation of German authorities

Because of his strong opposition against NS policy and anti-Semitism he, his Japanese wife and several employees^[11] were arrested on May 24, 1943 by the Japanese Kenpeitai at the instigation of German authorities, who fraudulently denounced him as a "Soviet spy".^[12] Foerster was tortured (also by Josef Meisinger) and forced to sell his factory to a Japanese company. He was imprisoned for more than a year and released June 13, 1944. Foerster was acquitted being a "spy" by a Japanese court,^[13] but he was sentenced on probation i. a. because of anti-war propaganda and stirring up the public.^[14] Some days later he was placed under house arrest.^[15]

On May 17, 1945 Foerster was arrested again as an "anti-Nazi" element, at the instigation of Meisinger. Together with Jews from Germany and Allied citizens (e. g. Catholic nuns) he was interned at Tokyo Koishikawa.^[15] Foerster was elected spokesman and supplied the detainees with additional food rations, he purchased with the help of a German woman, who was married to an Indian citizen. At the time of the great bombing of Tokyo, during the night of May 25 to 26 1945, it was largely thanks to him that the inmates left camp alive. Foerster disarmed the guard and helped the internees out of the burning house.^[16] On August 15, 1945 the camp was liberated by American forces.^[17]

Results of SCAP / CIC investigations

After the war Foerster and his family lived at Lake Nojiri where he owned a house.^[18] The Allied forces in Japan carried out extensive investigations. Former German diplomats and others were interrogated. SCAP-files on Foerster show that interested parties were able to discredit him.^[19] Internal investigations of the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) revealed that Foerster was a sincere "anti-Nazi", who employed Jewish refugees in his company and was therefore regarded as "persona non grata" by German NS authorities. It was determined that Foerster was accused of anti-war propaganda, arrested twice as "anti-Nazi", and that he was denounced by the "Butcher of Warsaw", Josef Meisinger, to Japanese authorities.^[10]

Expropriation and forceful repatriation to Germany

Despite these results and the fact, that Foerster was a stateless person since 1936,^[20] Foerster was expropriated and forcefully repatriated to Germany as an alleged "Nazi", together with his family.^[21] Jewish friends, who tried to help him, were told that they were "only stateless foreigners", that Foerster "lies whenever he opens his mouth" and that he "never was arrested because of political terms". It was also mentioned, that it could be dangerous for them to interfere in Foerster's case.^[22]

Results of German court investigations

Back in Germany it lasted nearly twenty years, until German courts came to the same conclusions as the CIC before Foerster's forceful repatriation. After questioning a lot of witnesses, the judges of the higher regional court in Frankfurt a. M. decided, that Foerster was persecuted by Meisinger because of his antagonism against National Socialism and his resistance work, especially the employment of Jewish refugees. They also stated that Meisinger fraudulently denounced Foerster as a "spy", knowing that the Japanese would at least arrest him for a long time. The judges declared, that Meisinger used the Japanese as an "instrument" of persecution. A few months after this decision Foerster died.^[23] He was never rehabilitated publicly.^[24]

On 28 August 2018 the biography of Willy Rudolf Foerster, the ″Schindler″ of Tokyo, was publicly presented at the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn. In a lecture the author Clemens Jochem presented individual biographies of Jewish employees rescued by Foerster, photos and essential new documents relating to the Foerster case.^[25]

Books

• Jochem, Clemens (2017). Der Fall Foerster: Die deutsch-japanische Maschinenfabrik in Tokio und das Jüdische Hilfskomitee. Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich. ISBN 978-3-95565-225-8.
• Rotner Sakamoto, Pamela (1998). Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees: A World War II Dilemma. Westport: Praeger. p. 93. ISBN 0-275-96199-0.
• Petroff, Serge P. (2008). Life Journey: A Family Memoir. Bloomington: iUniverse. ISBN 978-0-595-51115-0. [Memoirs of an employee of Foerster. Petroff provides, except some inaccuracies (e. g. date of Foerster's arrest), an authentic insight into Foerster's anti-Nazi attitude, his persecution by the Gestapo and his arrest and expropriation by Japanese authorities.]

Journals

• Jochem, Clemens (December 2017). "Menschlich mutig. Der Industrielle Willy Rudolf Foerster in Tokio" [Humanly courageous. The industrialist Willy Rudolf Foerster in Tokyo]. StuDeO-INFO (in German) (12/2017): 40–42. ISSN 1866-6434.
• Menkhaus, Heinrich (January 2018). "Buchvorstellung: Clemens Jochem: Der Fall Foerster. Die deutsch-japanische Maschinenfabrik in Tokio und das jüdische Hilfskomitee" [Book review: Clemens Jochem: The Case Foerster. The German-Japanese Machine Tool Company in Tokyo and the Jewish Refugees Committee]. OAG Notizen (in German) (01/2018): 56–58. ISSN 1343-408X.
• Weissleder, Dirk (1 December 2017). "Genealogisch-biographische Datenbank für deutsche Kriegsgefangene in Japan" (PDF). Mitteilungen Institut für Personengeschichte (in German) (02/2017): 15–17. ISSN 2509-2286.
• Möckel, Gerd (23 January 2018). "Fast vergessen: Reichenbacher rettete Juden in Japan das Leben" [Almost forgotten: Reichenbacher saved the lives of Jews in Japan]. Freie Presse (in German). Retrieved 30 January 2018.
• Möckel, Gerd (27 January 2018). "Reichenbach will Foerster würdigen" [Reichenbach wants to honor Foerster]. Freie Presse (in German). Retrieved 30 January 2018.
• Luley, Björn (1 June 2018). "Ein Aufrechter in Japan" [An honest man in Japan]. informationen. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift des Studienkreises Deutscher Widerstand 1933-1945 (in German) (87): 43. ISSN 0938-8672.
• Bellanger, Jean-Luc (1 July 2018). "Un homme d'affaires. Tribulations d'un industriel allemand antinazi au Japon puis en Allemagne entre 1931 et 1966" [A businessman. Tribulation of a German anti-Nazi industrialist in Japan later in Germany between 1931 and 1966]. Le Patriote Résistant (in French) (932): 12–14. ISSN 0223-3150.