The German Nazi Party, as a political group forever nailed to the column of historical shame. Not only did they wage world wars and draw the world's people into the flames, but they also committed genocide and massacred six million Jews. Although there is no shortage of "sin" in this world, there is never a shortage of "goodness".
As a Member of the Nazi Party, Schindler saved more than a thousand Jews. The film "Schindler's List", based on his deeds, even made "Schindler" a symbol, a symbol of "international humanism" and "the glory of humanity". What is less well known, however, is that in the land of China in the same period, there was also a "Schindler"-like figure who saved more than 200,000 civilians in the "Nanjing Massacre", and his tombstone is still preserved in Nanjing. He was —John Rabe.
This issue takes you into the "German hero" Johann Rabe, who Chinese the hearts of the people.
Schindler
Johann Raabe was born on 23 November 1882 in Hamburg, Germany. In 1909, at the age of 27, Rabe came to Beijing, China, to make a living as a businessman. In 1911, Rabe joined the German Siemens branch in Beijing as an accountant. Soon, Rabe was appointed Manager of Siemens Beijing. In the same year, the company where Raabe worked established China's first telecommunications station.
John Rabe
At the end of world war I in 1918, Germany, as a defeated country, had to accept the punishment of the Allies. The newborn Weimar government signed the Treaty of Versailles with the Allies, which "lost power and humiliated the country", and the German side cut off the land and paid reparations, and the matter was settled. In the spring of 1919, Rabe, who had lived in China for ten years, had to drag his family back to Germany.
The Allies' oppression of Germany after the war left the entire German nation breathless. China's vast market became a "part" that Germany had to fight for at that time. As a result, the Weimar government actively sought to restore commercial relations with China.
Treaty of Versailles
In July 1921, China and Germany signed the Sino-German Entente in Beijing, and Sino-German relations were restored. This means that Siemens' business in China can be restarted, and Raabe can finally return to the China he loves. The Siemens branch in Beijing is also back in operation.
In November 1930, Rabe was appointed manager of the Nanjing branch by Siemens Shanghai headquarters. Siemens executives decided: "The company put Rabe in the Chinese capital to open up business because of his excellent work ability." ”
Sino-German Entente
During the Japanese occupation of Nanjing and the inhumane "Nanjing Massacre", Rabe used his status as a German and a Nazi party member to successfully save many people. Although Rabe joined the Nazi Party, this does not mean that he was a "Nazi", he joined out of "public heart" and "faith".
In 1934, Rabe wanted to build a school in Nanjing, and he was the chairman of the board, hoping to help more children enter the classroom and learn culture. But the establishment of the school had to be approved by the German authorities and the Nazi Party in order to apply for teachers and teaching funding.
To this end, he joined the Nazi Party in 1934. Before his return to Germany in April 1938, the Nazi Party's aggressive expansion and internal massacre of Communists and Progressives had not yet been fully revealed. In addition, he has been living in China and does not know much about the domestic situation.
His understanding of the party remained on the party's programme, which Hitler had promised before he came to power to work for the benefit of the workers and the poor. Before the fall of Nanking, he also described the Nazi Party this way: "We are soldiers of the workers, we are the government of the workers, we are friends of the workers, and we will not abandon the workers in distress!" ”
The name "National Socialist Workers' Party" is extremely confusing. This was the real reason why he joined the Nazi Party. Later, because of the return of his friends, he temporarily took the post of "Nanjing Group Leader" of the party organization, which enabled Rabe to have a "tiger skin" that could be used, and this tiger skin played a great role in the later action to save civilians.
In essence, therefore, Raabe was by no means a "Nazi Party member", as later history proved.
Rabe
Rabe was able to join the Nazi Party in China because the Nazi Party had been operating in China since 1933. According to the book "The Secret War in Shanghai: Espionage, Conspiracy and Betrayal During World War II" by the American scholar Hua Baina.
After 1933, Hitler's Nazi Party was actively working in the German community in Shanghai, and by the eve of the outbreak of the Great War, the Nazi Party organization in Shanghai had successfully won the support of the majority of non-Nazi German forces for the Nazis.
But Raabe clearly had a wrong understanding of Hitler and the Nazi Party.
On October 1, 1937, the German Embassy chartered the Indochina Steamship Company's "Kutvo" steamship as a refuge for German citizens.
On October 4, when all Germans were on board to celebrate Thanksgiving, Raabe wrote in a lengthy report for The Far East Zeitung and Sino-German News: "Dr. Todmann (German Ambassador to China) spoke in touching words about why the celebration was held – he especially thanked the government of our homeland, our esteemed Führer Adolf Hitler, who did not forget the German people who were far abroad, and he gave us a refuge on this ship. On this ship, we can safely and calmly greet all the events that may occur in the future. ”
Rabe simply believed that if the great Fuehrer had learned of what the Japanese army had done in China, he would have been indignant and even furious, because the Fuehrer was kind, benevolent and peace-loving. But reality punched Rabe in the face again and again. In complete contrast to Raabe's hope that "Hitler and the German government would sympathize with and support his bailout activities in Nanking," Hitler was thinking of joining hands with Japan, and what Rabe did in Nanking would damage German-Japanese relations.
On November 12, Shanghai fell. In the city of Nanjing under the Japanese air raids, the people had nowhere to hide, and their lives were threatened at every moment. On the 22nd, the National Government of Nanjing issued the "Declaration on Moving the Capital to Chongqing", and government agencies evacuated Nanjing one after another.
On the same day that the National Government in Nanjing announced its westward move, Raabe and peaceful people from the United States, Britain, Germany, Denmark and other countries who remained in Nanjing at that time jointly established the Nanjing International Safety Zone, providing a temporary safe place for civilians. Rabe was well aware of what he was doing, but he thought: "I wouldn't have the slightest hesitation because I had no choice." ”
The Japanese air raided Nanjing
On November 29, the United States, Britain, France, and Mayor Ma Chaojun of Nanjing approved a proposal for the establishment of the region, but the Japanese side did not reply for a long time. On 2 December, the Japanese authorities replied: The Japanese Government has learned of your application to establish a safe zone, but has to regretfully reject it.
Just as Rabe was expressing indignation at the Japanese decision, he learned that the Japanese commander in Shanghai "knew about this matter" and accepted the map of the security zone, verbally saying: "If there is no army or military organization stationed in the refugee area, the Japanese army will not deliberately attack it." However, this is only the diplomatic rhetoric of the Japanese side, because the map of the Japanese army does not indicate the so-called "safe zone" at all. What the Japanese were about to carry out was going to be an "indiscriminate" attack.
Ma Chaojun
At noon on December 9, Japan issued a final notice to all embassies in China, demanding that all foreigners leave Nanjing immediately. Rosen, the secretary of the German Embassy in China, drove into the city, intending to pick up Rabe and three other Germans who were left in Nanjing. But Rabe refused, on the grounds that "the responsibilities of the Chairman of the International Safety Zone Committee will not allow me to leave Nanjing at this time."
Rabe led the International Commission on the Safe Zone to quickly set up 25 refugee shelters in the zone, one of which was the courtyard where his office was located, which Rabe called the "Siemens Refugee Shelter".
Due to the "speed of light rout" of the Kuomintang army, a large number of civilians who had not yet been evacuated in time were stranded in the city of Nanjing, and in this anarchic state, Rabe ran everywhere, desperately protesting and doing his best to prevent the crazy violence of the invading Japanese army against the civilians in Nanjing.
On December 13, Nanjing fell. Rabe held high the flag of the security zone and led the security zone staff to stop the Japanese vanguard and prevent them from advancing towards the security zone. At this time, Raabe's membership as a Nazi party member played an important role. At first, Rabe completed the contact with a representative sent by the Japanese side and obtained a "residential safety certificate" written in Japanese. However, most of the Japanese army is not trustworthy, and they still burn and loot in the city of Nanjing, and do no evil.
Rabe could only exhaust himself every day and try his best to organize the atrocities. Under the full care of Rabe, more than 250,000 civilians in Nanjing survived the horrific massacre.
In addition, Rabe recorded a large number of Japanese atrocities in his diary:
"In a house in an alley behind my courtyard wall, a woman was raped and then stabbed in the neck with a bayonet. I managed to get an ambulance and took her to The Drum Tower Hospital. About 1,000 girls and women were raped last night, and more than 100 girls were raped at the Jinling Women's Liberal Arts College alone. All I heard at this point was rape. If the brother and husband intervened, they would be shot and killed by the Japanese..." - The Diary of Rabe
In addition to what Rabe himself saw and heard, he also recorded the descriptions of the atrocities of the Japanese army by other foreign friends in Nanjing.
Klegel, a German engineer, said: "They picked up shops one by one and robbed the shops. ...... Drive a truck under the command of an officer to snatch everything worth taking away, and then burn the house to the ground... Not a night when the night sky is not reflected in the light of the fire... As of today, an estimated fifty to sixty percent of the city's houses have been burned down." In a matter of days, about five thousand people have been shot without trial by the Provisional Court-Martial, most of them executed by the river, so that even the hard work of burying the bodies can be saved. ”
Klegor
In 1997, the Diary of Rabe, a long-lost and valuable piece of recent publication, was finally released. After its publication, Rabe's Diary was translated into Chinese, English, Japanese and German and became well known to the world. Now the "Rabe Diary" has become the most well-regarded and well-preserved historical material for studying the Nanjing Massacre.
Ancients Cloud: Regardless of the heart, there is no perfect person in the world. Evaluating a person should look at what he does, not what he thinks. On Rabe, the Nazi symbol became his "protective umbrella" to save the people from fire and water, while in some cases, it became a "butcher's knife" for killing unarmed civilians.
The true spirit of international humanism has never been the "freedom" of promoting "democracy" by war and illuminating other countries with airplanes and cannons, but the "good deeds" that he has personally practiced to do what he can, Schindler who opened factories in Poland to provide shelter for Jews, Bethune who saved the lives of Chinese soldiers in the anti-Japanese battlefield, and John Raabe who tried his best to protect the people of Nanjing under japanese artillery fire.
bibliography:
"Schindler of the East" Rabe" Mei Xingwu
"Rabe's Diary and Rabe" Ling Ying
A Brief Analysis of Rabe's Behavior and Ideological Changes During the Nanjing Massacre, Huang Huiying
"The Roots of Our World Must Lie Quiet in His Heart" - Rabe's Imagination of Hitler, Wang Binbin