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// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Ernst Frey? A reel expert.

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Ernst Frey
Ernst Frey in 1938
NicknamesNguyễn Dân, Hồ Chí Dân
Born(1915-06-10)10 June 1915
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died13 January 1994(1994-01-13) (aged 78)
Vienna, Austria
Cause of death
Heart attack
AllegianceFrance French Foreign Legion (–1945)
Vietnam Viet Minh (1945–1950)
Branch
Army
Rank
 Colonel
CommandsVietnam 4th Military Region
Conflicts
First Indochina War

Ernst Frey (10 June 1915–13 January 1994), also known as Nguyễn Dân[a] and Hồ Chí Dân,[b][1] was an Austrian soldier and communist who served in the French Foreign Legion before joining the Vietnam People's Army. During the First Indochina War, he was a military adviser to Võ Nguyên Giáp, Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People's Army, and an assistant to military commander Nguyễn Sơn. He was also the Deputy Commander of the 4th Military Region and was among the first colonels of the Vietnam People's Army.

Born in Vienna in 1915, Frey became involved in the Austrian communist movement as a teenager and was imprisoned several times for his political activities. In 1938, he fled Austria and joined the French Foreign Legion, serving in Algeria and later French Indochina. In French Indochina, he established a communist group with some Legion members, whereby joining the Indochinese Communist Party in 1944. In 1945, after the August Revolution, he took part in the Vietnamese revolutionary movement against the French. Frey returned to Austria in 1951, where he had a short time serving for the Catholic Church and the Greens Party.

Early life

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Ernst Frey was born on 10 June 1915, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary into a family of Hungarian and Jewish origin. His father was Jewish and was serving in the First World War, he was also a social democrat.[2][3] As a teenager, Frey participated in the Socialist High School Youth Association (VSM). In 1934, he joined the Austrian Communist Youth League. Due to his activities in the VSM and accusations of treason, Frey was imprisoned multiple times and banned from attending Austrian universities.[2][3] He was released on July 1936 and had a job at Bunzl & Biach.[4]

Military career

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In 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, and German troops entered Vienna. Frey's mother was captured and publicly tortured.[4] Frey subsequently emigrated and planned to join the International Brigades of Spanish Republic in Spanish Civil War. However, he was captured by the Schutzstaffel and spent three months in prison before the German authorities revoked his citizenship.[3] Fleeing to Switzerland, he was also imprisoned for several months.[5] After being released, he escaped to France to continue his way to Spain. In Paris, Frey made a living by selling pencils. After being refused permission to travel to Spain, he remained in France and joined the French Foreign Legion, where he was deployed to Algeria.[2][3]

Trường Chinh

In 1940, believing that his opportunity to fight against Nazi Germany had passed, Frey volunteered to serve in French Indochina, hoping that the ship transporting him would be intercepted by the British, giving him an opportunity to fight against Nazi Germany on the British side.[6] Frey was assigned to 5th Foreign Infantry Regiment.[7] In 1941, the ship arrived to Saigon without being attacked once,[6] and Frey began organizing a small group of communists in the Foreign Legion in Việt Trì. Dissatisfied with France's cooperation with the Empire of Japan and the Axis powers, the group sought to establish contact with French socialists in Hanoi. They also tried to talk to local people in Việt Trì, but it was often not successful. Their goal was to join forces with the local French resistance in order to connect with the Indochinese Communist Party and Viet Minh.[3]

In 1943, an Austrian member of Frey's group established contact with the Socialist Party in Hanoi. This connection enabled them to engage directly with members of the Communist Party. By the end of 1943, Frey had his first meeting with Túc, an envoy from the Central Executive Committee of the Party. As a result, his communist group chose to apply for membership in the Indochinese Communist Party. After Túc's guidance, Frey received assistance and education from Trường Chinh, the Party's General Secretary (at the time, Trường Chinh was using the codename "Phong"). Supported by Trường Chinh, Frey was accepted into the Indochinese Communist Party on his 29th birthday in 1944.[8] His communist cell was also admitted into the Party later that year.[3] Chinh also planned to get Frey and others to defect from the French army to work for Vietnam's revolution.[5]

Service in Viet Minh

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Following the Japanese coup d'état on 9 March 1945, Frey and his comrades where held in an extermination camp, where they suffered from dysentery and malaria.[3] After the August Revolution's success and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, they were released.[3] Frey was scheduled to meet with Trường Chinh, along with party member Phạm Văn Đồng, Võ Nguyên Giáp, and others. He was first assigned the task to write the French-language propaganda magazine Le Peuple. However, later on, Minister of Defense Võ Nguyên Giáp appointed him and commander Vương Thừa Vũ to train the National Guard.[8] Túc acted as Frey's interpreter. Trường Chinh suggested that Frey adopt a pseudonym to conceal his identity, whereby he adopted the name "Nguyễn Dân".[9]

Võ Nguyên Giáp (left) and Viet Minh soldiers (right) in 1944

During the First Indochina War, Frey was responsible for training cadres and assisting a unit in the Capital Regiment [vi] to defend capital Hanoi. He was also appointed as an assistant to Giáp, and the commander of the forces safeguarding the area of the Central Base.[8] At commander Nguyễn Sơn's proposal, Frey was assigned to be the Deputy Commander of the 4th Military Region and Sơn's assistant. In a battle at An Khê Pass in 1947, Frey led 500 soldiers preventing French forces from advancing into the Central Highlands and won the battle. The victory was praised by Giáp and was considered as his best achievement during his time in the 4th Military Region. It also contributed to his promotion to colonel, making him one of the first colonels in the Vietnam People's Army. A delegation from the South, including many members of the Government Council and Frey, visited the Central Committee in a hideout. In the meeting, he met President Hồ Chí Minh and was invited by him to smoke a cigarette. Hồ Chí Minh also told him "I am very happy to know that you are sharing this work with us". In 1948, Frey returned to being Deputy Commander of the 4th Military Region.[8][9] He participated in the defense of the Central Government agencies located in Việt Bắc, commanded an anti-aircraft unit in Ba Vì mountain range.[10] In the same year, he was incapacitated by malaria, and started speaking of "a religious awakening".[4]

In February 1951, the Second National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam was held in Tuyên Quang with 158 official delegates in attendance. Among them, Frey was the only foreign official delegate and party member; he also had a speech.[9] However, following his criticism of the Party and doubts about its direction, the Party suddenly granted Frey's request to return to Austria, which he had first made two years earlier. Before leaving, President Hồ Chí Minh wrote a letter in French about how regretful he was when he could not meet Frey for the last time. Frey was also given a sketchbook by artist Phạm Văn Đôn from the 304th Division as a souvenir, containing 20 drawings depicting villages. The sketchbook was signed by Commander Nguyễn Chí Thanh and Deputy Minister of Defence Tạ Quang Bửu.[5]

Later life

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On 25 May 1951, Frey arrived in Bad Vöslau, Austria. Upon returning, he resumed working at Bunzl & Biach. Frey married Franzi Preminger-Auerhahn, who had also previously escaped from Austria and gone to England, and had two daughters born in 1953 and 1955. Frey donated his money to Amnesty International.[4] After converting to Catholicism, he joined the Catholic Church, but later left after he found that he could not fully identify with its direction. He also left the Green Party after disagreeing with one of its decisions.[6] In 1968, he began writing his autobiography, which took him five years to complete. Even after finishing, he had a tough time finding a publisher willing to publish the book, which was about 1,200 pages long.[4]

In 1992, Frey received a letter from Võ Nguyên Giáp, to which he replied with a letter expressing his reconciliation with Giáp and his affection for Vietnam.[11] Ernst Frey died of a heart attack on 13 January 1994.[4]

In 2001, his autobiography was excerpted and published by scientist Doris Sottopietra [de], under the French title "Vietnam, mon amour" (English: Vietnam, my love).[4] In 2014, the Vietnamese translation of the book was launched by Trí Thức Publishing House [vi], in collaboration with Thomas Loidl [de] of the Austrian Embassy in Vietnam.[12][13]

Notes

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  1. ↑ "Dân" in Vietnamese means "People"
  2. ↑ The surname and middle name "Hồ Chí" was inspired from Hồ Chí Minh, the leader of North Vietnam.

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Thành, Lê (12 October 2020). "Những chiến sĩ Việt Minh người châu Âu" [European Viet Minh fighters]. Sự Kiện và Nhân Chứng (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 5 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 Thơm, Cảo (6 June 2014). "Hồi ký người Do Thái thành Vienna theo Việt Minh" [Memoirs of a Viennese Jew who followed the Viet Minh]. Voice of Vietnam (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on 6 April 2023. Retrieved 25 July 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Heinz, Schütte (November 2004). "Les Doktors germaniques dans le Viet Minh" [German Doctors in the Viet Minh]. thời đại mới (in French). Retrieved 25 July 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Edith, Meinhart (12 December 2013). "Der Umgekehrte: das unglaubliche Leben des Wiener Juden Ernst Frey" [The opposite: the incredible life of the Viennese Jew Ernst Frey]. Profil (in German). Retrieved 28 July 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 Đương, Trần (19 December 2004). "Chuyện về người Áo được phong hàm Đại tá quân đội VN" [The story of an Austrian man promoted to Colonel in the Vietnamese army.]. Công an nhân dân (newspaper) [vi] (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 25 July 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 Brandner, Judith (5 April 2001). "Der Wiener General Nguyęn Dân" [The Viennese general Nguyęn Dân]. Südwind Magazin (in German). Retrieved 28 July 2026.
  7. ↑ Thái, Phan (20 January 2023). "Giải mã nhân vật bí ẩn chỉ huy lực lượng cận vệ K9B" [Unraveling the mystery of the commander of the K9B guard force.]. Báo Thái Nguyên (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 25 July 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Đại tá Nguyễn Dân và Chúng minh thư đặc biệt" [Colonel Nguyen Dan and his special identification card.]. Tạp chí Văn Hóa và Phát Triển (in Vietnamese). 28 January 2026. Retrieved 28 July 2026.
  9. 1 2 3 Đương, Trần (13 December 2014). "En-xtơ Phrây chiến sĩ quốc tế được phong hàm Đại tá trong Quân đội ta" [Ernest Frey, an international soldier, was promoted to the rank of Colonel in our Army.]. People's Army Newspaper (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  10. ↑ "Công tác binh, địch vận - Những chiến công trong lòng địch" [Military and enemy propaganda work - Victories in enemy territory]. 7th Military Region (in Vietnamese). 22 April 2017. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  11. ↑ Thu, Lam (7 June 2014). "Tình yêu Việt Nam của một người Áo" [An Austrian's love for Vietnam]. VnExpress (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on 25 July 2025. Retrieved 3 August 2026.
  12. ↑ Nguyệt, Minh (6 June 2014). "Cuốn "Việt Nam, tình yêu của tôi" của tác giả người Do Thái" [The book "Vietnam, My Love" by a Jewish author.]. VietnamPlus (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 3 August 2026.
  13. ↑ Thiên, Ngữ (21 April 2019). ""Việt Nam, tình yêu của tôi"" ["Vietnam, my love"]. Nhân Dân (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 3 August 2026.
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