John Rabe’s great-grandson believes it was the correct and brave resolution to publish his diaries. “These diaries are an invaluable record for all humanity. They document the horrific atrocities committed by the invading Japanese army in Nanjing, and reveal the brutality of that human tragedy.”
BERLIN, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) — As Japanese aggressors stormed into Nanjing within the winter of 1937, the Chinese metropolis was plunged into unimaginable horror.
Over simply six weeks, tens of hundreds of civilians had been slaughtered, ladies had been raped and butchered. Homes, retailers and full neighborhoods had been left in ruins. Historical data put the dying toll at greater than 300,000, searing the mass atrocity into historical past as certainly one of World War II’s darkest and most harrowing chapters.
Amid the bloodbath, a German businessman named John Rabe continued to maintain a diary, and his diaries stay one of the vital complete historic data of the atrocities dedicated by the Japanese aggressors.
WITNESS IN THE DARK
Serving because the Siemens consultant in China, Rabe helped set up the Nanjing Safety Zone along with different international residents. The 3.86-square-km refuge protected round 250,000 Chinese civilians from the bloodbath.
Despite the fixed peril, Rabe stayed within the metropolis and negotiated repeatedly with the Japanese army to rescue victims and defend the protection zone. At the identical time, he documented the atrocities unfolding round him in his diaries.
“I want to witness these atrocities with my own eyes, so that I can later speak of them as an eyewitness. Such brutal crimes — committed 10 days after the city’s capture — must not be kept silent!” he wrote on Dec. 24, 1937.
On Dec. 14, 1937, the day after Nanjing’s fall, Rabe confided in his diary that it was not till he drove by means of the shattered streets that he grasped the true extent of the destruction.
“Every 100 or 200 meters, we came across corpses. The Japanese marched through the city in groups of 10 to 20 men, looting shops. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it,” reads the diary.
On one other web page, he recounted the destiny of a boy of about seven, stabbed 4 occasions with a bayonet. One gash in his stomach, Rabe wrote, was “the length of a finger.” The little one survived for 2 days within the hospital earlier than dying — quietly, and not using a single cry.
STRUGGLE FOR TRUTH
After returning to Germany, Rabe sought to make the world see what he had witnessed, delivering speeches and submitting reviews that known as on his authorities to sentence the atrocities. Instead of acknowledgment, he was punished — interrogated, imprisoned and successfully silenced for “damaging German-Japanese relations.”
“Rabe faced severe hardship upon returning home,” his great-grandson Christoph Reinhardt instructed Xinhua. “He was blacklisted, lost his job, and was banned from speaking out.”
“My mother was only seven years old, playing in the street, when she saw men in black coats take her grandfather away for questioning,” Reinhardt stated. “That moment haunted her for the rest of her life,” maintaining her from talking about Rabe for many years.
It was not till 1996 that The Diaries of John Rabe was lastly printed.
“I believe it was the right and courageous decision,” Reinhardt stated. “These diaries are an invaluable record for all humanity. They document the horrific atrocities committed by the invading Japanese army in Nanjing, and reveal the brutality of that human tragedy.”
MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN
However, the numerous publication drew little consideration within the West.
Reinhardt famous that in Germany, China’s position in World War II has lengthy been pushed to the margins of public discourse. At faculty, the battle was taught nearly solely as a European battle from 1939 to 1945, whereas China’s struggling and resistance had been largely and intentionally forgotten.
“That part of history has never been a headline in Europe, and Rabe is not a household name here,” Reinhardt stated.
“History should not be remembered selectively,” he added. “The West must know more about Nanjing, and also acknowledge the suffering and sacrifice of the Chinese people in the global fight against fascism.”
To carry that historical past into the highlight, an exhibition titled My Neighbor: John Rabe opened in Hamburg on Aug. 15, drawing over 100 company from each China and Germany to honor the person whose legacy nonetheless resonates throughout borders.
“We didn’t create this exhibition to reopen old wounds,” stated Chen Min, head of the German Department on the School of Foreign Studies at Nanjing University. “It’s about remembering the warmth of humanity and the friendships that transcend borders. We hope visitors reflect not only on the past, but also on the shared emotional bonds and precious value of peace.”
Ulrich Johannes Schneider, a professor on the Institute for Cultural Studies at Leipzig University, instructed Xinhua that the exhibition affords a uncommon instance of how one individual could make a distinction in historical past by means of private perception and motion.
The exhibition exhibits the deep emotional bond between Rabe and the Chinese folks, Schneider stated. “In very political times, he was following his heart … and did really amazing things.”