Chapter 26 APPENDIX The Personality of John Rabe

Johann Rabe was born on November 23, 1882 in Hamburg, Germany.Father is the captain.Rabe lost his father at an early age, so he left school after graduating from junior high school.He was apprenticed for two and a half years, and then worked as a clerk in an export firm in Hamburg for a year and a half.On the recommendation of his boss, he went to Mozambique, a Portuguese colony in southeastern Africa, to work for a prestigious British company in Lorenzo Marques.There he learned a pure English. In 1906, he contracted malaria and had to leave Africa to return home.But in 1908 he left Germany again, this time on a journey to Beijing. In 1909, he married his girlfriend in his youth in Beijing.He lived in China for the full 30 years with only one brief interruption.When he first arrived in Beijing, he worked in a company in Hamburg. In 1911, he transferred to the Siemens representative office, which was still in Beijing.During World War I, China, under pressure from the Allies, declared war on Germany in 1917, but Rabe remained in Beijing during this time.He strategically convinced Chinese officials that it was not only in their own interest, but also in China's, that he continued to run the Siemens office in Beijing during the war.In China, it is not impossible to do this.

But in 1919, under pressure from Britain, China repatriated Rabe and other Germans.At that time in China, people did not want to see competitors from Germany.Only a year later, Rabe was on the road again. He returned to China via Japan and reinvigorated the Siemens representative office in Beijing. The (China) headquarters was officially opened in Shanghai.At first he worked in Beijing and Tianjin.From 1931, he was the manager of Siemens Office in Nanjing, which was already the capital of China at that time. In March 1938, Siemens Foreign Bank recalled Rabe and transferred him to the management department of Siemens' factory in Berlin. Since then, he has not been entrusted with important tasks.Rabe retired at the age of 65 and died two years later, on January 5, 1950.

If John Rabe hadn't saved 250,000 Chinese people while taking care of the daily business of foreign firms while putting his personal safety aside to save 250,000 Chinese in half a year, then the life described above would be the life of an ordinary overseas businessman, nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing earth-shattering either. The city of Nanjing regards Mr. John Rabe as a model of benevolence and placed his tombstone in a memorial hall in the city. Anyone who thinks that China has no benevolence is very wrong. His disciple Fan Chi asked his teacher Confucius: "What is benevolence?" "Love others," Confucius replied.

The moral and ethical core of Confucian philosophy is benevolence, so he repeatedly mentioned this concept.As far as the requirements for people are concerned, what Confucius taught and what the Chinese people have comprehended over the past 2,500 years is still relevant today. John Rabe was a simple fellow who was content to be a decent burger dealer.He is helpful, humble and approachable, full of reason and good humor.This latter point is especially reflected in difficult times. He always has a way to calmly reach a consensus with others.He is never condescending, but easy-going.If he had any grievances to record in his diary, he would always add something like "Others are as well" or "Others are worse off than I am."Often in his diary he referred to people in need and how he tried to help them.He sees it as his duty to help those in need, which sets him apart from those around him.

Rabe has many friends in China, including German friends and foreign friends.He can speak perfect English, we already know; but he is impeccable in French as well.He wrote many books, mostly about his life in China, complete with photographs and chic humorous drawings.Most of his books are purely personal records, which have never been published. Although they are only manuscripts, they are bound into volumes.He is not proficient in Chinese art, but he knows a thing or two.He had no expertise in literature, music, or scientific research, but the reading of a few sentimental poems brought tears to his cheeks.He has a soft heart, but he doesn't show it.He is a man of action and handles all the practical tasks with ease.His interest in politics is mediocre, and it can be said that he is only interested in politics related to China, German trade with China, and German Asian policy.He was a patriot and for a long time thought Hitler wanted peace. In 1934, he built a German school in Nanjing, not for his own children, of course. His daughter had already finished her education at that time, and his son was studying in a boarding school in southern Germany.As chairman of the German school council, he had to obtain approval from the imperial authorities and the National Socialist Workers Party to apply for teachers and teaching funding, for which he joined the National Socialist Party in 1934.

He is simple, honest, rational, humorous, approachable, widely praised, but never ostentatious; he treats people with benevolence, treats Chinese people with benevolence, puts personal safety at risk, and saves others in dire straits; He worked hard day and night, not only helping others anytime and anywhere, but also handling political affairs according to the situation during the rescue process, showing superb organizational skills and decent diplomatic skills; he worked closely with American friends, often risking his life, Provide relative safety protection for 250,000 Chinese under the Japanese occupation forces.Under the circumstances at the time, it was incredible that Rabe could still arrange time to keep a diary.

His friends praised him, the Chinese regarded him as a saint, and even the Japanese, whom he constantly resisted, respected him three points.Still, he retained his old humility.But if things got rough, his kindness and gentleness would disappear and he would fly into a rage.He once lashed out in German at a Japanese soldier who attempted to rape a woman, raised the armband of the swastika in front of the Japanese soldier, grabbed him, and threw him out of the yard.It is said that he has always maintained the authoritative image of his parents at home. Despite his modesty, he sometimes displays a little vanity, such as wearing a tuxedo with various medals on his chest, and posing for the camera of a famous Berlin photographer.This was also shown when the editors of the Far Eastern News removed Rabe's smug humor.

When Rabe left Germany in 1908, it was still the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He returned to China for a short time in 1919. At this time, the German Empire was in the period of the Republic, but the turbulent situation had not yet settled down.In Hamburg, he saw a man beaten to the ground by mobs, and his character drove him to lift the man up, and he too was beaten. In Berlin, when Siemens workers went on strike, he saw machine guns erected in the street, so he started keeping a diary, which became a hobby of his over time.But his wife didn't appreciate this hobby very much, because after returning home from get off work, the family often couldn't talk to him because of his diary.From his diaries, we can often find that he has a kind of worry that the diary may be lost in the turbulent era.For him, the diary is a precious treasure, which records his time and his life.

He recorded his years in Berlin as follows: Riots ensued.I don't know anything about the political situation in my hometown, so I can't see why.Later I realized that the actual situation in Germany at that time was much worse than what I felt.To my left was the Steinplatz concert hall, with the Reichswehr in it; to my right, the Uhlandstrasse racetrack, with the Communists stationed there.At night, there was an exchange of gunfire, and my family and I ran out of the bedroom and spent the night in the hallway.Life in Berlin was very uncomfortable. It happened to be a general strike at that time, and technical assistance organizations were dispatched everywhere. Female college students who couldn’t fill their stomachs became prostitutes. You need a ticket to buy meat oil, and Siemens even has a ticket for the heel of leather boots.I have received all the tickets I should have received.Brundle, my colleague and friend at Siemens, once told me that there is a place in Siemens City where you can buy all kinds of beans at a cheap price.I bought two big bags of peas and wanted to take them home, but it happened to be raining and there were no trams along the way, so the bags were slowly softened by the rain.When I got home, only half of the peas were left.I am not at all fit to live in Berlin!

On the tram, a girl fainted from hunger, and I gave her part of my food.In that difficult period when everyone was having a hard time, there is another thing that is still fresh in my mind. Mr. Brown, the accountant of Siemens’ Shanghai office, returned to China for vacation and invited me, Brundle, and several other friends Go to the Pushau tavern next to Potsdamer Platz to have a glass of beer together, and eat the snacks he brought from his hometown of Bavaria-white bread, sausage and butter.At that time, there was an 8-year-old girl next to her, holding matches in an apron, asking for a mark for each box.When we were full, Brown gave the little girl all that was left of the food.The little girl suddenly burst into tears, threw all the matches in the apron on the ground, and ran towards her mother who was waiting at the door, holding the food like a treasure.Our beer suddenly tasteless.

When I got the news that I could return to China to play my original role, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. I don't think others will blame me for this. During this trip to China, Rabe stayed for 20 years and returned to China only twice. The first time was in the 1920s, and the other time was in 1930. This time he returned to China to treat diseases caused by infections.This time he returned to China and was appointed as the head of the Siemens office in Nanjing, the new capital of China.After that, he saw Germany again in March 1938. Siemens Matheson called him back to China and sent him back home. Nanjing has been the capital of China since 1927 and had a population of about 1.3 million in 1937.Siemens set up the telephone system there, installed turbines for the power plant, and provided medical equipment for several hospitals. Chinese professional and technical workers trained by Siemens were responsible for the maintenance and repair of the equipment.Every day Rabe gets orders from various ministries and commissions in China to place orders with Siemens. At that time, there was a German restaurant in Nanjing, and the famous Kisling-Baader pastry shop in Tianjin also opened a branch there. The German embassy headed by Ambassador Trautman moved from Beijing to Nanjing, and embassies of other countries also began to open in Nanjing. Nanjing is busy building museums. "Yuanyang News Agency" broadcasts reports on Chinese politics from Nanjing, while at the same time Shanghai is the economic center of China, which is like the relationship between Washington and New York. Ruling in Nanking is the supreme commander, Chiang Kai-shek, whose will is to bring unity and modernization to a country torn apart by various warlords with private armies.At that time, there was also a separatist Yan'an area, where Mao Zedong established his base after the world-famous Long March. At that time, there were about 30 to 40 German military advisers stationed in Nanjing, all of whom were retired officers, and some of them had family members.Chiang Kai-shek began recruiting them to China in 1927 and signed private employment contracts with them.The task of these German military advisers was to train Chiang Kai-shek's army into an elite force capable of fighting both Mao Zedong's revolutionary army and the Japanese army. During 1934 and 1935, the head of these advisers was retired General Hans von Zeckert, who had been Army Commander-in-Chief during the Weimar Republic.Behind him was General Alexander von Falkenhausen.They set about training the few elite divisions that had held out against the mighty Japanese army for a long time in the autumn of 1937. Under normal circumstances, the German officers in Nanjing did not have much contact with the outside world. The Supreme Commander Chiang Kai-shek specially built a residential area for them to live in. Their life there was no different from that of the German Officers’ Club. Most of them only signed a few contracts. In 1999, they were less interested in China, the land and people of this country, its culture and history, and they talked more about personal resumes, transfers, military affairs and their war experiences.They had different political views and came from different camps, so they sometimes had disputes, and von Zeckert had to set up a court of honor for them. Foreign businessmen in Nanjing often stay in China for several years. For them, the road to return home is far and long.At that time, there was only one route in China, and the operator was Eurasia, a subsidiary of Lufthansa.At that time, there were no direct air flights between China and Europe and the United States.If you want to go to Germany, you usually have to take a boat from Shanghai to Genoa, where you disembark and then take a train to Germany. The whole journey takes about 4 to 6 weeks.If you take the Siberian Railway, it only takes about 10 to 12 days. Even so, most people are willing to take the boat, which is much more comfortable than the train. It was difficult for Rabe to imagine what had changed in his homeland since 1930, when Rabe left Germany for the last time.About Hitler's rise to power, the Rohm rebellion, and the sea change in Germany's political climate, he only learned about it through the newspapers.The newspapers he read included "Zi Lin Xi Bao" published by the British in Shanghai, which was the most respectable and important English newspaper in China at that time; he also subscribed to the German tabloid "Far East News", which was also published in Shanghai. The newspapers basically only reprinted the news broadcast by the official German News Agency or the Oceanic News Agency, so they closely followed the spirit of the Reich Propaganda Department in terms of content. The Far East News was full of praise for its coverage of Germany, the German Führer and the German Party.However, even Zilinxi Bao, apart from being a bit arrogant at times, is generally friendly to Germany and its policies.By the time the newspapers from Germany arrived in Nanjing, two or three weeks had passed, and they were no longer interesting.These newspapers only reported good news but not bad news. For example, they often reported "the rise of the nation", "freed from the shackles of Versailles humiliation, no longer paying war reparations", "after the defeat in 1918, Germany demanded to be equal to other countries, This has now been done” and so on.Jews are often attacked, but the international business community of various nationalities and nationalities gathered in China does not understand why this is the case.At the beginning, German newspapers rarely reported on the anti-Semitic movement that had actually been carried out in Germany, and the Zilin Xibao never reported on this aspect. The international press at that time generally believed that Hitler’s anti-Semitic policy was for a long time It is just an unpleasant topic of German domestic policy, and foreign countries should not dictate it. The international press was more interested in German foreign and economic policy, as well as in Germany's military buildup; after 1938 the main concern was whether Hitler's policies would lead to war. In the late 1930s, more and more Jews were exiled to Shanghai. At this time, it was only in China that they learned about the specific situation of the persecution of some German Jews, and people began to have a concrete understanding of the actual situation. John Rabe has lived in China for nearly 30 years, and his hometown is not so much Germany as China.He belongs to the legendary old China hands who speak pure English but can't speak Chinese, but use pidgin English to talk to Chinese people. They can think in Chinese way of thinking and understand Chinese people. , but also appreciate and love Chinese people.These China-handed businessmen have endless anecdotes about China, endless experiences and feelings, and unspeakable personal experiences.They can vividly describe where the uniqueness of China and the Chinese people is manifested.If these people return to their hometown, which has become very strange to them, it will be difficult for them to adapt to life in their hometown.So did John Rabe. When he was in Nanjing, his family was very hospitable. In the autumn of 1936, I returned home after studying at a university in the United States. I passed through Japan and China. I was short of money, but I wanted to see everything and understand everything.In Shantung Province I visited an excellent German, Mr. Kricker, who had lived there for a long time.At the time, the area was disturbed by deserters and bandits, who also robbed the Shanghai Express, an event that was later made into a blockbuster movie.Crickel is in charge of running the mine of a Chinese company here. He has set up many social institutions for the workers in this large enterprise. Under his leadership, the enterprise has become a model enterprise in Germany. .He helped me write a letter of introduction to John Rabe, telling me that I could live in Rabe's house, and Rabe would tell me a lot about China. One day at the end of November, early in the morning, just after dawn, the train I took arrived at Pukou Railway Station.I took a ferry across the Yangtze River, ordered a rickshaw, and passed the majestic city gate of Nanjing to Rabe's house.This is a simple villa, and the annex building is an office.Everyone inside is still sleeping.I walked up and down the street several times, and when it was time for breakfast, I rang Rabe's doorbell. John Rabe and his wife immediately had a table set for me, and a bed made for me in the guest's room.They kept me at his house for a week, longer than I had planned.We went to the cinema and watched an American movie together.We always sat in the living room at night and listened to Rabe talk about his years in China, about the situation of Chinese people, their way of thinking and their behavior. Rabe also introduced many peculiar domestic policies of China and Chiang Kai-shek’s Corruption in the government and the country, Germany's military advisers are of course also one of the topics.He even personally experienced the last years of the Qing Dynasty and the notorious Empress Dowager Cixi. The construction of the German protected area of ​​Jiaozhou Bay and Qingdao City was also part of his experience. John Rabe's introduction is very detailed and specific, and he also specifically explained and emphasized those things in Chinese that are difficult for us foreigners to understand.He read me humorous lines from his diary and his observations on the lives of Chinese servants, their family life, and Chinese business customs.There were no televisions back then, so there was a lot of time for chatting in the evenings. I introduced to him the situation in the United States and what I saw and heard all the way in Manchuria.When I told how the Japanese trucks were rampaging through the city of Beijing and the Legation District, which enjoys the extraterritoriality of the Chinese government, he suddenly became furious. Like other Germans in China, he was full of apprehension about Hitler's closeness to the Japanese.The fact that Ribbentrop, the German ambassador in London, presided over and signed the anti-Comintern pact without the participation of the Foreign Office is telling.Rabe dismissed rumors that Hitler wanted to withdraw German military advisers from China, because these advisers signed private contracts with the Chinese government.But in 1938, Hitler still took this step. Ribbendeloff threatened these military advisers and their families that if they did not return home immediately, "the consequences would be very serious." The so-called consequences were confiscation of property and implicating relatives.We talked very little about the situation in Germany.Neither he nor I wish to touch the subject.He said nothing about his membership of the National Socialist Party and his temporary replacement of the embassy counselor Laugen Schlager as the head of the local organization. He probably felt that this was just a formality and not worth mentioning.I did not hear about this until a long time after the war. The Rabe family cared about me very much, which moved me very much.When I was in Shandong, I exchanged part of the money, but no place in Nanjing would accept this currency, because it was a currency issued by a warlord in North China.According to Rabe, he found a bank that would convert my money into currency.To this day, I still wonder if he exchanged the money for me with his own money. The Rabes drove me to Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, the mausoleum of Zhu Hongwu, the founding emperor of China's Ming Dynasty in the 14th century. We also visited the magnificent tomb of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic, and other historical sites in Nanjing.Sometimes they also let me walk around the city alone.Some urban areas in Nanjing don’t look like cities at all. In the city center, there are several ministries and commissions with large-scale buildings, but they are not very attractive. The city has wide streets and squares. There is a square called Potsdamer Platz by the Germans in Nanjing. There is one called Bavarian Square.But despite this, many parts of the urban area are still farmland, rivers, lakes and grasslands, and there is not a single house in these places. Zijin Mountain, Xuanwu Lake and the entire stone city of Nanjing are surrounded by majestic city walls. This is the capital city wall built by the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. It is the largest and longest city wall in the world. It is said that 200,000 people participated in the construction. 20 years.It has a total length of 34 kilometers, and some say it is more than 40 kilometers. It is 10 kilometers away from the north city gate through the city to the south city gate.When the emperor of the Ming Dynasty ordered the construction of the city wall, the scale of the city wall was too large for the city at that time. To station the guarding army along such a long city wall would use up all the troops.Despite its proud walls, Nanking was breached and destroyed several times, most recently in 1864, and the city has never fully recovered from its massive destruction since then. Once I followed Rabe's instructions and walked alone on the city wall. The city wall is about 16 meters high and the top is about 12 meters wide.The city gate alone is a huge fortification. It consists of several city gates arranged one after the other. There are inner courtyards between each city gate, so that even if the first city gate is breached, the enemy will be blocked by the second city gate. , and was besieged and wiped out.The top of the city wall is quite wide, even enough for two cars to run side by side. Two-thirds of the original city wall remains, and the city wall winds almost straight to the edge of the Yangtze River.The section of the Yangtze River in Nanjing is only 1,100 meters wide. Sea-going ships can sail up to 1,000 kilometers from the mouth of the Yangzi River to the city of Nanjing.The river makes a bend here, and Nanjing City is located at this bend, and the Yangtze River protects Nanjing like a hand.Standing on the city wall, you can overlook the whole picture of Nanjing. Everything is covered by green mountains, green waters, green forests and green fields, and there is almost no trace of the city. At this time, I found a light red beanie in the tall weeds on the city wall. I picked it up casually, and immediately threw it on the ground in surprise. It turned out that this hat was placed on the back of a child's head. The child's head was half rotten, and the most unbearable thing to see was the white and fat maggots on it. In the evening, when Rabe's wife was out, I told Rabe about it.He looked very excited. He said: "In Shanghai, this kind of thing happens every day, every morning you can see poor people frozen to death in the cold night on the street, but this is Nanjing, we don't allow corpses to be thrown around like this! " The next morning, he called the police chief.It was November 1936.A year later, he wrote in his diary: "The car literally ran over the corpse." But in December of 1937, when he wrote the above text, he himself could be said to be the chief of police, or he could be said to be the mayor of Nanjing. He recorded in his diary the ins and outs of how things developed to this point.During the war he transcribed all of his diaries, attaching documents, circulars he drafted, letters to embassies, proclamations, newspaper articles, letters, and photographs.Since the Gestapo had forced him to remain silent and had forbidden him to publish on the subject, he wrote the following preface to the transcript of his diary in order to protect himself from persecution: This is not a recreational read, although the opening section might give that impression.It is a diary, a report of a factual situation.I write this diary and put it out, not for the public, just for my wife and my family.If it should ever be suitable for publication, the prior consent of the German government must be obtained, but today, for self-evident reasons, it is absolutely impossible.