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John H. D. Rabe | |
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| Born | November 23, 1882 Hamburg, Germany |
| Died | January 5, 1950 Berlin, Germany |
| Cause of death | Stroke |
| Nationality | German |
| Known for | Helping refugees in the Nanking Massacre |
John H. D. Rabe (November 23, 1882 – January 5, 1950) was a German businessman and the President of the Nanjing Safety Zone.
Work[edit | edit source]
In 1911, he was recruited to work as an accountant and clerk at the German Siemens branch in Beijing. He worked in Beijing and Tianjin branches successively.
In November 1931, he became deputy minister of the Nanjing branch of the German Nazi Party and began writing his diary.
In November 1937, the Japanese army attacked Nanjing, the capital of China. He protected over 600 Chinese refugees in his residence and sheltered 250,000 Chinese in collaboration with the International Committee of the Nanjing Safety Zone.
In February 1938, the Siemens headquarters recalled Rabe under pressure, and on April 15, he returned to Germany to hold a presentation. on June 8, he wrote to Hitler to submit a report on the Nanjing Massacre, but the report was not made public at that time (it is generally believed that the German authorities forbade him to publish what he had seen and heard in Nanjing because Germany and Japan were allies). He was even arrested by the Gestapo and had his film of Japanese atrocities confiscated.
After WWⅡ[edit | edit source]
After World War II, Rabe was arrested by the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom for having been a member of the Nazi Party.
In June 1946, Rabe was released from prison for his lack of involvement in Nazi atrocities but lived in poverty. The citizens of Nanjing collected $2,000 and sent it to Rabe.
The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe[edit | edit source]
After his return to Germany in April 1938, Rabe submitted written reports to the German authorities and continued to expose the evils of the Japanese in Nanjing. After being interrogated and warned by the Gestapo, he still secretly spent a year meticulously compiling his diary and related materials, leaving these historical records for posterity. After his death on January 5, 1950, the diary was published by his granddaughter in New York on December 12, 1996, and was subsequently published in four languages: Chinese, German, Japanese and English.