John Rabe
John Rabe (
November 23,
1882 –
January 5,
1949) was a
German businessman whose
Nanjing Safety Zone sheltered some 200,000
Chinese from slaughter during the
Nanjing Massacre.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,
Beijing,
Tianjin,
Shanghai and later
Nanjing. On
November 22,
1937, as the
Imperial Japanese Army advanced on Nanjing, Rabe, along with other foreign nationals, organized the
International Committee and drew up
Nanjing Safety Zone to provide Chinese refugees with food and shelter upon 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." The zones were located on all of the foreign
embassies and at
Nanjing University. Rabe also opened up his properties to help 650 more refugees. The following massacre would allegedly kill hundreds of thousands of people, while Rabe and his zone administrators tried frantically to stop the atrocities. Although he tried to appeal to the Japanese by using his
Nazi membership credentials, this had little effect.
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John Rabe
John Rabe
John Rabe
John Rabe