The Nanjing Massacre: When a Nazi was the Good Guy

last stop on the ESL trail

The Nanjing Massacre: When a Nazi was the Good Guy

10 03 11

The term “Nazi” evokes some of the most unpleasant images and memories for people throughout the world. Nazism is a frightening example of how the combination of economic circumstances, hatred, and a dynamic speaker resulted in the expulsion and murder of millions of people. The term has become so imbedded in our collective memory that it is often carelessly used to describe anyone in authority who makes decisions that seem crazy and fascist as in the case of the governor of Wisconsin who wants to do away with collective bargaining rights of unions and sometimes comically used as with the restaurant owner who denies soup to those he doesn’t like. Typically, anyone labeled as a “Nazi” is someone to be feared and despised; it is perhaps one of the most derogatory labels one could give another.

When Steven Spielberg introduced Oskar Schindler to the world, we reacted in collective shock and awe that there existed a “good Nazi” who saved the lives of thousands of Polish-Jewish refugees. Who doesn’t still get chills and teary-eyed when thinking about this film and the man who inspired it?

: John Rabe poster

A lesser known “good Nazi”, sometimes nicknamed “the Schindler of China” is John Rabe. John Rabe was a German businessman living and working in Nanjing when the Japanese attacked and captured the then capital city in November 1937. Most foreigners fled at the urging of their embassies, but a couple dozen stayed and formed the Nanking Safety Zone. Rabe was elected the leader, and because of his Nazi membership and the relationship between Germany and Japan, the Japanese government reluctantly agreed not to attack the zone. Thousands of Chinese fled into the safety area and remained until May 1938.

: Two Nice Guys

What happened to those outside the Safety Zone is now known as the Nanjing Massacre or The Rape of Nanking (from the title of the book by Iris Chang); a six week atrocity of the mass murder of 300,000 civilians and rape of 20,000 women (as estimated by the Chinese during the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal). Not to mention the destruction of buildings and structures (including the city wall) and looting.

: entrance to the Memorial Hall

In 1985, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall was built. It was one of the first places we visited in Nanjing last autumn. An impressive, if not exhaustive, collection of photos, diaries, news articles, and archived material are housed in this free museum. In one building an area of the exposed remains of a mass grave clearly shows the ruthlessness and brutality of these killings. Outside several monuments and exhibits invite the visitor to quietly contemplate this painful moment in China’s history.

: “site of the mass grave of 10,000 corpses”

It is estimated that the Safety Zone established by Rabe and the other foreigners is responsible for saving nearly a quarter of a million lives. Rabe even opened his own property to hundreds of refugees. Last week we visited the John Rabe house, a very out of place looking Western structure on a busy Chinese road across from a three story salon and surrounded by modern shops, buildings, and a McDonalds. It wasn’t until his granddaughter published his diaries in 1996 that anyone really noticed it as being something special and separate from the nearby Nanjing University. In the last few years it has become a modest museum open to the public and full of information about the members of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone as well as stories of those who lived because of it. It also includes displays about the now tight relationship between German and Chinese businesses such as Siemens, for whom John Rabe was employed.

: quaint often unnoticed museum

(On a related side note, a movie starring Christian Bale called “Nanjing Heroes” is apparently in the making. Bale stars not as John Rabe, but John Magee, a minister of an Episcopalian mission in Najing who filmed the war atrocities and smuggled the footage to the US. In the movie, he apparently houses some prostitutes and other women, but I don’t remember reading this on the John Magee display in the John Rabe House.)

The potential for goodness, I believe, lies in all of us. How good we are can be a result of our environment and upbringing and I’m willing to admit, maybe that indefinable “something extra” that is inherent in some and not others. Whatever the source, I know after learning about people such as John Rabe, that good people exist everywhere, walking and living among their fellow monsters and emerging when we need them most.