Drama,History,War
China,France,Germany
John Rabe was a German businessman and Nazi party member who worked as the head of the Siemens office in Nanjing, China during 1937 and 1938. At the time, the Japanese Imperial Army had captured Nanjing and was carrying out what has come to be known as the Nanjing massacre, during which hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and prisoners of war were killed or subjected to horrific violence.
Despite being a member of the Nazi party and having initially supported the invasion of China by Japan, Rabe was deeply disturbed by the atrocities he witnessed in Nanjing and resolved to do everything in his power to protect Chinese civilians. Along with a group of other foreign nationals, including Americans and Britons, Rabe established a safety zone in Nanjing that was intended to be a sanctuary for Chinese refugees.
Over the course of several weeks, Rabe and his colleagues worked tirelessly to shelter and provide aid to Chinese refugees, often putting their own lives at risk in the process. They negotiated with Japanese military officials to secure safe passage for civilians through the safety zone, and Rabe himself personally intervened to protect Chinese women from rape and other forms of violence.
In the end, Rabe and his colleagues saved the lives of more than 200,000 Chinese civilians, and their efforts have been credited with preventing even more deaths and atrocities from taking place. Despite his heroic actions, Rabe faced persecution and discrimination upon returning to Germany, as his sympathy for the Chinese was seen as a betrayal of Nazi ideology.
The story of John Rabe was largely unknown until the publication of his diaries in the 1990s, and his actions during the Nanjing massacre have since been widely recognized as an example of selfless courage and humanitarianism in the face of extreme violence and oppression. The 2009 film John Rabe, directed by Florian Gallenberger, was based on Rabe's diaries and starred Ulrich Tukur as the titular character.
