An ordinary foreigner, but let countless Chinese remember.
On February 19, 1911, a boy was born in an ordinary family in Aarhus, Denmark, and the family named the child Bernhard Alp Sindberg. Sindberg has loved to travel since childhood, and his innate spirit of adventure led him to bid farewell to his hometown and travel the world at the age of 17. Sindberg served as a sailor in Greenland and as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion in Algeria.
On August 19, 1937, seven days after the outbreak of the Battle of Songhu, Sindberg came to Shanghai by Danish passenger ship from California, usa, and this was Sindberg's second visit to Shanghai. But this time, he witnessed the murderous nature of the Japanese army at Wusongkou. On the same day, when the passenger ship passed through Wusongkou, the Japanese army brutally killed 7 captured Chinese soldiers on the port, and Sindberg, who witnessed this tragic situation, saw the ferocity of the Japanese army for the first time and expressed deep sympathy for the Chinese prisoners who were killed.
After arriving in Shanghai, Sindberg was hired as a driver and assistant and photographer for Pembroke Stephens, a reporter for the British daily telegraph. Sindberg and Stephens formed a pair of shuttles and traveled to various battlefields of the Battle of Songhu, spreading first-hand information about the war and exposing the atrocities committed by the Japanese in Shanghai to the world. At the same time, they also interviewed a large number of wounded Chinese officers and soldiers and refugees, leaving a large number of precious video materials. During the war, they also rescued a large number of Chinese refugees and rescued many wounded officers and soldiers.
Gangnam Cement Factory in 1937
On November 12, 1937, the Japanese army gathered more than 200,000 troops to kill Nanjing, and the defense of Nanjing began. At this time, the Qixiashan Jiangnan Cement Factory, located on the outskirts of Nanjing, has just completed the installation of equipment and has not yet had time to put into production. Due to the Japanese invasion of Nanjing, the owner of the cement factory did not pay the money in full to the Danish F. L. Smith & Co. Therefore, the property rights of the cement plant are still in the hands of the Danes, and the Danish F. L. Smith then sent personnel to the cement factory and hung the Danish flag inside the cement factory to protect the safety of the cement plant.
Among the people hired by danish companies to look after cement factories was Sindberg. At that time, the Danish Smith Representative Office in China hired Sindberg to go to Nanjing to take care of the cement plant at a monthly salary of £100 per month, and granted the legal rights representative of the Sindberg cement plant the qualification. During this period, Sindberg signed a life-and-death contract with the Danish cement plant, and all responsibility for any life-threatening incidents that occurred during the protection of the cement plant rested on Sindberg. A few days later, Sindberg came to the cement factory to "take office". To be on the safe side, the Chinese boss also hired a German engineer, Carl Gunter, posing as a representative of a German company, and hung a German flag inside the cement factory to prevent Japanese aircraft from bombing and protect the cement factory.
Dr. Gunter in front of a refugee camp (right)
In a letter to a friend, Sindberg described the situation this way: "I raised the largest Danish flag in China in the factory. In addition, I had a giant Danish flag about 1,350 square meters painted on the roof of the factory so that it could be clearly seen in the air. I think it must be the biggest Danish flag ever. At the same time, we also contacted German diplomats in Nanjing in the name of the factory and purchased a large amount of food and drink to store. ”
On December 9, the Chinese defenders engaged in a fierce battle with the Japanese in the area of Mei Tomb on the eastern outskirts of Nanjing. That night, the Chinese army withdrew from Mei Tomb without support, and Qixia Mountain completely fell. The people near Qixia Mountain, even if they held up the Japanese flag to show their invincibility, were slaughtered by the Japanese soldiers, and the refugees ran to the river and were cornered, and when they saw the wooden sign of the "factory protection area" planted nearby, they rushed to the Jiangnan Cement Factory to take refuge.
Wounded Chinese soldiers rescued by Sindberg
At that time, there were many refugees, including refugees from Shanghai, Suzhou, Changzhou, Wuxi and other places, and the number of people pouring into cement factories every day to take refuge soared rapidly, reaching more than 15,000 at the most. After the influx of refugees into the cement factory, Sindberg resettled them. Under the circumstances at that time, one could save one, and as long as they entered the Jiangnan cement factory, the refugees saved their lives.
Due to the influx of too many refugees, the living conditions of the refugees in the factory have become quite poor. At that time, the refugees were next to each other, the sheds were next to the sheds, and there was no place to disarm them. On a rainy day, there is no place to cook in a pot. When it rains, even the ground is moldy, and the lives of the refugees are really not as good as cattle and horses. Some people have measles, sores on their bodies, lice everywhere, and every day people die of illness. In order to solve the health problem, Sindberg selected 6 people in the two refugee areas to the north and south of the cement plant for management, who carried out strict inspections every day and asked everyone to pay attention to fire prevention.
People taking refuge in refugee camps
With Sindberg's protection, the refugees finally settled down, but the Japanese army often came to harass them. Japanese soldiers come several times a day, even dozens of times. The devil's soldiers came to the cement factory, first, to check whether there were any Chinese soldiers hiding here; second, to find "flower girls" for recreation; third, to eat and drink together; and fourth, to covet factory property to investigate assets. Sindberg and others tried their best to deal with the Japanese soldiers who came to harass them every time, and at that time, in order to deal with the Japanese soldiers, they had to spend three or four hundred yuan a day.
According to the villagers after the war, when Japanese soldiers went to nearby villages to spoil women, foreigners in the factory came out with a German and Danish flag to mediate. This flag bearer is naturally Sindberg. Sindberg's means of communication were successful, and during the Japanese occupation of Nanjing, he was one of the few foreigners who could drive freely in and out of Nanjing.
Sindberg rescued Chinese women from the Japanese army
Using the Jiangnan Cement Factory as cover, Sindberg saved more than 15,000 Chinese, including many wounded soldiers who laid down their arms. Sindberg also sent the wounded to the city of Nanjing for treatment, and it was at this time that he became acquainted with John Rabe, chairman of the International Committee of the Safe Zone, as well as Ma Jixiang, Wilson and other foreigners who sympathized with Chinese refugees.
In the most difficult moments of Rabe and others, Sindberg drove into the city to deliver food and drink to Rabe and others, solving the living problems of many refugees in the city. Rabe wrote in his diary dated 23 January 1938: "Today Sindberg came again and brought me 6 eggs and 20 live ducks. ”
Sindberg's id documents
In order to treat the sick refugees in the Jiangnan cement factory, Sindberg also used his own strength to form a small hospital, which was established to treat more than 20,000 villagers in and around the factory, saving countless lives. At that time, there was a Qixia Temple near the Jiangnan Cement Factory, and there were more than 22,000 refugees hidden in the temple. When Japanese soldiers discovered refugees, they often went to Qixia Temple to shoot and kill men and indiscriminately abuse women.
When Sindberg learned of this, he wrote down the atrocities of the Japanese army one by one and compiled them into a book called "The Trip to Qixia Mountain" and handed it to Rabe to send to the Japanese command. To this end, more than 20,000 people in the temple were spared from the scourge of the Japanese army, and the number of Harassment by the Japanese army near Qixia Temple was greatly reduced.
A veteran saved by Sindberg
In March 1938, Sindberg received orders from the company to leave Nanjing immediately. Sindberg then took a train to Shanghai from March 20, and when Sindberg left Nanjing, he risked his life to bring the information and photographs collected by the Japanese army during the atrocities during nanda, as well as some film materials, to Geneva, Switzerland.
On the evening of June 3, at the League of Nations Congress in Geneva, more than 100 delegates and journalists from various countries watched the film brought by Sindberg. Sindberg spent hours explaining what he had witnessed in Nanjing, and explaining the atrocities committed by the Japanese army in Nanjing. After the representatives of the countries attending the meeting watched the film, many people cried on the spot, and many people stood up on the spot because of anger.
Gangnam Cement Factory (Site)
Sindberg used practical actions to publicize the atrocities of the Japanese army to the international community for the first time, in order to expose the atrocities of the Japanese army in Nanjing. Sindberg used the Jiangnan Cement Factory to save nearly 50,000 Chinese refugees, and together with his friend Rabe, he made great contributions to saving refugees in Nanjing and exposing the atrocities committed by the Japanese army in Nanjing.
Sindberg is known as the "Friend of China", and he devoted all his energies to the great cause of human peace after his lifetime. In 1984 Sindberg became seriously ill, and as he died, he uttered a tearful, admirable sentence: "I am just an ordinary person, I just did what I had to do." Friends, forget me, but please do not forget the cruelty of human atrocities to life. ”
Forever Nanjing Sindberg Yellow Rose
On December 17, 2004, Sindberg's hometown of Aarhus, Denmark, named a local yellow rose "Nanjing Sindberg Forever" in honor of his contribution to the rescue of refugees in China.
bibliography:
1. "100 Days in Nanjing in Sindberg"
2. The Yellow Rose of Humanism – Centenary of Sindberg's Birth
3. "Nanjing Sindberg Rose"