John Rabe was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1882. He came to China at 20, working for Siemens in Beijing, Tianjin and Nanjing for 30 years. He loved China and owned a house and garden there.
In November 1937, as Japanese troops neared Nanjing and foreign embassies evacuated, Rabe stayed. Elected chairman of the International Committee for the Nanjing Safety Zone, he and about 20 foreigners set up a 3.86 km² zone providing food, water and shelter. His own residence took in over 600 refugees.
Using his Nazi flag and Siemens insignia to protect the zone, Rabe organized relief and negotiated with the occupiers by day, and by night recorded the atrocities in his diary — now one of the most important historical documents of the Nanjing Massacre. Through the darkest days of 1937-38, the Safety Zone sheltered about 250,000 Chinese civilians.
After returning to Germany Rabe lived in poverty, but China never forgot him. In 2009 he was named one of China's "Ten Most Beloved International Friends". His Nanjing residence is now a memorial museum, visited by thousands every year. China remembers: in the darkest hour, a German lit a light of hope.
John Rabe (1882-1950), a German businessman, saved about 250,000 Chinese civilians by establishing the Safety Zone in Nanjing during World War II - known as the "Schindler of Nanjing".
His China years: Rabe arrived in 1908 and worked for Siemens China for over 30 years, living in Nanjing. Before the city fell in 1937, he joined foreign friends in establishing the Nanjing Safety Zone and was elected its chairman.
The Safety Zone: during the Japanese occupation, the zone sheltered huge numbers of refugees; Rabe used his own house and garden to house women and children. Leveraging his German identity, he negotiated with the Japanese army to protect civilians inside the zone.
The Rabe Diary: he kept over 2,400 pages of diary recording the atrocities and the refugees plight. Published in 1997, it is one of the most authoritative third-party accounts of the Nanjing Massacre and a key document of WWII history.
His later years: forced to leave China in 1938, he died poor in Berlin in 1950. Nanjing citizens collected donations to support him; his tombstone, relocated to Berlin in 2013, was donated by the Nanjing municipal government.
Memorials: the Rabe Residence (on Nanjing University campus, now a memorial museum) exhibits his story and diary; during the 2020 pandemic Nanjing sent supplies to the Rabe family, continuing this friendship across time. His story proves that even in the darkest hours, the light of humanity never went out.
Rabe spirit still shines: on March 28, 2014, his grandson Thomas Rabe (a doctor) received the People Friendship Medal from the Chinese government; during the 2020 pandemic, Nanjing citizens sent masks and medicine to Berlin, and Thomas wrote back: "the friendship of the Rabe family with China will never change." That is the echo of kindness.
