John Heinrich Detlef Rabe (November 23, 1882 – January 5, 1950) was a German businessman and Nazi party member for the Japanese occupation of Nanking (Nanjing). ) for his efforts to stop Japanese war crimes and for his work protecting and helping Chinese civilians during the Anti-Japanese War. The ensuing carnage. The Nanjing Safety Zone he helped establish protected some 200,000 Chinese from massacres. He said officially Germany and served as the European American establishment was to stay in the senior chief of Nanjing, at the time of the Chinese capital, when the city fell to the Japanese army.
Early life and career
Born in Hamburg on November 23, 1882, Rabe worked in business and spent several years in Africa. In 1908 he left China and in 1910 and 1938 worked for Siemens China in Shenyang, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and later Nanjing. [1] Rabe suffered from diabetes while working in Nanjing and needed to take insulin regularly. [2] When the Japanese army attacked Nanjing, Rabe was a staunch Nazi, a local leader of the party and the deputy leader of the Nazi party. [3]
Establish Nanjing Safety Zone
Many Westerners lived in the Chinese capital, Nanjing, until December 1937, engaged in trade; others preached there. When the Japanese approached Nanking and bombed the city, all but 22 foreigners fled, the rest being 15 American and European missionaries and businessmen. [4] On November 22, 1937, as the Imperial Japanese Army advanced toward Nanjing, Rabe, along with other foreigners, organized the International Committee of the Nanjing Safe Zone and created the Nanjing Safe Zone to provide food and shelter for Chinese refugees to avoid The coming Japanese massacre. He explained his reasoning this way: "...there's a moral issue here...I can't let myself betray the trust these people have in me right now, and it's moving to see their trust in me". [5] These areas are located at all foreign embassies and Nanjing University. The committee was inspired by the creation of a similar neutral zone in Shanghai in November, which protects some 450,000 civilians. [3] Rabe was elected leader of the committee, in part because of his Nazi party status and the German-Japanese bilateral Anti-Comintern Pact. The committee established the Nanjing Security Zone in the western part of the city. The Japanese government has agreed not to attack parts of the city without Chinese troops, and members of the International Committee for the Nanjing Safety Zone have tried to persuade the Chinese government to withdraw all its troops from the area. In this regard, they have had partial success. Before fleeing the city on December 1, 1937, Nanjing Mayor Ma Chaojun ordered all Chinese citizens who remained in Nanjing to go to safety. When Nanjing fell on December 13, 1937, 500,000 non-combatants remained in the city. [3] Rabe also opened his property to help another 650 refugees.
Nanjing Massacre
According to Rabe, the Nanking Massacre resulted in the deaths of 50,000 to 60,000 civilians. Rabe and his district administrators frantically try to stop the atrocity. Modern estimates of the Nanjing Massacre death toll vary, but some put the number of civilians murdered as high as 300,000. [6] [7] Rabe used his Nazi credentials to appeal to the Japanese, usually only delaying their time, but the delay allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee. The documentary "Nanjing" praised Rabe for saving the lives of 250,000 Chinese civilians; other sources suggest he saved between 200,000 and 250,000. [8] In his diary, Rabe recorded the atrocities committed by Japan during the raid and occupation of the city. [9] In a series of lectures in Germany after his return, Rabe would say that "we Europeans think the number [of civilian casualties] is about 50,000 to 60,000". [10] Rabe was not alone in documenting Japanese atrocities. By December 1937, after the defeat of the Chinese army, Japanese soldiers often went door-to-door in Nanking, shooting at civilians they encountered. Other evidence of these violent acts came from the diaries of some Japanese soldiers and Japanese journalists who were shocked by what had happened. [11]
Return to Germany
On February 28, 1938, Rabe left Nanjing. He first went to Shanghai and returned to Berlin on April 15, 1938. He carried with him a large number of original documents documenting the Japanese atrocities in Nanking. [12] Rabe showed films and photographs of Japanese atrocities in a speech in Berlin and wrote to Hitler, asking him to use his influence to persuade Japan to stop further violence. Rabe was detained by the Gestapo for questioning; his letter was never sent to Hitler. [13] Rabe was released due to the intervention of Siemens AG. He was allowed to keep evidence of the Holocaust (excluding the film), but not to speak or write on the subject again. [13] Rabe continued to work for Siemens, who briefly dispatched him to the security department of Siemens in Afghanistan. Subsequently, Rabe worked at the company's Berlin headquarters until the end of the war. [citation needed]
post war
After the war, Rabe was first arrested by the Soviet NKVD and later by the British Army. After intense interrogation, both let him go. He occasionally works for Siemens for a modest salary. He was later denounced by acquaintances as a member of the Nazi Party and lost the work permit issued to him in the British occupation. In order to regain his work permit, Rabe had to go through a prolonged period of denazification (his first attempt was rejected and he had to appeal). He drained his savings to pay for his legal defense. [14] Unable to work and running out of savings, Rabe and his family survived in a studio apartment by selling his Chinese art collection, but this was not enough to avoid malnutrition. He was officially declared "denazified" by the British on June 3, 1946, but still lived in poverty. His family lived on wild seeds, and his children ate soup and dry bread until they, too, ran out. [14] In 1948, Nanjing citizens learned of the tragedy of the Rabe family and quickly raised a donation equivalent to US$2,000 (US$22,000 in 2021). The mayor of the city traveled to Germany via Switzerland, where he bought a lot of food for the Rabe family. From mid-1948 until after the Communist Party took over, the Nanjing people also sent a food bag to their families every month, for which Rabe wrote many letters expressing his deep gratitude. [14]
death and legacy
Rabe died of a stroke on January 5, 1950. In 1997, his tombstone was moved from Berlin to Nanjing, where he was honored at the Holocaust Memorial, and it still stands today. In 2005, Rabe's former residence in Nanjing was restored to its original state; it houses the John Rabe and International Security Zone Memorial, which opened in 2006. Later, the Austrian Overseas Service was invited to send a Peace Servant there. [citation needed] Rabe's tomb at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery in Charlottenburg, Berlin, was re-erected in 2013.
war diary
Rabe's wartime diary was published in English under the title "The Nanking Good Man" (British title) or "Nanking Good Man" (American title) (originally in German: Der gute Deutsche von Nanking).
characters in movies
In Mou Tunfei's 1995 film Black Sun: The Nanjing Massacre. Minnie Vautrin and George Ashmore Fitch were also pictured. In Wu Ziniu's 1995 film "Don't Cry, Nanjing," actor Ulrich Ortenberg played Rabe, though his name was changed to "John Robbins." Actor Jürgen Prochnow played Rabe in Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's 2007 documentary "Nanjing." Actor John Paisley played Rabe in Lu Chuan's 2009 film City of Life and Death. Ulrich Tukur plays John Rabe in Florian Gallenberger's film John Rabe, also released in 2009. [15]
For those involved, you can also see
Robert Jacquinot de Besange, a French Jesuit who saved more than half a million Chinese civilians. Minnie Vautrin, an American missionary who saved thousands of lives during the Nanjing Massacre. Robert O. Wilson, an American doctor who treated victims who were taken to the safety zone of Nanjing. John Magee, an American pastor and missionary who documented the Nanking Massacre. Bernhard Arp Sindberg was a Danish worker who saved thousands by incarcerating them in factories during the Nanking Massacre. Georg Rosen, a consular employee of the German Foreign Office, helped create the Nanjing Safety Zone.
The last sentence is because there are people who sacrifice themselves for others, so that the world can see hope in the difficult times. grateful! Goodness in human nature knows no borders or races. May the world be at peace!
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