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→Nanjing Massacre: On the 25 May an IP changed the number John Rabe from this (50,000 to 60,000) to "50,000 to 300,000". The modern estimate for the massacre is up to 300,000, yes, but the sentence is about the number according to Rabe, not what historians think (which is said only a sentence later)
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{{Short description|German Nazi and businessman (1882–1950)}}
{{otheruses|John Rabe (film)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox Person
| name = John Rabe
{{For|the biographical movie|John Rabe (film)|}}
{{Infobox person
| image = JohnRabe.jpg
| name = John Rabe
| image_size =
| caption = John Rabe
| image = John Rabe.jpeg
| birth_name =
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1882|11|23}}
| birth_name = John Heinrich Detlef Rabe
| birth_place = [[Hamburg]], Germany
| death_date = {{death date and age|1950|1|5|1882|11|23}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1882|11|23}}
| birth_place = [[Hamburg]], [[German Empire]]
| death_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1950|1|5|1882|11|23}}
| death_cause = Stroke
| death_place = [[West Berlin]], [[West Germany]]
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| nationality = German
| nationality =
| other_names =
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| known_for = Saving civilian lives during the [[Nanjing Massacre]]
| known_for = Saving about 250,000 Chinese civilians during the [[Nanjing Massacre]]<br />Establishing the [[Nanking Safety Zone]]
| education =
| employer = [[Siemens AG]]
| education =
| employer = [[Siemens AG]]
| occupation = Businessman
| title =
| occupation = Businessman
| salary =
| party = [[Nazi Party]]
| networth =
| spouse = Dora Rabe
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| relatives = [[Thomas Rabe]] (grandson)
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[[File:John und Dora Rabe signatures.jpg|thumb|John and Dora Rabe autograph signatures, Nanjing, 22 May 1932]]
'''John Rabe''' (November 23, 1882 – January 5, 1950) was a German businessman who is best known for his efforts to stop the [[Japanese war crimes|atrocities of the Japanese army]] during the Nanking Occupation and, failing in those efforts, his work to protect and succour Chinese civilians during the event. The [[Nanking Safety Zone]], which he helped to establish, sheltered approximately 200,000 Chinese people from slaughter during the [[Nanking massacre|massacre]].


'''John Heinrich Detlef Rabe''' (23 November 1882&nbsp;– 5 January 1950) was a German businessman and [[Nazi Party]] member best known for his efforts to stop [[Japanese war crimes|war crimes]] during the Japanese [[Nanjing Massacre]] (formerly romanized as Nanking) and his work to protect and help Chinese civilians during the massacre that ensued. The [[Nanking Safety Zone]], which he helped to establish, sheltered approximately 250,000 Chinese people from being killed. He officially represented [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] and acted as senior chief of the European-U.S. establishment that remained in [[Nanjing]], the [[Republic of China (1912–49)|Chinese]] capital at the time, when the city fell to the Japanese troops.
==Early life and career==
Born in [[Hamburg]], Germany, Rabe pursued a career in business and went to Africa for several years. In 1908 he left for China, and between 1910 and 1938, he worked for the [[Siemens AG]] China Corporation in [[Shenyang]] (Mukden), Beijing (Peking), [[Tianjin]] (Tientsin), Shanghai and later [[Nanjing]] (Nanking).<ref>http://www.john-rabe.de/english/cv/cv.htm</ref>


== Early life and career ==
==Establishment of the Nanking Safety Zone==
{{main|Nanking Safety Zone}}
{{see|International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone}}


Rabe was born in [[Hamburg]] on 23 November 1882. He pursued a career in business and worked in [[Africa]] for several years.
Many Westerners were living in the city at that time, conducting trade or on missionary trips. As the Japanese army approached Nanking and initiated bombing raids on the city, all but 22 foreigners fled the city, with 15 American and European missionaries and businessmen forming part of the group.<ref>Ralph Kinney Bennett, ''They Will Not Be Forgotten'', p. 53, Reader's Digest, October 1998</ref> On November 22, 1937, as the [[Imperial Japanese Army|Japanese Army]] advanced on Nanjing, Rabe, along with other foreign nationals, organized the [[International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone]] and created the [[Nanking Safety Zone]] to provide Chinese refugees with food and shelter from the impending Japanese slaughter. He explained his reasons thus: "''... there is a question of morality here...I cannot bring myself for now to betray the trust these people have put in me, and it is touching to see how they believe in me.''"<ref>[http://www.jiyuu-shikan.org/nanjing/tpopu.html "John Rabe's letter to Hitler, from Rabe's diary"], Population of Nanking, Jiyuu-shikan.org</ref> The zones were located in all of the foreign [[embassy|embassies]] and at [[Nanjing University]].


In 1908, he left for China, and between 1910 and 1938 worked for the [[Siemens AG]] China Corporation in [[Shenyang]], [[Beijing]], [[Tianjin]], [[Shanghai]] and later [[Nanjing]].<ref>{{Cite web| url= http://www.john-rabe.de/english/cv/cv.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090610073218/http://www.john-rabe.de/english/cv/cv.htm|url-status=dead|title= Curriculum Vitae | website= john-rabe.de |archivedate=10 June 2009}}</ref> Rabe suffered from [[diabetes]] by the time he worked in Nanjing, requiring him to take regular doses of [[insulin]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Good Man of Nanking: the Diaries of John Rabe |first1=John |last1=Rabe |first2=Erwin |last2=Wickert |publisher=A.A. Knopf |year=1998 |page=254 |isbn= 9780375402111| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=amxwAAAAMAAJ&q=John+Rabe+diabetes}}</ref> At the time of the Japanese attack on Nanjing, Rabe was a staunch Nazi and the party's local head, serving as a Deputy Group Leader in the Nazi Party.<ref name=Dunning2015>{{Skeptoid|id=4480|number=480| title=The Nazi of Nanking|access-date=29 April 2017}}</ref>
Rabe was elected as its leader, in part because of his status as a member of the [[Nazi party]] and the existence of the German–Japanese bilateral [[Anti-Comintern Pact]]. This committee established the [[Nanking Safety Zone]] in the western quarter of the city. The Japanese government had agreed not to attack parts of the city that did not contain Chinese military forces, and the members of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone managed to persuade the Chinese government to move all their troops out of the area.


== Establishment of the Nanking Safety Zone ==
On December 1, 1937, Nanjing Mayor [[Ma Chao-chun]] ordered all Chinese citizens remaining in Nanjing to move into the Safety Zone and then fled the city.
{{Main|Nanking Safety Zone}}


[[File:Residence of John Rabe, Nanjing.jpg|thumb|The former [[John Rabe House|residence of John Rabe]] in Nanjing, located in the [[Nanking Safety Zone]] during the [[Nanjing Massacre]]]]
Rabe also opened up his properties to help 650 more refugees.


Many Westerners were living in Nanjing, the Chinese capital city, until December 1937, with some conducting trade and others on [[missionary]] trips. As the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] approached Nanjing and initiated bombing raids on the city, all but 22 foreigners fled, with 15 American and European missionaries and businessmen forming part of the remaining group.<ref>{{Cite magazine | first = Ralph Kinney | last = Bennett | title = They Will Not Be Forgotten | page = 53 | magazine = [[Reader's Digest]] | date = October 1998}}.</ref> As the Japanese Army advanced on Nanjing on 22 November 1937, Rabe, along with other foreign nationals, organized the [[International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone]] and created the [[Nanking Safety Zone]] to provide Chinese refugees with food and shelter from the impending Japanese massacre. He explained his reasons as: "there is a question of morality here… I cannot bring myself for now to betray the trust these people have put in me, and it is touching to see how they believe in me".<ref>{{cite book | last = Rabe | first = John | url = http://www.library.yale.edu/div/Nanking/Rabe.html | chapter = Letter to Hitler | title= Rabe's diary | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120423225603/http://www.library.yale.edu/div/Nanking/Rabe.html |archive-date= 23 April 2012}}</ref> The zones were located in all of the foreign [[embassy|embassies]] and at [[Nanjing University]].
==The Nanking Massacre==
{{main|Nanking Massacre}}


The committee was inspired by the establishment in November of a similar neutral zone in Shanghai, which had protected approximately 450,000 civilians.<ref name= Dunning2015 /> 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 Nanking Safety Zone in the western quarter of the city. The Japanese government had agreed not to attack parts of the city that did not contain Chinese military forces and the members of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone attempted to persuade the Chinese government to move all their troops out of the area. In this they were partly successful. On 1 December 1937, before fleeing the city, Nanjing Mayor [[Ma Chao-chun]] ordered all Chinese citizens remaining in Nanjing to move into the Safety Zone. When Nanjing fell on 13 December 1937, 500,000 non-combatants remained in the city.<ref name= Dunning2015 /> Rabe also opened up his properties to help 650 more refugees.
The [[Nanking Massacre]] killed hundreds of thousands of people, while Rabe and his zone administrators tried frantically to stop the atrocities. His attempts to appeal to the Japanese by using his [[Nazi party|Nazi]] membership credentials only delayed them; but that delay allowed hundreds of refugees to escape. The documentary ''[[Nanking (film)|Nanking]]'' credited him for saving the lives of 250,000 Chinese civilians. It is said Rabe rescued between 200,000 – 250,000 Chinese people.<ref name="John Rabe">[http://www.moreorless.au.com/heroes/rabe.html John Rabe], moreorless</ref>


== Nanjing Massacre ==
===Diary entries===
{{Main|Nanjing Massacre}}


According to Rabe, the [[Nanjing Massacre]] resulted in the deaths of 50,000 to 60,000 civilians. Rabe and his zone administrators tried frantically to stop the atrocities. Modern estimates of the [[death toll of the Nanjing Massacre]] vary, but some put the number of murdered civilians as high as 300,000.<ref>{{cite book| first= Slavomir | last= Zidarov| title= John Rabe und seine Tagebücher in der gegenwärtigen Debatte um das Nanjing-Massaker| language= de| year= 2013| publisher=| isbn=| page=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| first= Ruth | last= Hallo| title= John Rabe und seine Rezeption in China (Berichte aus der Geschichtswissenschaft)| publisher= Shaker Verlag| place= Herzogenrath | year= 2002| language= de| isbn=| page=}}</ref> Rabe's appeals to the Japanese using his [[Nazi Party]] credentials often only delayed them, but the delay allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees to escape. The documentary ''[[Nanking (2007 film)|Nanking]]'' credited Rabe with saving the lives of 250,000 Chinese civilians; other sources suggest he saved 250,000 to 300,000.<ref name="John Rabe">{{cite web| url= http://www.moreorless.au.com/heroes/rabe.html | title= John Rabe| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20130722090333/http://www.moreorless.au.com/heroes/rabe.html |archivedate=22 July 2013 | website=moreorless.au.com| publisher=| date=| accessdate=}}</ref> In his diary, Rabe documented Japanese atrocities committed during the assault on and occupation of the city.<ref>{{cite book |first=John E. |last=Woods |title=The Good Man of Nanjing: the Diaries of John Rabe |publisher=| year=1998 | isbn= |page=67}}</ref>
In his diary Rabe documented Japanese atrocities commited during the assault upon and occupation of the city. On December 13, 1937, he wrote:


In a series of lectures that he gave in Germany after his return, Rabe would say that "We Europeans put the number [of civilian casualties] at about 50,000 to 60,000".<ref>{{cite journal|title= Rabe | journal= Japan Echo| publisher=Japan Echo Inc|year= 2007| volume=34|issue=1–6| via= Google Books| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FjcTAQAAMAAJ&q=John+Rabe+We+Europeans+put+the+number++at+about+50,000+to+60,000}}</ref> Rabe was not the only person to record Japanese atrocities. By December 1937, after the defeat of the Chinese force, Japanese soldiers often went house-to-house in Nanjing, shooting any civilians that they encountered. Additional evidence of these violent acts came from the diaries kept by Japanese soldiers and journalists appalled at what occurred.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Psychology of Genocide, Massacres and extreme Violence: Why "Normal" People come to Commit Atrocities|first=Donald G. |last=Dutton |publisher=Greenwood Publishing |year=2007 |pages= [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ip7cx9NXu8MC&q=John+Rabe+order+Hitler&pg=PA64 64–65] |isbn=9780275990008 }}</ref>

Rabe summarized the conduct of Japanese soldiers in Nanjing in the following manner:
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
I've written several times in this diary about the body of the Chinese soldier who was shot while tied to his bamboo bed and who is still lying unburied near my house. My protests and pleas to the Japanese embassy finally to get this corpse buried, or give me permission to bury it, have thus far been fruitless. The body is still lying in the same spot as before, except that the ropes have been cut and the bamboo bed is now lying about two yards away. I am totally puzzled by the conduct of the Japanese in this matter. On the one hand, they want to be recognized and treated as a great power on a par with European powers, on the other, they are currently displaying a crudity, brutality, and bestiality that bears no comparison except with the hordes of Genghis Khan. I have stopped trying to get the poor devil buried, but I hereby record that he, though very dead, still lies above the earth!
«It is not until we tour the city that we learn the extent of destruction. We come across corpses every 100 to 200 yards. The bodies of civilians that I examined had bullet holes in their backs. These people had been presumably fleeing and were shot from behind. The Japanese march through the city in groups of ten to twenty soldiers and loot the shops ... I watched with my own eyes as they looted the café of our German baker Herr Kiessling. Hempel's hotel was broken into as well, as almost every shop on Chung Shang and Taiping Road.» <ref>{{cite book |first=John E. |last=Woods |title=The Good man of Nanking, the Diaries of John Rabe |year=1998 |page=67}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/goodgermanofnank0000rabe/page/192/mode/2up|title=The good German of Nanking : the diaries of John Rabe|date=2000|access-date=2024-05-25|pages=193|isbn=978-0-349-11141-4 |last1=Rabe |first1=John |publisher=Abacus }}</ref>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>


== Return to Germany ==
For the December 17, 1937:
<blockquote>
«Two Japanese soldiers have climbed over the garden wall and are about to break into our house. When I appear they give the excuse that they saw two Chinese soldiers climb over the wall. When I show them my party badge, they return the same way. In one of the houses in the narrow street behind my garden wall, a woman was raped, and then wounded in the neck with a bayonet. I managed to get an ambulance so we can take her to Kulou Hospital.... Last night up to 1,000 women and girls are said to have been raped, about 100 girls at [[Ginling College|Ginling Girls' College]] alone. You hear nothing but rape. If husbands or brothers intervene, they're shot. What you hear and see on all sides is the brutality and bestiality of the Japanese soldiers.» <ref>{{cite book |first=John E. |last=Woods |title=The Good man of Nanking, the Diaries of John Rabe |year=1998 |page=77}}</ref> </blockquote>


On 28 February 1938, Rabe left Nanjing. He traveled first to Shanghai, returning to Berlin on 15 April 1938. He took with him a large number of source materials documenting Japanese atrocities in Nanjing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rabediaries.hypotheses.org/biography|title=Biography|website=John Rabe's Nanjing Diaries|language=en-US|access-date=29 July 2019}}</ref> Rabe showed films and photographs of Japanese atrocities in lecture presentations in Berlin, and he wrote to [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]], asking him to use his influence to persuade the Japanese to stop further violence. Rabe was detained and interrogated by the [[Gestapo]]; his letter was never delivered to Hitler.<ref name="rabe">"[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127482829 Shelter Under The Swastika: The John Rabe Story]". [[NPR]]. 14 June 2010.</ref> Due to the intervention of [[Siemens AG]], Rabe was released. He was allowed to keep evidence of the massacre (excluding films) but not to lecture or write on the subject again.<ref name="rabe" /> Rabe continued working for Siemens, which briefly posted him to the safety of Siemens AG in [[Kingdom of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]]. Rabe subsequently worked in the company's Berlin headquarters until the end of the war.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}
While, on the next day of the fall of Nanking, Rabe handed a letter of thanks to the Japanese army commander stating that the people in the Safety Zone were all safe and not one shot had been fired. The following is a part of his letter of thanks.


== Postwar ==
<blockquote>
"Dec. 14, 1937,
Dear commander of the Japanese army in Nanking,
We appreciate that the artillerymen of your army didn't attack to the Safety Zone. And we hope to contact with you to make a plan to protect general Chinese citizens who are staying in the Safety Zone... We will be pleased to cooperate with you in anyway to protect general citizens in this city.
–Chairman of the Nanking International Committee, John H. D. Rabe–"<ref name=Rabe>''Nihon Senso-shi Shiryo 9'', Kawade-shobo Shinsya, Tokyo. 1973, page 120[Nanking Anzen-ku To-U An No. 1 Bunsho (Z1)]</ref>
</blockquote>


After the war, Rabe was arrested first by the Soviet [[NKVD]], then by the [[British Army during the Second World War|British Army]]. Both let him go after intense interrogation. He worked sporadically for Siemens, earning little. He was later denounced by an acquaintance for his [[Nazi Party]] membership, losing the work permit he had been given by the [[British Zone of Occupation]]. Rabe then had to undergo lengthy [[Denazification|de-Nazification]] (his first attempt was rejected and he had to appeal) in the hope of regaining permission to work. He depleted his savings to pay for his legal defence.<ref name="Iris Chang Pages 191">{{cite book | first = Iris | last = Chang | author-link = Iris Chang | title = The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II | pages = 191–94| publisher= Basic Books| year= 2014| isbn=9780465028252}}</ref>
On December 17, Rabe wrote a letter as chairman to Kiyoshi Fukui, second secretary of the Japanese Embassy, in a very different tone. The following is an excerpt:


Unable to work and with his savings spent, Rabe and his family survived in a one-room apartment by selling his [[Chinese art]] collection but it was insufficient to prevent their malnutrition. He was formally declared "de-Nazified" by the British on 3 June 1946 but continued to live in poverty. His family subsisted on wild seeds, his children eating soup and dry bread until running out of that as well.<ref name="Iris Chang Pages 191" /> In 1948, Nanjing citizens learned of the Rabe family's dire circumstances and quickly raised a sum of money equivalent to $2,000 USD (${{formatnum:{{Inflation |US|2000|1948|r=-3}}}} in {{CURRENTYEAR}}). The city's mayor traveled to Germany via Switzerland, where he bought a large amount of food for the Rabe family. From mid-1948 until the [[Chinese Communist Revolution|Chinese Revolution]], the people of Nanjing also sent the family a food package each month, for which Rabe wrote many letters expressing deep gratitude.<ref name="Iris Chang Pages 191" />
<blockquote> «In other words, on the 13th when your troops entered the city, we had nearly all the civilian population gathered in a Zone in which there had been very little destruction by stray shells and no looting by Chinese soldiers even in full retreat.... All 27 Occidentals in the city at that time and our Chinese population were totally surprised by the reign of robbery, raping and killing initiated by your soldiers on the 14th. All we are asking in our protest is that you restore order among your troops and get the normal city life going as soon as possible. In the latter process we are glad to cooperate in any way we can. But even last night between 8 and 9 p.m. when five Occidental members of our staff and Committee toured the Zone to observe conditions, we did not find any single Japanese patrol either in the Zone or at the entrances! »<ref>{{cite book |first=John E. |last=Woods |title=The Good man of Nanking, the Diaries of John Rabe |year=1998 |page=271}}</ref> </blockquote>


== Death and legacy ==
Having received no answer to his request, Rabe wrote again to Fukui the following day, this time in an even more desperate tone:
[[File:The statue of John Rabe.jpg|thumb|A statue of John Rabe in the [[Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders|Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall]]]]
<blockquote> «We are sorry to trouble you again but the sufferings and needs of the 200 000 civilians for whom we are trying to care make it urgent that we try to secure action from your military authorities to stop the present disorder among Japanese soldiers wandering through the Safety Zone.... The second man in our Housing Commission had to see two women in his family at 23 Hankow Road raped last night at supper time by Japanese soldiers. Our associate food commissioner, Mr. Sone, has to convey trucks with rice and leave 2,500 people in families at his Nanking Theological Seminary to look after themselves. Yesterday, in broad daylight, several women at the Seminary were raped right in the middle of a large room filled with men, women, and children! We 22 Occidentals cannot feed 200,000 Chinese civilians and protect them night and day. That is the duty of the Japanese authorities ...<ref>{{cite book |first=John E. |last=Woods |title=The Good man of Nanking, the Diaries of John Rabe |year=1998 |page=274}}</ref> </blockquote>
[[File:John Rabe, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Friedhof (2) - Mutter Erde fec.JPG|thumb|Rabe's grave in [[Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery]] in [[Berlin-Charlottenburg]], re-erected in 2013]]


On 5 January 1950, Rabe died of a stroke. In 1997, his tombstone was moved from Berlin to Nanjing, where it received a place of honour at the massacre memorial site and still stands today. In 2005, Rabe's former residence in Nanjing, the [[John Rabe House]], was restored to its former state; it houses the John Rabe and International Safety Zone Memorial Hall, opened in 2006. The [[Austrian Service Abroad]] was later invited to send a [[Austrian Peace Service|Peace Servant]] there.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} Rabe's grave in [[Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery]] in [[Berlin-Charlottenburg]] was re-erected in 2013. His bravery would earn him the monikers: "The Living Buddha of Nanjing" and "The Good Nazi".{{By whom|date=June 2024}}
On the February 10, 1938, Rabe wrote in his diary:
<blockquote>
«Fukui, whom I tried to find at the Japanese embassy to no avail all day yesterday, paid a call on me last night. He actually managed to threaten me :"If the newpapers in Shanghai report bad things, you will have the Japanese army against you", he said.... In reply to my question as to what I then could say in Shanghai, Fukui said "We leave that to your discretion." My response: "It looks as if you expect me to say something like this to the reporters: The situation in Nanking is improving everyday. Please don't print any more atrocities stories about the vile behavior of Japanese soldiers, because then you'll only be pouring oil on fire of disagreement that already exists between the Japanese and Europeans." "Yes", he said simply beaming, that would be splendid!" <ref>{{cite book |first=John E. |last=Woods |title=The Good man of Nanking, the Diaries of John Rabe |year=1998 |page=186}}</ref> </blockquote>


== War diaries ==
John Rabe gave a series of lectures in Germany after he came back to Berlin on April 15, 1938, in which he said, "We Europeans put the number [of civilian casualties] at about 50,000 to 60,000."{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}


A selection of Rabe's wartime diaries was published in English as ''The Good German of Nanking'' (UK title) or ''[[The Good Man of Nanking]]'' (US title) (original German title: ''Der gute Deutsche von Nanking'').
==Return to Germany==
On February 28, 1938, Rabe left Nanjing upon orders possibly made by Adolf Hitler himself in order to preserve the relationship Germany had with Japan at the time. He first traveled to Shanghai and then back to Germany. He took with him a large number of source materials documenting the atrocities committed by the Japanese in Nanjing.


== Portrayals in film ==
Rabe showed films and photographs of Japanese atrocities in lecture presentations in Berlin and wrote to [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] to use his influence to persuade the Japanese to stop any more inhumane violence. As a result, Rabe was detained and interrogated by the [[Gestapo]] and his letter was never delivered to Hitler. Due to the intervention of [[Siemens AG]], Rabe was released. He was allowed to keep evidence of the massacre, excluding the film, but was not allowed to lecture or write on the subject. Rabe continued working for Siemens, which posted him briefly to the safety of [[Afghanistan]]. Rabe subsequently worked in the Berlin headquarters of the company until the end of the war.


John Rabe has been portrayed in numerous films:
==Postwar==
* In [[Mou Tun Fei]]'s 1995 film ''[[Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre]]''. [[Minnie Vautrin]] and [[George Ashmore Fitch]] are also depicted.
After the war, Rabe was denounced for his [[Nazi Party]] membership and arrested first by the Russians and then by the British. However, investigations exonerated him of any wrongdoing. He was formally declared "[[denazification|de-Nazified]]" by the [[Allies]] in June 1946 but thereafter lived in relative poverty. His family was also literally starving at one point in time when he (Rabe) was partly supported by the monthly food and money parcels sent by the Chinese government in memory of his actions during the Nanjing Massacre.<ref name="John Rabe"/>
* In [[Wu Ziniu]]'s 1995 film ''[[Don't Cry, Nanking]]'', actor [[Ulrich Ottenburger]] played Rabe, although his name was changed to "John Robbins".
* In [[Bill Guttentag]] and Dan Sturman's 2007 documentary film ''[[Nanking (2007 film)|Nanking]]'', actor [[Jürgen Prochnow]] played Rabe.
* In [[Lu Chuan]]'s 2009 film ''[[City of Life and Death]]'', actor [[John Paisley (actor)|John Paisley]] played Rabe.
* In [[Florian Gallenberger]]'s film ''[[John Rabe (film)|John Rabe]]'', also released in 2009, [[Ulrich Tukur]] played John Rabe.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/108202/|title=''John Rabe'' scoops Golden Lola|website=[[Cineuropa]]|date=27 April 2009}}</ref>


==Death and legacy==
== See also ==


{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
On January 5, 1950, Rabe died of a stroke. In 1997 his tombstone was moved from Berlin to Nanjing where it received a place of honour at the massacre memorial site.
* [[Robert Jacquinot de Besange]], a French Jesuit who saved over half a million Chinese civilians.
* [[Minnie Vautrin]], an American missionary who saved thousands of lives during the Nanjing Massacre.
* [[Robert O. Wilson]], an American physician who treated victims brought to the Nanking Safety Zone.
* [[John Magee (missionary)|John Magee]], an American priest and missionary who documented the Nanjing Massacre.
* [[Bernhard Arp Sindberg]], a Danish worker who saved thousands of people by harbouring them in a factory during the Nanjing Massacre.
* [[Georg Rosen (German diplomat & scholar, 1895–1961)|Georg Rosen]], consular employee of the German Foreign Office who helped create the Nanking Safety Zone.
*[[Chiune Sugihara]], Japanese vice-consul of Lithuania who saved the lives of 6,000 Jews during [[the Holocaust in Lithuania]], by allowing them to escape from the then Stalinist, but later Nazi-occupied country.{{colend}}


== References ==
In 2005, Rabe's former residence in Nanjing was renovated and now accommodates the "[[John Rabe House|John Rabe and International Safety Zone Memorial Hall]]", which opened in 2006. The [[Austrian Service Abroad]] has been invited to send a [[Austrian Peace Service|Peace Servant]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}
{{Reflist}}


==War Diaries==
== Sources ==
* [[Erwin Wickert]] (editor). (1998). ''The Good German of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe'', Knopf. {{ISBN|0-375-40211-X}}
His war-time diaries are published in English as ''The Good German of Nanjing'' (UK title) or ''[[The Good Man of Nanking]]'' (US title) (original German title: ''Der gute Deutsche von Nanjing'').
* Original German: (1997). ''John Rabe. Der gute Deutsche von Nanking''. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart. {{ISBN|3-421-05098-8}}


== External links ==
==Portrayal in Film==
{{main|John Rabe (film)}}
He was a protagonist in the 1995 film ''[[Don't Cry, Nanking]]'', although his name was curiously changed to John Robbins. He was played by [[Ulrich Ottenburger]].


{{Commons category|John Rabe}}
The [[Florian Gallenberger]]-directed film ''[[John Rabe (film)|John Rabe]]'' was released in 2009 during the [[Berlin Film Festival]]. The film won 4 awards during the [[German Film Awards]], including Best Film and Best Actor. [[Ulrich Tukur]] was the lead who portrayed John Rabe.[http://cineuropa.org/newsdetail.aspx?lang=en&documentID=108202]


* [http://www.john-rabe.de/ John Rabe Peace and Communication Center Heidelberg] {{in lang|de}}
In the documentary film [[Nanking (film)|Nanking]], Rabe was portrayed by actor [[Jürgen Prochnow]].
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.john-rabe.com |date=* |title=john-rabe.com }}
* [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6415407 Museum Recalls Hero of 'The Rape of Nanking'] Fall 2006 [[NPR]] program about Rabe
* [https://rabediaries.hypotheses.org/ John Rabe's Nanjing Diaries | Testifying and Contesting War Experiences in China and Japan] Research project: John Rabe's Nanking Diaries: Testifying and Contesting War Experiences in China and Japan


{{Siemens}}
==References==
{{Authority control}}
{{reflist|2}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabe, John}}
==Sources==
* [[Erwin Wickert]] (editor). (1998). ''The Good German of Nanjing: The Diaries of John Rabe'', Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40211-X
* Original German: (1997). ''John Rabe. Der gute Deutsche von Nanjing''. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-421-05098-8
* [http://www.john-rabe.de John Rabe Peace and Communication Center Heidelberg]
* [http://www.john-rabe.com john-rabe.com]
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6415407 Museum Recalls Hero of 'The Rape of Nanjing'] Fall 2006 NPR program about Rabe
* [http://www.john-rabe.de/ John Rabe Communication Centre Heidelberg]


==See also==
*[[John Rabe House]]
*[[Japanese war crimes]]
*[[Nanjing Massacre]]
*[[Minnie Vautrin]]
*[[John Magee (missionary)]]
*[[Oskar Schindler]]
*[[Iris Chang]]
*[[Nanking (film)]]
*[[Chiune Sugihara]] – Japanese vice-consul in Lithuania who helped thousands of Jews, to escape the then Stalinist- (but afterwards Nazi-) occupied country.
*[[:de:Georg Rosen (Diplomat)]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabe, John}}
[[Category:1882 births]]
[[Category:1882 births]]
[[Category:1950 deaths]]
[[Category:1950 deaths]]
[[Category:Nanking Massacre]]
[[Category:People assisting Chinese during the Nanjing Massacre]]
[[Category:Nazis]]
[[Category:Nazi Party members]]
[[Category:German humanitarians]]
[[Category:German businesspeople]]
[[Category:German people of World War II]]
[[Category:German people of World War II]]
[[Category:People from Hamburg]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Hamburg]]
[[Category:Deaths from stroke]]
[[Category:German expatriates in China]]
[[Category:Siemens people]]

[[Category:Witnesses of the Nanjing Massacre]]
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[[Category:China–Germany relations]]
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[[Category:Germany–Japan relations]]
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[[Category:Fascism in Asia]]
[[fr:John Rabe]]
[[ko:존 라베]]
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[[ja:ジョン・ラーベ]]
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[[ru:Рабе, Йон]]
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[[zh:约翰·拉贝]]

Latest revision as of 20:56, 22 November 2024

For the biographical movie, see John Rabe (film).
John Rabe
Born
John Heinrich Detlef Rabe

(1882-11-23)23 November 1882
Hamburg, German Empire
Died5 January 1950(1950-01-05) (aged 67)
West Berlin, West Germany
OccupationBusinessman
EmployerSiemens AG
Known forSaving about 250,000 Chinese civilians during the Nanjing Massacre
Establishing the Nanking Safety Zone
Political partyNazi Party
SpouseDora Rabe
RelativesThomas Rabe (grandson)
John and Dora Rabe autograph signatures, Nanjing, 22 May 1932

John Heinrich Detlef Rabe (23 November 1882 – 5 January 1950) was a German businessman and Nazi Party member best known for his efforts to stop war crimes during the Japanese Nanjing Massacre (formerly romanized as Nanking) and his work to protect and help Chinese civilians during the massacre that ensued. The Nanking Safety Zone, which he helped to establish, sheltered approximately 250,000 Chinese people from being killed. He officially represented Germany and acted as senior chief of the European-U.S. establishment that remained in Nanjing, the Chinese capital at the time, when the city fell to the Japanese troops.

Early life and career

[edit]

Rabe was born in Hamburg on 23 November 1882. He pursued a career in business and worked in Africa for several years.

In 1908, he left for China, and between 1910 and 1938 worked for the Siemens AG China Corporation in Shenyang, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and later Nanjing.[1] Rabe suffered from diabetes by the time he worked in Nanjing, requiring him to take regular doses of insulin.[2] At the time of the Japanese attack on Nanjing, Rabe was a staunch Nazi and the party's local head, serving as a Deputy Group Leader in the Nazi Party.[3]

Establishment of the Nanking Safety Zone

[edit]
Main article: Nanking Safety Zone
The former residence of John Rabe in Nanjing, located in the Nanking Safety Zone during the Nanjing Massacre

Many Westerners were living in Nanjing, the Chinese capital city, until December 1937, with some conducting trade and others on missionary trips. As the Imperial Japanese Army approached Nanjing and initiated bombing raids on the city, all but 22 foreigners fled, with 15 American and European missionaries and businessmen forming part of the remaining group.[4] As the Japanese Army advanced on Nanjing on 22 November 1937, Rabe, along with other foreign nationals, organized the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone and created the Nanking Safety Zone to provide Chinese refugees with food and shelter from the impending Japanese massacre. He explained his reasons as: "there is a question of morality here… I cannot bring myself for now to betray the trust these people have put in me, and it is touching to see how they believe in me".[5] The zones were located in all of the foreign embassies and at Nanjing University.

The committee was inspired by the establishment in November of a similar neutral zone in Shanghai, which had protected approximately 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 Nanking Safety Zone in the western quarter of the city. The Japanese government had agreed not to attack parts of the city that did not contain Chinese military forces and the members of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone attempted to persuade the Chinese government to move all their troops out of the area. In this they were partly successful. On 1 December 1937, before fleeing the city, Nanjing Mayor Ma Chao-chun ordered all Chinese citizens remaining in Nanjing to move into the Safety Zone. When Nanjing fell on 13 December 1937, 500,000 non-combatants remained in the city.[3] Rabe also opened up his properties to help 650 more refugees.

Nanjing Massacre

[edit]
Main article: Nanjing Massacre

According to Rabe, the Nanjing Massacre resulted in the deaths of 50,000 to 60,000 civilians. Rabe and his zone administrators tried frantically to stop the atrocities. Modern estimates of the death toll of the Nanjing Massacre vary, but some put the number of murdered civilians as high as 300,000.[6][7] Rabe's appeals to the Japanese using his Nazi Party credentials often only delayed them, but the delay allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees to escape. The documentary Nanking credited Rabe with saving the lives of 250,000 Chinese civilians; other sources suggest he saved 250,000 to 300,000.[8] In his diary, Rabe documented Japanese atrocities committed during the assault on and occupation of the city.[9]

In a series of lectures that he gave in Germany after his return, Rabe would say that "We Europeans put the number [of civilian casualties] at about 50,000 to 60,000".[10] Rabe was not the only person to record Japanese atrocities. By December 1937, after the defeat of the Chinese force, Japanese soldiers often went house-to-house in Nanjing, shooting any civilians that they encountered. Additional evidence of these violent acts came from the diaries kept by Japanese soldiers and journalists appalled at what occurred.[11]

Rabe summarized the conduct of Japanese soldiers in Nanjing in the following manner:

I've written several times in this diary about the body of the Chinese soldier who was shot while tied to his bamboo bed and who is still lying unburied near my house. My protests and pleas to the Japanese embassy finally to get this corpse buried, or give me permission to bury it, have thus far been fruitless. The body is still lying in the same spot as before, except that the ropes have been cut and the bamboo bed is now lying about two yards away. I am totally puzzled by the conduct of the Japanese in this matter. On the one hand, they want to be recognized and treated as a great power on a par with European powers, on the other, they are currently displaying a crudity, brutality, and bestiality that bears no comparison except with the hordes of Genghis Khan. I have stopped trying to get the poor devil buried, but I hereby record that he, though very dead, still lies above the earth! [12]

Return to Germany

[edit]

On 28 February 1938, Rabe left Nanjing. He traveled first to Shanghai, returning to Berlin on 15 April 1938. He took with him a large number of source materials documenting Japanese atrocities in Nanjing.[13] Rabe showed films and photographs of Japanese atrocities in lecture presentations in Berlin, and he wrote to Hitler, asking him to use his influence to persuade the Japanese to stop further violence. Rabe was detained and interrogated by the Gestapo; his letter was never delivered to Hitler.[14] Due to the intervention of Siemens AG, Rabe was released. He was allowed to keep evidence of the massacre (excluding films) but not to lecture or write on the subject again.[14] Rabe continued working for Siemens, which briefly posted him to the safety of Siemens AG in Afghanistan. Rabe subsequently worked in the company's Berlin headquarters until the end of the war.[citation needed]

Postwar

[edit]

After the war, Rabe was arrested first by the Soviet NKVD, then by the British Army. Both let him go after intense interrogation. He worked sporadically for Siemens, earning little. He was later denounced by an acquaintance for his Nazi Party membership, losing the work permit he had been given by the British Zone of Occupation. Rabe then had to undergo lengthy de-Nazification (his first attempt was rejected and he had to appeal) in the hope of regaining permission to work. He depleted his savings to pay for his legal defence.[15]

Unable to work and with his savings spent, Rabe and his family survived in a one-room apartment by selling his Chinese art collection but it was insufficient to prevent their malnutrition. He was formally declared "de-Nazified" by the British on 3 June 1946 but continued to live in poverty. His family subsisted on wild seeds, his children eating soup and dry bread until running out of that as well.[15] In 1948, Nanjing citizens learned of the Rabe family's dire circumstances and quickly raised a sum of money equivalent to $2,000 USD ($25,000 in 2024). The city's mayor traveled to Germany via Switzerland, where he bought a large amount of food for the Rabe family. From mid-1948 until the Chinese Revolution, the people of Nanjing also sent the family a food package each month, for which Rabe wrote many letters expressing deep gratitude.[15]

Death and legacy

[edit]
A statue of John Rabe in the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall
Rabe's grave in Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery in Berlin-Charlottenburg, re-erected in 2013

On 5 January 1950, Rabe died of a stroke. In 1997, his tombstone was moved from Berlin to Nanjing, where it received a place of honour at the massacre memorial site and still stands today. In 2005, Rabe's former residence in Nanjing, the John Rabe House, was restored to its former state; it houses the John Rabe and International Safety Zone Memorial Hall, opened in 2006. The Austrian Service Abroad was later invited to send a Peace Servant there.[citation needed] Rabe's grave in Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery in Berlin-Charlottenburg was re-erected in 2013. His bravery would earn him the monikers: "The Living Buddha of Nanjing" and "The Good Nazi".[by whom?]

War diaries

[edit]

A selection of Rabe's wartime diaries was published in English as The Good German of Nanking (UK title) or The Good Man of Nanking (US title) (original German title: Der gute Deutsche von Nanking).

Portrayals in film

[edit]

John Rabe has been portrayed in numerous films:

See also

[edit]
  • Robert Jacquinot de Besange, a French Jesuit who saved over half a million Chinese civilians.
  • Minnie Vautrin, an American missionary who saved thousands of lives during the Nanjing Massacre.
  • Robert O. Wilson, an American physician who treated victims brought to the Nanking Safety Zone.
  • John Magee, an American priest and missionary who documented the Nanjing Massacre.
  • Bernhard Arp Sindberg, a Danish worker who saved thousands of people by harbouring them in a factory during the Nanjing Massacre.
  • Georg Rosen, consular employee of the German Foreign Office who helped create the Nanking Safety Zone.
  • Chiune Sugihara, Japanese vice-consul of Lithuania who saved the lives of 6,000 Jews during the Holocaust in Lithuania, by allowing them to escape from the then Stalinist, but later Nazi-occupied country.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Curriculum Vitae". john-rabe.de. Archived from the original on 10 June 2009.
  2. ^ Rabe, John; Wickert, Erwin (1998). The Good Man of Nanking: the Diaries of John Rabe. A.A. Knopf. p. 254. ISBN 9780375402111.
  3. ^ a b c Dunning, Brian. "Skeptoid #480: The Nazi of Nanking". Skeptoid. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  4. ^ Bennett, Ralph Kinney (October 1998). "They Will Not Be Forgotten". Reader's Digest. p. 53..
  5. ^ Rabe, John. "Letter to Hitler". Rabe's diary. Archived from the original on 23 April 2012.
  6. ^ Zidarov, Slavomir (2013). John Rabe und seine Tagebücher in der gegenwärtigen Debatte um das Nanjing-Massaker (in German).
  7. ^ Hallo, Ruth (2002). John Rabe und seine Rezeption in China (Berichte aus der Geschichtswissenschaft) (in German). Herzogenrath: Shaker Verlag.
  8. ^ "John Rabe". moreorless.au.com. Archived from the original on 22 July 2013.
  9. ^ Woods, John E. (1998). The Good Man of Nanjing: the Diaries of John Rabe. p. 67.
  10. ^ "Rabe". Japan Echo. 34 (1–6). Japan Echo Inc. 2007 – via Google Books.
  11. ^ Dutton, Donald G. (2007). The Psychology of Genocide, Massacres and extreme Violence: Why "Normal" People come to Commit Atrocities. Greenwood Publishing. pp. 64–65. ISBN 9780275990008.
  12. ^ Rabe, John (2000). The good German of Nanking : the diaries of John Rabe. Abacus. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-349-11141-4. Retrieved 25 May 2024.
  13. ^ "Biography". John Rabe's Nanjing Diaries. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  14. ^ a b "Shelter Under The Swastika: The John Rabe Story". NPR. 14 June 2010.
  15. ^ a b c Chang, Iris (2014). The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. Basic Books. pp. 191–94. ISBN 9780465028252.
  16. ^ "John Rabe scoops Golden Lola". Cineuropa. 27 April 2009.

Sources

[edit]
  • Erwin Wickert (editor). (1998). The Good German of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe, Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40211-X
  • Original German: (1997). John Rabe. Der gute Deutsche von Nanking. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-421-05098-8
[edit]
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