From the BBC:
On Christmas Eve in 1937, German businessman John Rabe visited the mortuary in China’s then capital, Nanjing.
John Rabe remains a hero in China but his story is little known elsewhereHe later described in his diary the charred body of a civilian man whose eyes had been gouged out, and a boy of perhaps seven, whose corpse was punctured with bayonet wounds.
“I wanted to see these atrocities with my own eyes, so that I can speak as an eyewitness later,” he wrote. “A man cannot be silent about this kind of cruelty!”
The Second Sino-Japanese War was raging.
Japanese troops had stormed the capital, carrying out mass executions and raping tens of thousands of local women and girls, in a six-week orgy of violence that became known as the Rape of Nanjing.
Risking his life, Rabe remained in China and, along with a handful of Westerners, set up a “safety zone” in Nanjing that is thought to have prevented the massacre of more than 200,000 Chinese during one of the bloodiest episodes of the Japanese invasion.
We just covered the Nanjing Massacre in my class, going over the documents and the different narratives, I am once again struck by the awesome barbarity of human beings at war.
‘Good Nazi of Nanjing’ sparks debate: From the BBC:
On Christmas Eve in 1937, German businessman Joh.. http://tinyurl.com/clvkxz
Where’s the debate we were promised?
I read The Rape of Nanjing long before ever coming to China. I think it’s time I find myself a copy and re-read it in the context of having a much more intricate understanding of this country and Sino-Japanese relations.
Have actually avoided watching any of the numerous “Nanjing” movies that came out in the last year or two, but this one’s on my list.
John Rabe will become famous this year. We shot a movie about him last year here in China, in Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuxi. It will start in cinemas in Germany on April 4th and might even make it to cinemas in China, who knows. That picture you used is Ulrich Tukur, the actor from the movie. I hope more people can learn about his story and learn about the war.
[...] learned this week, in relation to this very interesting and moving story, that in Israel you simply can’t say “Good Nazi” . If you have (which I did) [...]