John Rabe

John Rabe
John Rabe
	File:JohnRabe.jpg John Rabe
Born	November 23, 1882; Hamburg, Germany
Died	January 5, 1950 (aged 67)
Cause of death	Stroke
Nationality	German
Occupation	Businessman
Employer	Siemens AG
Known for	Saving civilian lives during the Nanjing Massacre
Political party	Nazi Party (later denounced his membership)

John Rabe (November 23, 1882 – January 5, 1950) was a German businessman who is best known for his efforts to stop the 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 massacre.

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).^[1]

Establishment of the Nanking Safety Zone

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.^[2] On November 22, 1937, as the 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."^[3] The zones were located in all of the foreign embassies and at Nanjing University.

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.

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.

Rabe also opened up his properties to help 650 more refugees.

The Nanking Massacre

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 membership credentials only delayed them; but that delay allowed hundreds of refugees to escape. The documentary Nanking credited him for saving the lives of 250,000 Chinese civilians. It is said Rabe rescued between 200,000 – 250,000 Chinese people.^[4]

Diary entries

In his diary Rabe documented Japanese atrocities commited during the assault upon and occupation of the city. On December 13, 1937, he wrote:

«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.» ^[5]

For the December 17, 1937:

«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 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.» ^[6]

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.

"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–"^[7]

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:

«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! »^[8]

Having received no answer to his request, Rabe wrote again to Fukui the following day, this time in an even more desperate tone:

«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 ...^[9]

On the February 10, 1938, Rabe wrote in his diary:

«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!" ^[10]

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]}

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.

Rabe showed films and photographs of Japanese atrocities in lecture presentations in Berlin and wrote to 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.

Postwar

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 "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.^[4]

Death and legacy

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.

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

War Diaries

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).

Portrayal in 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.

The Florian Gallenberger-directed 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.[1]

In the documentary film Nanking, Rabe was portrayed by actor Jürgen Prochnow.

References

^ http://www.john-rabe.de/english/cv/cv.htm
^ Ralph Kinney Bennett, They Will Not Be Forgotten, p. 53, Reader's Digest, October 1998
^ "John Rabe's letter to Hitler, from Rabe's diary", Population of Nanking, Jiyuu-shikan.org
^ ^a ^b John Rabe, moreorless
^ Woods, John E. (1998). The Good man of Nanking, the Diaries of John Rabe. p. 67.
^ Woods, John E. (1998). The Good man of Nanking, the Diaries of John Rabe. p. 77.
^ Nihon Senso-shi Shiryo 9, Kawade-shobo Shinsya, Tokyo. 1973, page 120[Nanking Anzen-ku To-U An No. 1 Bunsho (Z1)]
^ Woods, John E. (1998). The Good man of Nanking, the Diaries of John Rabe. p. 271.
^ Woods, John E. (1998). The Good man of Nanking, the Diaries of John Rabe. p. 274.
^ Woods, John E. (1998). The Good man of Nanking, the Diaries of John Rabe. p. 186.

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
John Rabe Peace and Communication Center Heidelberg
john-rabe.com
Museum Recalls Hero of 'The Rape of Nanjing' Fall 2006 NPR program about Rabe
John Rabe Communication Centre Heidelberg